The Oberlin Evangelist
January 15, 1840
Many
other duties have interrupted PROF. FINNEY'S LETTERS. They resume today, and they will continue as long as the
providence of God will permit. If you
are an editor who is a professing Christian, will you give this letter your
closest attention?
The Oberlin Evangelist
January 15, 1840
Professor Finney's Letters--No. 6. [7.]
TO THE EDITORS OF PERIODICALS WHO ARE PROFESSING CHRISTIANS.
DEAR
BRETHREN:
It
is important for me to speak with sincere modesty and humility in addressing
you on a subject that is extremely important to this nation and to the
world. It is not part of my purpose to
get into any controversy with you, nor to take on myself the responsibility to
make a decision concerning the way that you should discharge your responsible
duties. However, I beg that you will
allow me to speak to you in love as a Christian brother, and to suggest several
things, or rather to raise several questions concerning the influence that your
periodicals are exerting on your many readers.
1.
Isn’t it a well-established truth, that “evil communications corrupt good
manners”?
2.
Isn’t it also a well-established truth, that a disciple’s teacher almost
certainly modifies and molds his spirit?
3.
Isn’t it also true, and the experience of almost everybody can testify that
“like priest, like people”, is a maxim of unerring truth. Isn’t it true that the spirit of a church
partakes in a great measure, of the spirit of its pastor, and that those who
love and have confidence in that pastor, will almost certainly drink in his
spirit, and strongly sympathize with him in whatever engages his heart and
draws out his soul? If he is secular,
his church will also be secular. If he
is stickler for orthodoxy, or if he has no settled views at all, this will
generally be the character of his church.
In short whatever he is, as far as he has influence, his people will
also be. Those people, whom he does not
influence at all, who have little or no confidence in him, may and very likely
will be, almost the exact opposite of his spirit. However, it is clear, that the more they have confidence in him,
the more his influence will mold their characters.
Doesn’t
the same truth hold true concerning the authors that individuals or people
commune with?
Now,
doesn’t the same truth hold true concerning periodicals? Will someone pick up and buy a periodical
unless he is pleased with it? Can
anyone be pleased with a periodical unless he drinks in the spirit that it
breathes? Don’t the periodicals and the
literature of today, modify and mold the character of a people or a nation,
just like a pastor molds that character of a particular congregation?
4. Aren’t these times filled with rebukes,
criticisms, and strife, bitterness, and mob control, both in and out of the
Church? Don’t the openly ungodly
publicly display their turbulent spirits by their total disregard for the rules
of this nation? They ignore the laws
they want to ignore, and trample under foot everything that is lovely and of
good report? And don’t serious and
somber church leaders, as well as professing Christians, trample on the
constitutions and laws of their respective denominations, tossing aside the
ordinary and constitutional methods of procedure, and in the true spirit of
ecclesiastical mob rule they proceed, without law or order, to spiritually
lynch those people who are subject to their jurisdiction?
Now,
I would like to humbly ask you, my beloved brethren, isn’t the press largely
responsible for all of this disorder and lawless confusion? Isn’t it certain that today’s magazines and
periodicals largely breathe this spirit, and they have been the principal
instruments of enkindling and diffusing it throughout every department of
society? Wasn’t the press, in the city
of New York, justly responsible for the mobs that prevailed there several years
ago; and hasn’t this been true throughout the length and breadth of our
land? Wasn’t the press responsible for
the horrors of the French Revolution?
Isn’t the turbulence in the Church today, its discord and misrule
largely the result of the professedly religious press? Aren’t the pastors and religious teachers
throughout the land greatly excited and their whole character and influence
greatly modified by this same press?
Isn’t every minister's preaching on Sunday largely suggested and
modified by what he reads throughout the week?
And where his periodicals are charged with highly inflammatory,
sectarian, slanderous, and censorious pieces, doesn’t he drink some of their
spirit and slowly come to feel that he should preach and insist on these
things. As a result, doesn’t he
basically become an echo of the religious press? If he reads a lot, he almost certainly does, whether he is aware
of it or not. What pastor has not felt
the constant, and I might say incontrollable influence that periodicals have in
his own congregation?
5.
Now, beloved brethren, if these things are you, you are in an awfully
responsible position. Isn’t it
extremely important that you should be holy men, outstanding in character and
performance? And if you are not highly
spiritual men, isn’t it true that the greater your talents, the more the Church
and the world is cursed by your influence?
Shouldn’t everyone have as particular a regard to the periodicals that he
reads and to the editor, whose thoughts and selections are pouring their
constant influence over his mind and the minds of his family, as he would have
in selecting a pastor under whose instruction he and his family were to have
their characters molded for eternity?
