The State of the Churches

PRIDE IN MODERN CHURCH BUILDINGS

Another evidence of their fall is found in the seeming effort to outdo the Catholics in extravagant church decorations and high steeples. SOC 12.2

“The more they deck their cities, their houses, their possessions, and their own persons, the more will I be angry with them for their sin, saith the Lord.” 2 Esdras xvi, 47, 48. SOC 12.3

The Cincinnati Daily Gazette refers to Dr. Wayland’s position as follows: SOC 12.4

“EXPENSIVE CHURCHES.—Dr. Wayland is opposed to the erection of expensive churches, and the employment of ministers at high salaries, because in this way the masses of the people are excluded from the church, and turned over to the Devil. He says that, If we keep on in our present course, building expensive churches, and keeping up our expensive worship, our population will all be heathen eventually. Rich Christians will gratify their pride, however, at whatever sacrifice to the religious interests of others.” SOC 12.5

A New York editor, speaking of the proposition of Bishop Hughes to have two spires on the great Catholic cathedral, either of them twenty-five feet higher than the spire of Trinity, remarks: SOC 12.6

“Till that is done, let every true Protestant remember old Trinity with affection and pride!” SOC 12.7

The Lockport Telegraph remarks: SOC 13.1

“Costly palaces and magnificent temples are the great fountains from which the gospel at the present day is proclaimed to the people. Worldly splendor paves the ‘narrow path ‘to Heaven, and dresses the Christianity of the church in inviting robes.” SOC 13.2

A writer in the Chicago Tribune gives a description of a large church in that city, called “The Centenary Methodist Episcopal Church,” as follows: SOC 13.3

“The ground floor is divided into lecture room, library room, hall leading from the vestibule to the lecture room, two parlors, one on each side of this hall, 26x28 feet each; these open into the lecture room by heavy folding-doors. One parlor is to be used for a Bible-class room, the other for an infant class room. The interior appointments are complete. They equal, if not surpass, anything we have seen in the West. Beneath the vestibule and parlors is a basement, consisting of a large dining-hall, furnished with table accommodations for one hundred and fifty persons; a kitchen, with cooking apparatus, sinks, closets, dressing rooms, etc. The basement, under the vestibule and parlors, secures some desirable advantages; the social gatherings can be made agreeable and pleasant without introducing the refreshments into the lecture room or parlors.” SOC 13.4

Alas! has it come to this, that cooking apparatus and feasting rooms are as essential in the house of God as the pulpit and the gospel? We are credibly informed that such is becoming quite common in the new church establishments. This, then, is an index not only of modern Methodism, but of the popular Christianity of the day. And must they feast away the last hours of time—eat, drink, and be merry, while destruction cometh like a whirlwind? SOC 13.5