Charles Spurgeon: Another Word Concerning the Down-Grade
No lover of the
gospel can conceal from himself the fact that the days are evil. We are willing
to make a large discount from our apprehensions on the score of natural timidity,
the caution of age, and the weakness produced by pain; but yet our solemn
conviction is that things are much worse in many churches than they seem to be,
and are rapidly tending downward. Read those newspapers which represent the
Broad School of Dissent, and ask yourself, How much farther could they go? What
doctrine remains to be abandoned? What other truth to be the object of
contempt? A new religion has been initiated, which is no more Christianity than
chalk is cheese; and this religion, being destitute of moral honesty, palms
itself off as the old faith with slight improvements, and on this plea usurps
pulpits which were erected for gospel preaching. The Atonement is scouted, the
inspiration of Scripture is derided, the Holy Spirit is degraded into an
influence, the punishment of sin is turned into fiction, and the resurrection
into a myth, and yet these enemies of our faith expect us to call them
brethren, and maintain a confederacy with them!
At the back of
doctrinal falsehood comes a natural decline of spiritual life, evidenced by a
taste for questionable amusements, and a weariness of devotional meetings. At a
certain meeting of ministers and church-officers, one after another doubted the
value of prayer-meetings; all confessed that they had a very small attendance,
and several acknowledged without the slightest compunction that they had quite
given them up. What means this? Are churches in a right condition when they
have only one meeting for prayer in a week, and that a mere skeleton? Churches
which have prayer-meetings several times on the Lord’s-day, and very frequently
during the week, yet feel their need of more prayer; but what can be said of
those who very seldom practice united supplication? Are there few conversions?
Do the congregations dwindle? Who wonders that this is the case when the spirit
of prayer has departed?
As for
questionable amusements—time was when a Nonconformist minister who was known to
attend the play-house would soon have found himself without a church. And
justly so; for no man can long possess the confidence, even of the most
worldly, who is known to be a haunter of theatres. Yet at the present time it
is matter of notoriety that preachers of no mean repute defend the play-house,
and do so because they have been seen there. Is it any wonder that church
members forget their vows of consecration, and run with the unholy in the ways
of frivolity, when they hear that persons are tolerated in the pastorate who do
the same? We doubt not that, for writing these lines we shall incur the charge
of prudery and bigotry, and this will but prove how low are the tone and spirit
of the churches in many places. The fact is, that many would like to unite
church and stage, cards and prayer, dancing and sacraments. If we are powerless
to stem this torrent, we can at least warn men of its existence, and entreat
them to keep out of it. When the old faith is gone, and enthusiasm for the
gospel is extinct, it is no wonder that people seek something else in the way
of delight. Lacking bread, they feed on ashes; rejecting the way of the Lord,
they run greedily in the path of folly.
An eminent
minister, who is well versed in the records of Nonconformity, remarked to us
the other day that he feared history was about to repeat itself among Dissenters.
In days gone by, they aimed at being thought respectable, judicious, moderate,
and learned, and, in consequence, they abandoned the Puritanic teaching with
which they started, and toned down their doctrines. The spiritual life which
had been the impelling cause of their dissent declined almost to death’s door,
and the very existence of evangelical Nonconformity was threatened. Then came
the outburst of living godliness under Whitefield and Wesley, and with it new
life for Dissent, and increased influence in every direction.
Alas! many are
returning to the poisoned cups which drugged that declining generation, when it
surrendered itself to Unitarian lethargy. Too many ministers are toying with
the deadly cobra of “another gospel,” in the form of “modern thought.” As a
consequence, their congregations are thinning: the more spiritual of their
members join the “Brethren,” or some other company of “believers unattached;” while the more wealthy, and show-loving, with some of unquestionable
devoutness, go off to the Church of England.
