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Use of Money.” But in many churches of our time such teaching is
disregarded.
A profession of religion has become popular with the world.
Rulers, politicians, lawyers, doctors, merchants, join the church as a
means of securing the respect and confidence of society, and advancing
their own worldly interests. Thus they seek to cover all their unrigh-
teous transactions under a profession of Christianity. The various
religious bodies, re-enforced by the wealth and influence of these bap-
tized worldlings, make a still higher bid for popularity and patronage.
Splendid churches, embellished in the most extravagant manner, are
erected on popular avenues. The worshipers array themselves in costly
and fashionable attire. A high salary is paid for a talented minister to
entertain and attract the people. His sermons must not touch popular
sins, but be made smooth and pleasing for fashionable ears. Thus
fashionable sinners are enrolled on the church records, and fashionable
sins are concealed under a pretense of godliness.
Commenting on the present attitude of professed Christians toward
the world, a leading secular journal says: “Insensibly the church has
yielded to the spirit of the age, and adapted its forms of worship
to modern wants.” “All things, indeed, that help to make religion
attractive, the church now employs as its instruments.” And a writer in
the New York Independent speaks thus concerning Methodism as it is:
“The line of separation between the godly and the irreligious fades out
into a kind of penumbra, and zealous men on both sides are toiling to
obliterate all difference between their modes of action and enjoyment.”
“The popularity of religion tends vastly to increase the number of those
who would secure its benefits without squarely meeting its duties.”
[387]
Says Howard Crosby: “It is a matter of deep concern that we find
Christ’s church so little fulfilling the designs of its Lord. Just as the
ancient Jews let a familiar intercourse with the idolatrous nations steal
away their hearts from God, ... so the church of Jesus now is, by its
false partnerships with an unbelieving world, giving up the divine
methods of its true life, and yielding itself to the pernicious, though
often plausible, habits of a Christless society, using the arguments
and reaching the conclusions which are foreign to the revelation of
God, and directly antagonistic to all growth in grace.”—The Healthy
Christian: An Appeal to the Church, pages 141, 142.