THE CAUSE OF LEVITY IN PREACHING THE GOSPEL

THE CAUSE OF LEVITY IN PREACHING THE GOSPEL

I must apologise for leaving your letter so long unanswered. I am thankful that you have raised your voice against the carnal way in which some preach the gospel.

They say in the country that they who drive fat cattle should be fat, in order to drive them slowly; and surely if I propound grave things — the gravest — and am not deeply, the most deeply affected myself, I cannot expect my word to produce in my hearers a greater effect than it has produced on myself. But I am persuaded that we must look beyond the surface, or the expressed intention, for the root and source of this levity.

I hope at the next conference our reading may be devoted to the work of the evangelist. I believe that there are two great misconceptions: one, that while it is insisted on that man is a sinner (commits sins), yet it is not really apprehended that death as a judgment rests on every man in his sins. If it were in any measure apprehended that death — God’s judgment — is resting on the unconverted, there would be no levity, but the deepest solemnity. The other misconception is, that the sinner is not seen in his true state in the eye of God, even that he is totally unable to do anything to retrieve his condition, or to accept any relief: that if the man in the state of innocency set up his own will in opposition to God’s will, the man, in a fallen state, and under the judgment of death, could not retrace his steps; all he can do when convicted by the light of God (God must begin), is to cry — ‘Unclean! unclean! undone!’ his only hope, the mercy of God.

The Salvation Army is a caricature. There it is openly avowed that it is by human means souls are converted;

that is, that man’s feelings are wrought on. You are asked to accept the gospel, and if you have accepted it, to hold up your hands. God must begin with every soul. See the thief on the cross, or the jailor — God begins, and it is by the light from God, namely, the evangelist, that the silver piece is found and picked up. It is very sad and very prevalent the approbation accorded to the enticing words of man’s wisdom. How ready we are to suppose that human eloquence can effect a divine work! May we all seek more and more “that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God” (1 Corinthians 2: 5). I need not say more at present. I hope, the Lord willing, to see you the week after next.