Let us not hide
from ourselves the fact that the Episcopal Church is awake, and is full of zeal
and force. Dissenting as we do most intensely from her Ritualism, and
especially abhorring her establishment by the State, we cannot but perceive
that she grows, and grows, among other reasons, because spiritual life is
waning among certain Dissenters. Where the gospel is fully and powerfully
preached, with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, our churches not only hold
their own, but win converts; but when that which constitutes their strength is
gone—we mean when the gospel is concealed, and the life of prayer is
slighted—the whole thing becomes a mere form and fiction. For this thing our
heart is sore grieved. Dissent for mere dissent’s sake would be the bitter
fruit of a wilful mind. Dissent as mere political partisanship is a degradation
and travesty of religion. Dissent for truth’s sake, carried out by force of the
life within, is noble, praiseworthy, and fraught with the highest benefits to
the race. Are we to have the genuine living thing, or are we to have that
corruption of the best from which the worst is produced? Conformity, or
nonconformity, per se is nothing; but a new creature is everything, and the
truth upon which alone that new creature can live is worth dying a thousand
deaths to conserve. It is not the shell that is so precious, but the kernel
which it contains; when the kernel is gone, what is there left that is worth a
thought? Our nonconformity is beyond measure precious as a vital spiritual
force, but only while it remains such will it justify its own existence.
The case is
mournful. Certain ministers are making infidels. Avowed atheists are not a
tenth as dangerous as those preachers who scatter doubt and stab at faith. A
plain man told us the other day that two ministers had derided him because he
thought we should pray for rain. A gracious woman bemoaned in my presence that
a precious promise in Isaiah which had comforted her had been declared by her
minister to be uninspired. It is a common thing to hear working-men excuse
their wickedness by the statement that there is no hell, “the parson says so.”
But we need not prolong our mention of painful facts. Germany was made
unbelieving by her preachers, and England is following in her track. Attendance
at places of worship is declining, and reverence for holy things is vanishing;
and we solemnly believe this to be largely attributable to the scepticism which
has flashed from the pulpit and spread among the people. Possibly the men who
uttered the doubt never intended it to go so far; but none the less they have
done the ill, and cannot undo it. Their own observation ought to teach them
better. Have these advanced thinkers filled their own chapels? Have they, after
all, prospered through discarding the old methods? Possibly, in a few cases
genius and tact have carried these gentry over the destructive results of their
ministry; but in many cases their pretty new theology has scattered their
congregations. In meeting-houses holding a thousand, or twelve hundred, or
fifteen hundred, places once packed to the ceiling with ardent hearers, how
small are the numbers now! We would mention instances, but we forbear. The
places which the gospel filled the new nonsense has emptied, and will keep
empty.
This fact will
have little influence with “the cultured;” for, as a rule, they have cultivated
a fine development of conceit. “Yes,” said one, whose pews held only here and
there a worshipper, “it will always be found that in proportion as the
preacher’s mind enlarges, his congregation diminishes.” These destroyers of our
churches appear to be as content with their work as monkeys with their
mischief. That which their fathers would have lamented they rejoice in: the
alienation of the poor and simple-minded from their ministry they accept as a
compliment, and the grief of the spiritually-minded they regard as an evidence
of their power. Truly, unless the Lord had kept his own we should long before
this have seen our Zion ploughed as a field.
The other day
we were asked to mention the name of some person who might be a suitable pastor
for a vacant church, and the deacon who wrote said, “Let him be a converted
man, and let him be one who believes what he preaches; for there are those
around us who give us the idea that they have neither part nor lot in the
matter.” This remark is more commonly made than we like to remember, and there
is, alas! too much need for it. A student from a certain college preached to a
congregation we sometimes visit such a sermon that the deacon said to him in
the vestry, “Sir, do you believe in the Holy Ghost?” The youth replied, “I
suppose I do.” To which the deacon answered, “I suppose you do not, or you
would not have insulted us with such false doctrine.” A little plain-speaking
would do a world of good just now. These gentlemen desire to be let alone. They
want no noise raised. Of course thieves hate watch-dogs, and love darkness. It
is time that somebody should spring his rattle, and call attention to the way
in which God is being robbed of his glory, and man of his hope.