As for myself, I must say that I could no more allow a newspaper, edited
by anyone who has a bad spirit, to come into my family, and breathe its silent
influence over our souls, than I would willingly have the plague or any other
evil influence come in among us. I feel
that editors have the most important relationship to the world that anyone has,
because they give to themselves, through their publications, a kind of
omnipresence. They live and move in and
breathe their influence over the whole heart of the nation. Their influence is felt over hundreds of
pulpits, thousands of domestic circles, and millions of hearts. In fact, they mold this entire nation, as it
were, by a kind of omnipresent influence.
Therefore,
dearly beloved brethren, isn’t it infinitely important that you should fully
appreciate the seriousness and the responsibility of your position and life and
have a special regard to several things which you will now let me mention?
1.
What about the spirit of the writers whose articles you allow to find a place
in your columns? If you were promoting
a revival of religion, as a pastor of a church, would you allow anyone with a
fiery, sectarian, bitter, sarcastic, critical and denunciatory spirit to preach
to your people? Would you encourage or
allow such a person to take control over any meeting, and exhort, pray, and
diffuse his spirit throughout your congregation? Or, if you were not in a time of revival would you, could you
prevent it? Or would you allow such a
spirit to diffuse itself among your people?
In times of revival, who has not seen one single prayer, or one
exhortation, given in a bad spirit, do a tremendous amount of damage in a
congregation? And who has not witnessed
the disastrous influence of the spirit of such writers in periodicals, changing
the sweetness of Christian love into the bitterness of gall, and pouring in a
current of death on the gardens of spiritual life?
Therefore,
shouldn’t the universal practice of editors be to exclude from their columns
everything that is inconsistent with the spirit of holiness and perfect
Christian love?
2.
Isn’t it extremely important that you should publish articles that attack and
damage the character of anyone, or any group of people, with great care, and
only under such restrictions and under such conditions that you cannot
reasonably expect that article to damage the cause of truth, by wastefully
throwing away Christian influence?
Isn’t it a tremendous error for editors to think they have a right to
publish anything they want to publish, no matter how slanderous it may be, if
the writer will only give his name?
Isn’t it wrong for editors to present anything to the public that
suggests malice, or prejudice, or mistaken zeal? Are editors exceptions to the common rules of Christ’s kingdom in
this respect?
In
the days of Jeremiah, the prophet complained about the people by saying this:
“Report”, they say, “and we will report it!
All my acquaintances watched for my stumbling.” The doctrine seems to have been in those
days, that if any one would originate a report, they were free to spread that
report around whether it was true or false, and leave it up to those people,
who were the victims of that report, to contradict it or not as they chose or
were able to do. The prophet complained
that this was seriously wicked. And I
would humbly ask you whether there is not something almost exactly like this in
the conduct of many editors today? I
have good reason to know from my own personal knowledge and observation over
the past several years, that it has been customary with some editors to publish
things, which I knew, were false and slanderous. Now, I know that most of this could have been easily disproved. However, in order to do this the maligned
individuals would have to spend most of their time repelling slanders. When editors dedicate their time spreading
such morally evil influences over the land, either a lot of people will have to
spend their time contradicting and correcting such statements, or they will
have to allow the mind of the public to become deeply and bitterly prejudiced,
and, as a result, the cause of Christ will suffer tremendous damage from their
influence. As for myself, I have seen
so many statements and things reported as facts, which I knew were false, that
I am compelled to place very little confidence in today’s religious
publications. I cannot but reason this
way: that, if I know that they have unblushingly published total
misrepresentations concerning the dearest interests of religion, the most sacred
things, and character, and proceedings, what reason do I have to believe those
things that I don’t personally know about.
What right do I have to believe those things?
Now,
isn’t it a great evil when the spirit of the periodicals and spirit of the press
is so bad that we can avoid a disastrous influence only by giving very little
credit to its statements? I would like
to speak with the greatest kindness, but my heart aches concerning this subject
too much to remain silent any longer.
If I hear any report of a brother, whether it is true or false, do I
have a right to tell it to the public without laying the subject before him,
admonishing him to repent and knowing what he has to say to the charge? If the thing is not true do I have any right
to publish it at all? And if it is
true, do I have any right to reveal it to the public without the most urgent
need to do so? Can it be right for me
or for anyone on earth, to simply publicize whatever I feel like I have a good
reason to believe? If, simply because I
believe that something is true, do I have a right to spread it around as if it
was on the winds of heaven, and let those individuals concerned to contradict
it or not, if they can? Isn’t this as
far as possible from the spirit and rule of the gospel? But, are editors any more free to transgress
this plain principle of Christian law than anyone else is? And isn’t a most tremendous amount of
transgressions in this respect causing the religion of Jesus to bleed at every
pore?
3.
