Appeal!—In our appeals for decision, we should build solidly and substantially, upon factual foundations. Emotions sweep over the soul, but do not change it. The tide of emotion that rises is the tide that will fall again. Sound and abiding appeal must ever be addressed to the will,—the power of sovereign choice,—supported by conscience and conviction. All the power of argument, all the strength of logic, all the force of appeal, should be directed to this supreme citadel of the. soul.
Discussion!—We have been specifically told that the absence of discussion among us is not necessarily a sign of healthy, gratifying unity, but rather an evidence of disquieting apathy. It indicates lack of virile study and conviction. It accompanies indifference, or possibly an intimidating fear of ostracism or excoriation by some of the brethren. It is never a wholesome situation when things are calm upon the surface, but agitated underneath. Such always forebodes trouble. Free, frank, healthy discussion is the royal pathway to truth, and the method of its sound defense and progression. He whose chief burden is to exclude discussion is rendering a distinct disservice to the cause of truth.
Discourtesy!—When a fellow minister is speaking from the desk, it is the height of discourtesy for ministers on the rostrum, or sitting in the congregation, to hold a whispered, running conversation. It is bad enough when laymen or youth so indulge, but it is inexcusable in a worker with training in ministerial decorum and ethics. We are to be examples to the flock. And the more experienced and prominent the transgressor, the more flagrant the act.
Negligence!—God desires the ministry of this movement to be deep, earnest, continuous students of the Word, ever bringing forth from the Treasure Book of Truth "things both new and old." We should be the most constant, able, and aggressive Bible students to be found today, ever substantiating and clarifying truth already received, and seeking out those new gems which we are told await us, and which harmonize with, or throw light upon, the old. When we fail in such voluntary study as individuals and as groups, God permits curious innovations and heresies to come to plague us as a penalty for our negligence. Thus are we driven by such emergencies to that deeper study which should have been voluntary and continuous. These things come as a rebuke permitted of God. We should have anticipated and thus circumvented the arguments into which innovators cast their specious theories. We are sternly summoned to renewed study. It is our failure to safeguard and to progress that gives opportunity for protesting innovations to emerge.
Modesty!—The more a man really knows, the more modest will he be about his learning, for he is then in a position to appreciate how limited is the deepest of human knowledge in any given field. The best informed are usually the least bombastic and are seldom given to sweeping assertions. It is the one who has but skimmed the surface who is frequently the most vocal and positive in his pronouncements, the freest to judge others or their opinions, and to assign them to the categories of true or false, sound or unsound, orthodox or unorthodox.
Dishonest!—In citing an authority in support of some point or proposition, the true thought and intent of the quoted should be scrupulously preserved in the excerpt used. It is grossly dishonest and unethical to select a section from a paragraph, page, or chapter, which if read in its entirety or context would give a distinctly different meaning to the portion used. And to leave out, by marks of elipsis, a part of a quotation which, if retained would modify, neutralize, or reverse the testimony of the quotation as a whole, is just as vicious. We cannot afford to be lax here. There are definite canons of ethics that govern in such matters. As trustees of truth, we must realize that honesty upon this point is as vital as in the handling of trust funds.
Unclean!—What must be the mental state of the occasional moral leper who poses as a pious model in the gospel ministry, prating of righteousness and judgment to come, but who, meanwhile, is brazenly playing the hypocrite, deceiving for a time his family, his friends, and the public—though, as he well knows, not his God! What fear of ultimate exposure and dislodgment must at times terrorize such unholy frauds! What brazen effrontery toward God and man to preach and pray and appeal, and even to sit in judgment upon similar cases! Woe to him who thus presumes to prostitute the holy vows of the ministry! The curse of his evil influence will come back upon his own head with terrific force. Bad as is moral perversion in a layman, it is a hundredfold more heinous in a preacher, because of his profession, his influence, and his prominence as a public representative of truth and holiness. May the terror of God drive every such hypocrite from the ministry, that we may have a clean ministry in a clean church.
L. E. F.
