Out of the Briars / An Autobiography and Sketch of the Twenty-ninth Regiment Connecticut Volunteers

by A. H. Newton

The great burden of the Church today is not getting in souls, but getting in dollars. Magnificent buildings are erected costing hundreds, yes millions of dollars. The members are compelled to pay for the costly structures. We forget that the groves were God’s first temples. We forget that He was pleased to live in a tent with His people. The Church has gone money-mad. The struggle of the pastor is to get his salary after the great and increasing expenses of the Church have been met. If he fails to accomplish this herculean task, he must go. By this course the masses of the people are driven away from the Church. Only fifty per cent of the people of the United States attend the Church, and only thirty per cent are members of the Church, and one of the reasons, if not the greatest, is that they cannot afford to be members of the Church. The call on the Sabbath Day is money, money, money. People sicken at the cry, and turn away in utter disgust.

4. There is a growing formality in the Church. This formality is seen in the lives as well as the worship of the members of the Church. Alas, too many love the form of religion, but they deny the power of it. Revivals are gotten up, whereas they always come down. We have never been able to get up a rain, because it is nature that brings it down. We can never get up a revival because the Holy Spirit brings it down, so that there has crept into the Church, times, and seasons and plans of man’s making for revival purposes, simply because the time has come for a revival and for no other purpose, the revival is had. What good can come out of such attempts? Revivals come through the operation of great spiritual laws, and these laws must be obeyed by God’s people, or there can be no revival.

The modern evangelist has done much to bring about a stereotyped condition of the Church. He has his set methods of rousing the people; he arranges for a revival in a certain church because it suits his convenience, not looking to the special need of the church for such a service. He is often inclined to depreciate the work of the pastor by his own methods and mannerism; he sets in to do a certain amount of work; so many souls must be converted; so much money must be raised, and he is on hand to have this work done, and in this manner, the whole work of revivals has been almost entirely discounted. The work of the modern evangelist is unscriptural in that he is not doing it in the right place. The pastorate is not the place for the evangelist. He should go to those waste places where there is no pastor. He belongs on the frontier, and the pastor who is wise will not permit an evangelist to come into his church, and do the work which he himself ought to do, or some other pastor.

The Church must get away from these man-made methods and plans; these man-set times and occasions, and must look to the Holy Spirit for direction in all these matters.

I wish it understood that I am pointing out some of the great weaknesses of the Church to-day. I have not forgotten that the Church in every age has had its struggles; I have not forgotten that the Church is founded on the Rock, Jesus Christ, and the walls of hell cannot prevail against her. I have not forgotten that it is through the Church that this lost world will be redeemed. I have not forgotten that the Church is the salt of the earth, the light of the world, the bride of Christ.

In considering what the Church should be we have but to go back to the Bible in order to determine this question.

1. The Church should be a body of believers in Christ. I mean by believers, men and women who are practicing the teachings of Christ. If the life is not the result of the teachings of Christ there is no faith behind it. If a man says that he believes in Christ, and is not living the teachings of the Master, he is not a believer. That there are many in the Church who are not believers is therefore true, because there are many who are not practicing the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ.

2. The Church should return to its great mission of preaching the Gospel. Almost everything else but the Gospel is preached. Science, literature, biography, philosophy, mortality, etc., are the burden of the pulpit today. As a consequence of this men and women are starving to death for the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The doctrines of great fundamental principles of Christianity should be preached. If a man is not rooted and grounded in the principles of his faith, how can he be strong, how can he be useful?

A cry has gone out for a new religion. We have too much now of the new religion. It is a failure; we must get more of the old religion, or give up the Gospelship to those who will be faithful to their trust. God will make the change Himself if we do not make it. He took the light away from the Jews because they were not faithful to their charge, and He will take it away from us for the same reason. What the world today needs is the Bible, and in order that it may receive the Bible it must be preached in the pulpit and in the pew. The pulpit is very weak today in this respect, and hence the pew is weak. We have a weak religion, and unless we return to God’s way, it will grow weaker still. This requires a thorough Bible training on the part of the preacher. The minister should know his Bible, and then he should preach it. It demands great faith in the Word of God, and great courage to proclaim its saving truth. A preacher is sent out into the world to tell it of sin, Satan, self and hell. He is commissioned to proclaim salvation from these things, and to set before the people an upright, godly life. He is authorized to command that men everywhere shall repent of their sins and turn to God. He must know the truth that he may preach it. He must know the plan of salvation. He must be one with God in knowledge and work. The pulpit must control the pew, and not the pew the pulpit.