Isn’t it critically important that the tendency of every article should be well
weighted by the editor, before he gives it a place in his columns? Is the editor to allow the writer to be the
only judge of the tendency of his article, and to think that he has no
responsibility in this matter? He might
as well fire a loaded cannon on masses of human beings, simply because another
man loaded and leveled it, and asked him to apply the match. Shall a man in such a situation, simply
close his eyes, apply the match, and say, “I am free from the blood of all
men”? Or, is that person required to
open his eyes, see what is before him, and whether the contents of the gun are
likely to do any harm, if he applies the match? Therefore, whether an article prepared for your columns is true
or false, is not the only question.
Isn’t the tendency of that article something for which you are
personally and in the highest sense responsible? I have been astonished that editors should sometimes admit and
sometimes deny this principle to suit their own conveniences and
prejudices. Sometimes, they will refuse
to publish articles on the ground that they have an evil tendency. They will allege that they are responsible
for the tendency of that article; and at other times when some people object to
the fact that they published another article, they will contend that they are
not responsible for the tendency of articles written by other people. As a result, we often find it impossible to
depend on the stability and consistency of their behavior.
4.
Isn’t it also extremely important, that editors should keep their own minds
free from the influence of prejudice, and not allow themselves or their
correspondents to publish articles that will produce or perpetuate prejudice? Suppose a minister were to allow himself to
become prejudiced concerning certain members of his own congregation, and
spread and perpetuate that prejudice, wouldn’t his words eat like a
canker? How amazingly harmful and
damaging is the influence of an editor who allows his own mind to become
prejudiced on an important subject, and to increase and perpetuate such a
prejudice on so large a scale!
5.
Concerning editorial articles, permit me, dear brethren, to make two
suggestions.
(1.)
Isn’t tremendous evil often done by editors replying to the personal
reflections of other editors upon themselves; and wouldn’t it be a lot better
for the cause of truth and for the spirit of this nation and of the church, to
not pay any public attention to any personal reflections whatever? I have believed that it is the duty of
ministers and editors to attend to God’s business, and let God attend to their
business. Let ministers and editors
defend God’s character, and let God defend their characters. I have sought to live by this principle, and
I have never had any reason to complain about a lack of faithfulness in my
Divine Master concerning these things.
Always when I have been extremely thoughtful about attending to His
business and His interests, He has been extremely thoughtful to take care of my
business and interests. And when I have
made the most effort to defend His reputation and made the least effort to
defend my own reputation, I have found, by experience, that He has been tender
towards my reputation in proportion as I have been alive to His
reputation. And, I have always said,
that the more people dedicate themselves to defending their own character, and
keeping their own reputation; the more, God leaves them alone so they can take
care of themselves.
(2.)
Hasn’t it been true too often, that editors think that they have to maintain
the character of infallibility? Haven’t
they thought that their influence would greatly suffer, if they were frank and
honest in fully confessing any mistake or error, which they had fallen
into? In fact, I once heard an editor
say, that editors must be infallible, and that for him to confess any fault
would greatly damage his influence. I
have known some ministers to adopt the same principle, and take the same
attitude. Nothing is more unreasonable
and harmful as far as I am concerned.
Yes, there are some praiseworthy exceptions to this rule. For an editor, as well as for anyone else to
confess his mistakes, is Christian. It
is truly blessed and heavenly in its influence. Few things affect the mind with such heavenly sweetness as a
frank, candid, humble, confession of a fault.
6.
Again let me ask you whether it is true, that an editor may and often does,
without being aware of it himself, get into a bad spirit, by immersing his mind
in other periodicals. Many of these
periodicals breathe a bad spirit, and gain an influence over him before he is
aware of it. He allows these other
papers to gradually poison his own spirit, and bring him forward into the arena
of controversy, sectarianism, and slander, before he is fully awake to his
danger.
7.
A paper published a bad spirit, may succeed in maintaining a large subscription
list for a while. However, God is against such a paper, and He will eventually
put it down. Besides, the tendency of
the paper itself will probably bring about its own destruction. It will probably, in due time, produce such
a bad spirit in its readers, and lead them so far from God, that they will
neglect paying for their paper, and finally feel so little interest in
religion, that they refuse to subscribe to that religious periodical at
all. If I am not mistaken, I have known
some periodicals to fail this way. I
know it is true that the editor may slide so gradually into a wrong spirit that
he carries his readers so slowly and imperceptibly into backsliding that they
do not perceive where they are, or what the spirit of their favorite editor is
in. Just as a member of a church may,
under the same kind of preaching, sink down into a state of sin without being
aware that either his pastor or himself are in bad states of mind. But let this same person travel to a
different town and come under different influences, and get his mind filled
with a sweet revival spirit, and how it will distress him to return and mingle
with his church, and sit under the preaching of his own pastor. How clearly he will now perceive that they
have all drifted away from God, and they don’t know the kind of spirit they are
in.