It now becomes
a serious question how far those who abide by the faith once delivered to the
saints should fraternize with those who have turned aside to another gospel.
Christian love has its claims, and divisions are to be shunned as grievous
evils; but how far are we justified in being in confederacy with those who are
departing from the truth? It is a difficult question to answer so as to keep
the balance of the duties. For the present it behooves believers to be
cautious, lest they lend their support and countenance to the betrayers of the
Lord. It is one thing to overleap all boundaries of denominational restriction
for the truth’s sake: this we hope all godly men will do more and more. It is
quite another policy which would urge us to subordinate the maintenance of
truth to denominational prosperity and unity.
Numbers of easy-minded people wink at error so long as it is committed by a clever man and a good-natured brother, who has so many fine points about him. Let each believer judge for himself; but, for our part, we have put on a few fresh bolts to our door, and we have given orders to keep the chain up; for, under color of begging the friendship of the servant, there are those about who aim at robbing THE MASTER.
We fear it is
hopeless ever to form a society which can keep out men base enough to profess
one thing and believe another; but it might be possible to make an informal
alliance among all who hold the Christianity of their fathers. Little as they
might be able to do, they could at least protest, and as far as possible free
themselves of that complicity which will be involved in a conspiracy of
silence. If for a while the evangelicals are doomed to go down, let them die
fighting, and in the full assurance that their gospel will have a resurrection
when the inventions of “modern thought” shall be burned up with fire
unquenchable.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon
Another Word Concerning the Down-Grade, from the August 1887 Sword & Trowel. Excerpted from, The Spurgeon Archive
Another Word Concerning the Down-Grade, from the August 1887 Sword & Trowel. Excerpted from, The Spurgeon Archive
Site Publisher’s
Commentary:
For several
weeks we have been posting articles to expose and discuss the changes at, the downgrade of Central Baptist Theological Seminary and the former Northland Baptist Bible College. For example see,
What Does Central Seminary and John Piper’s Desiring God Have in Common?
Northland Students Perform “Jesus Love Me” and It’s Blasphemy!
Central Seminary has moved into the New Evangelical orb of John Piper. Central has drifted far from the fundamentalist, separatist moorings that were its historic distinctives. Northland International University (NIU) president, Dr. Matt Olson praises a church in CJ Mahaney’s modern Charismatic movement, and CCM/Rock/RAP music is the new norm for praise on campus. NIU’s trajectory is a downgrade from the foundational principles and historic doctrinal positions of Northland’s first 30+ years. The downward trajectory of Central and NIU is a symptom of the new wave New Evangelicalism. In light of these failing/falling, but once fine institutions, I presented Charles H. Spurgeon’s Another Word Concerning the Down-Grade. This article was Charles Spurgeon’s first major entry into the war of printed words regarding the “Down Grade.”
What Does Central Seminary and John Piper’s Desiring God Have in Common?
Northland Students Perform “Jesus Love Me” and It’s Blasphemy!
Central Seminary has moved into the New Evangelical orb of John Piper. Central has drifted far from the fundamentalist, separatist moorings that were its historic distinctives. Northland International University (NIU) president, Dr. Matt Olson praises a church in CJ Mahaney’s modern Charismatic movement, and CCM/Rock/RAP music is the new norm for praise on campus. NIU’s trajectory is a downgrade from the foundational principles and historic doctrinal positions of Northland’s first 30+ years. The downward trajectory of Central and NIU is a symptom of the new wave New Evangelicalism. In light of these failing/falling, but once fine institutions, I presented Charles H. Spurgeon’s Another Word Concerning the Down-Grade. This article was Charles Spurgeon’s first major entry into the war of printed words regarding the “Down Grade.”
