The Need of Accuracy
L.L. Caviness
We have an important message to announce to the world, and it is essential Y Y that we be accurate in all we say, and in every quotation we cite. If one of our statements is discovered to be inaccurate, or if one of our quotations is found unreliable, our whole message will likely be discredited in the minds of the thoughtful. People logically believe that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link.
One of the important features of our message is the preaching of the signs of the times; but we weaken our message if we pass on to the people the story of marvelous events that never occurred. This remark is occasioned by a recent experience. My attention had been called by one of the office workers in Bern to an article which had appeared in one of our foreign-language church papers published in North America. In this article quotations appeared from something that it was stated was printed in Basel, Switzerland, by the "Society for Positive Christianity." These quotations cited a number of remarkable signs said to have occurred in the sky as signs of the soon return of Jesus. It was all very interesting, and the one who called my attention to the matter did not do so with any doubt whatever as to the accuracy of the events therein narrated. Why should he doubt? Was it not published in one of our own papers?
I was curious, however, to know more of this "Society for Positive Christianity" in Basel, so I wrote to our worker there, and asked him what this society was, and whether they had brought out anything recently of the kind cited in the quotations. In due time I learned that the Pentecostal Church calls itself by the above-mentioned name, and that it had reprinted in loose-leaf form an article that had appeared in its church paper. The worker sent me two of these sheets, remarking that in the whole article only one source was given. Our worker also went to see the leader of the Pentecostal Church in Basel, but he was not able to give any more information than was contained in the article.
I noticed that the article began with the words: "London, June 10, 1931." It first stated that a notable sign had been seen in the sky at London on Monday night at 10:21. I looked up the 1931 calendar, and found that June 10 was a Wednesday, the previous Monday being June 8. I read in the article concerning signs in Norway, Sweden, India, and various places in America. But there were no definite dates or sources given until I came to the end of the article. Here it was stated that the Morning Post of June 5, 1931, wrote thus and so,—and a quotation was given telling of a bow of light that was seen in London "yesterday evening." It also stated what Dr. Whipple, the superintendent of the Kew Observatory, said about this phenomenon to a press representative. Thinking it would be profitable to verify this, I wrote to W. T. Bartlett, of England, who has had much experience in looking up quotations. In a short time I had a reply from him that he had secured a copy of the Morning Post of June 5, 1931, and had twice gone through the same carefully without finding anything of the kind quoted in the paper!
I have just received a copy of one of our South American church papers, and this article I mention is reproduced. from our North American foreign-language paper, only this time the statements are credited to the "Basel Mission Society." How disturbed that society would feel if they should discover that we have put into their mouths statements for which they are in no way responsible, especially when the quotation begins by saying that a remarkable phenomenon occurred in London on Monday, June 10, 1931. One needs only to glance at last year's calendar to see that June 10 was not a Monday. I do not know whether this was the reason that another of our papers here in Europe, before reprinting in their pages this interesting article, wrote to our worker in Basel to verify the quotations. Is that not what we should always do in similar cases before using matter of this kind in our public lectures, and especially before printing any such thing in our papers?
Not only should all quotations be verified, but we should also be careful about geographical names and figures, as well as historical statements and dates. One of our General Conference brethren had visited Europe, and in an article that appeared later in an important church organ he told of his visit to Scandinavia, "which had a population of 40 millions." As this happened only two years ago, all that one needed to do, if he did not have access to an atlas, was to look up the population of the Scandinavian Union (as it was then called) as given in our Year Book.
In the announcements of public lectures we should be careful to be accurate. Not long ago one of the field secretaries of the General Conference WAS-attreirdiirg—a general meeting in a field of our Southern European Division. In the announcement passed out to the public he was said to have come from Copenhagen, instead of from Washington, D. C. Our division representative, who is a Dane; was said to have come from Oslo, Sweden!
We have too sacred a message to render it ridiculous by impossible geographical or historical mistakes such as any schoolboy should know better than to make. We say we have the truth, and we thank God for it; but that does not justify carelessness or inaccuracy in connection with the proclamation of the message that we all love and should hold sacred..
Angwin, Calif.
More of the Bible
BY G. A. ROBERTS
One fault in our present-day evangelism is that we have made too many changes in emphasis and methods of approach. Not that I am opposed to new methods, if they are characterized by Christian dignity, and will attract people to investigate truth; but it seems to me that we have to some extent been aping the world, and consequently have put "new methods" and "new emphasis" in the place of certain fundamentals. Surely the third angel's message, in the full meaning of the term, presented with much the same emphasis as formerly, and to some extent in the same way, is the need of the world today. That message, without the backing of institutions, the influence of foreign mission reflection, and with practically nothing to recommend it to the world except its own intrinsic merit, called this people out from the world, and formed the marvelous organization which we see today. And if this message, presented in its simplicity, had the power to do that, what will it not do when presented in the same way today, with the added influence of institutions, foreign missions, and everyday fulfillment of the prophecies which are a part of the message itself?
More of the Bible, and less of modern spectacular evangelism, will meet "the gnawing cancers of Modernism and evolutionary theory that have honeycombed society," and will place upon society every possible restraint against moral breakdown; for when men and women, young and old, catch a vision of this blessed message, they know for a certainty that time is short, that Jesus is soon to come, and that judgment inevitably follows. They also know that Jesus Christ died on Calvary's cross to save them from the impending doom; and this is the best safeguard for any soul.
I am strongly convinced that in our preaching we should call attention to the fundamentals upon which this message stands, to its thousands of early pronouncements at a time when all we had to base our assertions on were the very prophecies now being fulfilled before our eyes. It seems to me that here is the greatest and most startling proof of the fact that this people have been led of God from the beginning.
G. A. ROBERTS.
Oakland, Calif.
Maxims for the Gospel Minister
BY J. B. SCHILLING
1. Dress neatly. Be graceful. Don't be negligent in your manners either in the pulpit or on the street.
2. Don't preach too long. Study your sermon well before you try to give it. Don't study while you preach.
3. Have the facts for your sermon well organized in your own mind before you enter the pulpit.
4. Study even an old sermon very carefully before you try to give it another time.
5. Always be punctual at your post of duty. Never be late.
6. Lead your worship, church services, and other meetings pleasantly, attractively, and winsomely.
7. Don't let your audience get tired of your speaking; be inspirational. Use the choicest language possible. Let your scientific and historical matter be carefully selected.
8. Be pleasant in your appearance and objective in your presentations; don't scold nor become passionate either in the pulpit or on the platform.
9. Do not assert what you cannot prove; never let yourself be drawn into a discussion of a subject about which you know little or perhaps nothing
10. Be in earnest when you speak or lecture; speak clearly and distinctly so that every sentence may be heard and understood. Breathe deeply while you speak, and don't speak so rapidly that your congregation have difficulty in following you.
11. Always be careful that your manners are those of a godly man, a Christian gentleman, and a minister of God.
12. Don't use too many newspaper clippings; they are not trustworthy. Citations from a standard and generally acknowledged work of history or science are better. Don't use a citation that you yourself have not read in a standard work, and the reference for which you are not able to give. If you can look it up in the original work yourself, do so.
13. Be careful not to make the Bible say what it does not affirm. Let your Bible presentations be strictly objective. Gather the best and most trustworthy material possible.
14. Be sure that your sermons and lectures will appeal strongly to your audience, and bring conviction to their hearts.
15. When you speak about the Papacy, differentiate between the Catholic Church and the Papacy. Differentiate also between the Christianity of the early days and that of the Middle Ages; for they are by no means the same.
Brooklyn, N. Y.