Peace, Peace, When There Is No Peace." Healing the Hurt Slightly

DURING the last ten years there has continually come from one or another Church the tidings of a decline in the membership. This has gone on till now it is said that there is hardly a Church in Christendom which is not suffering from the same cause. The disease is becoming chronic. One wonders that no Church has set itself in downright earnest to examine into the cause, and that none of the leaders of the Churches have given the alarm and called upon the whole Church to cry to God for the discovery of the root of the evil and the secret of its removal. In the spirit of the deepest humility and love we express the fear that the prophet’s words are but too applicable: “They have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.” Two years ago the President of the Baptist Churches said:” To me it is questionable if any Church is doing much more than marking

time.” That means — effecting nothing, making no advance. “The atmosphere is impregnated with influences unfavourable to religious life.” But was not that much more the case in Corinth and Rome? And yet the power of the Holy Spirit brought the very atmosphere of heaven, the power of the resurrection-life into those Churches. And then, after mentioning many of the elements unfavourable to the religious life, he concludes: “Meanwhile, in my judgment, we have hardly touched bottom” — only then we can go no lower.

In an article this year on the Baptist and Congregational statistics and the reports of the decrease in England, Scotland, and Wales, the writer says: “The figures are unquestionably disappointing, though there is no reason for serious depression.” But may it not be that that “serious depression” is just what God wants, and what is essential to the full conviction of the evil as looked at from the Divine standpoint? The writer tells how that “in both bodies there is an increase in the number of the churches in the year, 84 Congregationalist and 18 Baptist. In both bodies there is a marked increase in the number of Sunday - School teachers, but the scholars are fewer by 3869 among the Congregationalists, and 2794 among the Baptists. Considering the greatly increased activity in various organisations, the result falls short of our hopes.” The churches have increased by 1 02, and there is a marked increase in Sunday-School teachers, and yet the membership has decreased by some thousands, and the Sunday-School scholars by more than 6000. Does it not suggest the thought that to build churches and increase the number of Sunday-School teachers is what man can do, while for the increase of the number of members and Sunday-School scholars we need a spiritual vitality in the ministry and the Sunday-School teachers which none but the Holy Spirit can give?

And yet it is to be feared that in these and in other Churches people are afraid of nothing so much as “serious depression.” Men say that in business or finance there are also times of depression. But they do not always last. A change comes, and business prospers again. We must keep up our courage and hope on. But are we not in danger of forgetting one thing? When the depression has to deal with trade and money, every man who is concerned is ready with his whole heart to do anything he can to bring about the change. But this, alas! is just what is not the case in the Church. How few there are who with their whole heart yield themselves to the power of the spiritual life, and do their utmost for the winning to Christ of the souls that are drifting away from Him and His Church.

The article mentions that it has been stated that out of the seven millions of scholars only about one-fifth ultimately connect themselves with the Church. What a thought! That five million Sunday-School scholars should be entrusted to the Church for three or four years of their life, and yet the Church is powerless to influence them to become its members. If there is one problem which is worthy of the highest Christian statesmanship among our Church leaders, and that needs the deepest waiting upon God for the enlightenment and the courage of His Holy Spirit, it is this unspeakably solemn one. How are these more than five millions of young people, whom the Church is now unable to influence, to be reached and won? The solution lies with God alone and with the men who are willing honestly to face the situation, who know what it is to have access to Him, and to receive from Him the teaching and the power of the Spirit.

The chief suggestion in regard to the whole difficulty that is given in the article is contained in one word: work. “There have been too many Conferences and meetings to discuss work — it is better to do the work. The minister is to be pitied who does not know what he ought to do in his sphere of labour. He is most deeply to be compassionated if he does not know the source of true strength.” And yet this last is just the crucial question. Judging by what is written and spoken, it is just the lack of that much and intense prayer, that living faith, which is the cause of all evil. God’s promise is too sure; the lack of conversions, the decline in membership, the lapse of Sunday scholars, all indicate that the power of God is little known. And nothing can be more dangerous than to tell men to work if their method of work is not what it should be. If I meet a weary pilgrim on the wrong road and try to encourage him by telling him that he must go bravely forward, he still will be able to go a long way before evening, I am deceiving him. I ought to tell him he is on the wrong road, and show him where to find the right one. The article has told us: “Considering the greatly increased activity in various organisations, the result falls far short of our hopes.” The activity may be twice or three times as great; if the worker has not learned to make the supernatural, with its life in prayer for the power of the Spirit, his chief desire, all our work will be vain. No leader could do a greater kindness to the Church than to help all its ministers to a full apprehension of the presence and power of the Spirit. When our ascended Lord spake the words, “Ye shall be My witnesses to the ends of the earth, — wait, tarry, till ye be endued with power from on high,” He gave a law for all time to His servants in regard to the secret of work. The Spirit received daily in fellowship with God is the only secret of successful work.

In the correspondence that followed on the article, more than one writer suggests that there are other causes than those that had been named! One mentions: “The lack of intimate Christian fellowship within the churches, thus offering but very small inducement to earnest souls. This defect grows out of the lack of spiritual life, and the prevalent neglect of Holy Scripture and its exposition.” 2. “In preaching, the lack of the note of personal appeal to the conscience and direct effort for conversion; largely a result of the same cause” (the lack of spiritual life). 3. “In many of our Churches the great underlying doctrines and facts of the Gospel are scarcely ever referred to.”

The question cannot be answered by the simple assurance that every minister knows what he ought to do. How many there are who have been doing what they could, and yet have failed. Let us not call it disparaging the Church when we invite our brethren to test their work with its failure, by the Word of God. When a medical man tells a husband that his wife is suffering from a dangerous disease, he does not disparage that wife; he is doing the greatest kindness as the first step towards healing. When Spurgeon spoke so boldly about the down-grade, he was only warning against what has actually come to pass. There are thousands of hearts that feel deeply that the Church of Christ is in sore straits. Let us beware of everything like “healing the hurt slightly “; or saying, “Peace, peace, when there is no peace.”

But let us rather listen to the word, “Let my eyes run down with tears, for the virgin daughter of my people is broken with a very grievous wound.” In listening to that Word of God we shall find healing.