It is easy to drift into carelessness, especially about sacred things. We have done that in this matter of selling our literature on the Sabbath. Elder Watson has pointed this out. His doing so has been timely and helpful.
It has not been from wrong motives that this abuse has been brought in. It has been from a desire to do good. We believe in our literature. We are eager to have it circulated. Its circulation wins souls. We want our people to use it more extensively than they do. And so we have taken the one opportunity the week would seem to afford, when they are all together, to press it upon them.
We meet all our people at the Sabbath morning service. At no other meeting are so many of them together. And so we have crowded many things into that service. Some of them do not belong there. They are out of place. It is good to have this pointed out, as Elder Watson has now done.
It is not easy to describe the condition that has arisen. It is not the same in all churches. Some churches have gone beyond others in this matter. So when we caution these, then the ones which have not transgressed to the same degree think the picture is overdrawn.
Some of us, however, know that it would be difficult to overcolor the picture as it appears in some places. The most faithful members we have have been made to sigh and cry at some things that have come in. Sales in which the hawking of wares and the taking of orders, and even of money, have in instances approached—if they have not actually reached —the holding of an auction, have been witnessed in some of our churches on the Sabbath day.
And as this has been done by leaders, church officials in charge of missionary work, even ministers, our faithful people, while astonished and puzzled, have consented to it. The burden that has rested on Elder Watson's heart has been felt by many others, and they are glad he has spoken. This thing should be stopped. The holy day of God should be safeguarded from commercialism.
The hour of Sabbath worship should not be prostituted to commercial purposes. It is for worship. It should be used for worship. Not even a fifteen-minute service slipped in between Sabbath school and the church service should be used for purposes that are inappropriate to worship.
Do not misunderstand me. That fifteen-minute service is not wrong in itself. It can be made very helpful. It can be made to serve a most useful purpose. It was so intended. But we may just as well face the fact that in many places it has been made to serve a purpose the opposite of helpful. Indeed, in some churches it is an abomination. Our home-missionary brethren will do well to provide some means, and that speedily, by which local church officers may be better instructed in the way to use this service.
But it is not only the fifteen-minute missionary service which has been at fault in this matter of commercializing the Sabbath. Book campaigns, magazine campaigns, missionary-literature campaigns, tract campaigns, have been brought into the time of the hour of worship, and pressed upon the worshipers with real high-pressure salesmanship. Ushers have sometimes carried supplies of the literature to be sold, have pressed into the pews with it, and collected money for it, while the preacher stood in the pulpit urging it upon the people.
God has been good to us in sounding the warning which has come through Elder Watson. Now let that warning be heeded. Let us stop this evil thing in all our churches. Let preachers and people, officers and church boards, determine there shall be no continuation of the thing that has brought disgrace and reproach upon us. Let us cast this abuse out of our Sabbath services.
But let us do it wisely and thoughtfully. The circulation of our good literature ought not to suffer. And I am sure it need not. No one believes more ardently in the wide circulation of our truth-filled books and magazines than I. So when we plan to eliminate commercialism from our Sabbath services, let us at the same time discover ways and means by which our literature may be more widely circulated than ever.
This can be done. There are men who can tell us how. We have just allowed ourselves to drift into the easiest way, by doing it on the Sabbath. That was easy—but wrong. Now, let us set our minds to finding right ways. When we turn resolutely away from the wrong way and seek right ways, God meets us at that point, and helps us. He will help us now.
Suggestions are in order for our mutual study of this matter. How far can we go on the Sabbath in promoting our missionary enterprises and not violate the spirit and purpose of the Sabbath? What can be said in urging participation in literature campaigns without encroaching upon Sabbath worship? How can we best observe the Sabbath, and make it minister to our spiritual needs, and yet bring to our people on that day the information they need to make their service for God fruitful and efficient?
I suggest that we workers set ourselves at once to the solution of this problem. Certainly there can be no question that the abuses referred to by Elder Watson should be brought to an end at once. Let us not spend time and energy discussing that. Let us stop the practices which are wrong. Then let us find right ways, effective ways, better ways, of doing the thing which needs doing.
When we preachers have another opportunity to get together, no doubt this question will receive much attention and discussion. Pending that, why not make the columns of the Ministry an exchange for helpful suggestions and outlines as to how, while abandoning the wrong way, we may find the right way? We must keep the Sabbath, the holy of the Lord, honorable.
The Ministry's Response
This journal accepts the suggestion that its columns be opened as a forum for the exchange of constructive suggestions for the solution of this difficult but solvable problem. Be it clearly understood that this does not mean for the defense or condemnation of the abuse discussed by Pastor Watson, but for practical remedies for the situation. Those responses throwing light upon the question will gladly be given space in these columns, These contributions should not exceed 350 words, on a double-spaced, type-written page.—Editor.
