Goodbye to Glory - Ichabod # 3

Goodbye to Glory - Ichabod # 3

A church can change from a church of compassionate concern into a church of calisthenic conventionality utterly devoid of devotional vitality - censorious of spiritual and far-sighted leadership, worldly, wayward, and peevishly puny. Then can Ichabod be written over its portals, its pews, its pulpit.

A church can change from a catgaract of activity into a scum-covered pond of stagnation.

Thus, forgetting that "she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth," she hastens the departure of her glory.

A church can change from a church of aggressive conquest into a church posessive of a slothful timidity, a passive acquiescence in small attainments, a criminal spineless in the face of evils that arrogantly challenge, a careless in-difference to great stretches of the unattained.

Thus is Iscabod an appropriate adjective for its activities and aimlessness. A church can be a roller of marbles when it should be a remover of mountains. Thus does its spiritual muscle become flabby, its fingers fumbling, its feet halt - as the glory departs.

A church can put its headlight on the rear and think only of the glory that was. Then and thus does its light grow dim, its voice faltering, its spiritual ambitions anemic, its worship boresomely lacking in life, its glory one of the past. Pathetic the words that fell from the Master's lips: "And as he went out of the temple, one of his disciples saith unto Him, 'Master, see what manner of stones and what buildings are here!' "

And Jesus answering said unto him, "Seest thou these great buildings? There shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down." (Mark 13:1, 2). They were great buildings. They were magnificent stones. But to His eyes they were nothing more than ruins, for the glory of the temple's worship and service had departed.

"But the Lord said unto Samuel, "Look not on his contenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart" (1 Samuel 16:7).

Outwardly that beautiful and stately temple seemed destined to "defy the tooth of time," inwardly it was hollow and empty and tottering to its fall. Write "Ichabod" upon it.

Is it possible for a church, when God calls it to "launch out into the deep" in the matter of soul-winning, to become "a drifting sepulcher manned by a frozen crew?"

Well, when academic luster takes the place of spiritual passion, when refrigeration is valued above conflagration, such is the danger.

I once heard Dr Perry Webb say: "The atmosphere in some churches is so cold, you can skate down the aisles!"

Is it true that a church may be noted for the gorgeous architecture of its building, the lovely music of its choir, the stateliness of its ritual, the fine-functioning of all its organizations, the largeness of numbers as to its congregation, the influence in many circles of business and social and educational life - and yet be, in the eyes of Him who marks the sparrow's fall, as a corpse wrapped in an ornate shroud?

Of the church at Sardis, Jesus, risen and enthroned, said: "And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write, 'These things saith He that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead" (Revelation 3:1).

Somebody described another church like unto the church at Sardis in these words:

Outwardly, splendid as of old -
Inwardly sparkless, void and cold -
Her force and fire all spent and gone -
Like the dead moon she still shines on.

R. T. Ketcham once said: "Attend church, but do not attend a church which prefers science to Scripture, reason for revelation, theories for truth, culture for conversion, benevolence for blood, goodness for grace, sociability for spirituality, play for praise, pep for prayer, profession for possession, progress for power, reformation for regeneration, good for God, speculation for salvation, jubilation for justification, feelings for faith, paralysis for peace, politics for precepts."

~Robert G. Lee~

(continued with # 4)