In
the same way, a Christian may accept a bitter periodical without noticing that
the spirit of that periodical is contrary to the spirit of Christ, because he
has the same spirit that the editor has.
But if by any means, you can keep that person from reading his paper
long enough to get him into a revival spirit.
If you can keep him from reading long enough to get his eyes open, and
his heart broken, then when he tries to read his religious newspaper, it will
disturb and agitate his soul. He will
soon find himself unable to read it, and, in order to preserve the spirit of
Christ; he will either discontinue it, or fall once again under its influence,
and that paper will carry him away from God and holiness.
For
my own part I must say that there are few things that I have to be more
watchful against, than the promiscuous reading of religious periodicals. And I can heartily say that, I do not know
one minister, and I have met and known many ministers during my lifetime, who
is in the habit of faithfully reading the periodical publications of the day,
who also seems to possess a high degree of spirituality. The influence these religious periodicals
have on the ministry is just what it appears to have on editors
themselves. And isn’t it often true
that the correspondents of papers stir up a bad spirit in the editor, and the
editor in his turn stirs up a bad spirit in the writers, and thus a reciprocal
influence is given and received, which often becomes worse and worse until the
piety of the Church is practically extinct.
I ask you with pain and with the deepest humility, if this is not true
today? Beloved brethren, how would you
expect a pastor to keep his people free from a critical spirit? Wouldn’t the only way a pastor could keep
his people free from a critical spirit is by completely abstaining from such a
spirit himself, and by pouring the sweet spirit of the gospel on their souls
from Sunday to Sunday and from day to day?
And when disturbing causes come in and infect his people, he would do
everything in his power to draw their attention away from those causes, and fix
their minds on these highly spiritual considerations that alone can promote
their growth in grace.
8.
Dear brethren, do not think that I am insinuating that there is not a lot that
is good and profitable in your paper.
There really are many judicious and excellent things written both by you
and your correspondents, which cheer the heart of piety, and I trust cause many
people to thank God. However, I ask
you, what is the influence of your periodicals as a whole, and what is the influence
of the ministry as a whole? Doesn’t the
present state of the Church tell the whole story? Isn’t it clear, that while there are many good things in your
papers, as there are many good sermons preached by ministers today, yet isn’t
the influence of the good things in your papers worse than neutralized by the
many bitter and slanderous things contained in them?
The
state of the human heart is such that a few caustic, sarcastic, bitter,
sectarian sentences or pieces, will take a deeper hold, and make a more
permanent impression than ten times the amount of spiritual matter that is
designed to counteract the influence of sin.
A few harmful or destructive paragraphs, that catch the eye of a reader,
will often poison his spirit more than a whole page of information that has a
good tendency will do a person good.
Who does not know, that if you let a minister preach the most powerful
and spiritual sermon, under which the deepest and most favorable and wholesome
impression is produced, if he allows someone who has a bad spirit to follow
that wonderful sermon with an exhortation or a prayer that’s not even five
minutes long, it will destroy the good effect of his entire sermon, and worse
than counteract it, because it will draw the whole flow of excited feeling into
this harmful and destructive channel. As a result, the audience will actually leave church that day in
a worse and more disturbed state than if they had heard nothing other than the
bitter exhortation or prayer all by itself, while they were in a calm and
unexcited state. In the same way, let
your readers become interested by reading what is never so good, powerful, and
moving. Then, before they set their
paper down, let them read just one short article that breathes a bitter and
slanderous spirit. Their whole mental
excitement will be turned in the wrong direction, and I believe that nine out
of ten of those readers will get up from reading your paper, and be guilty of
slander and bitterness the first time they open their mouths.
9.
And now, dear brethren, how shall we promote a great revival of religion in the
land? How shall we diffuse a sweet and
heavenly spirit through all our churches, unless we can make the periodical
press sweet, spiritual, and able to exert a holy influence?
Beloved
brethren, you are breathing your own spirit into the very heart of the Church
of God from week to week. You are
constantly molding and forming the heart of the public, and you are continually
influencing the characters and the destinies of the Church and the world! Oh, how you need the prayers of
Christians! You desperately need to be
outstanding praying men yourselves! You
need to spend a lot of your time on your knees in direct and sacred communion
with God, or you will poison the Church and the world to death. O brethren, please receive what I have to
say to you in kindness. I say this in
love, and with a full heart. I will try
to pray for you. And may the God of
grace guide you, and help you to always exert a right influence on His Church.
Please,
don’t think that I am taking the attitude of a censor or a dictator. I would gladly get down at your feet and beg
you, and pour my whole heart out before you in strong, pressing requests, that
you will not be instrumental in diffusing a wrong spirit throughout the Church
of the blessed God.
If
I were sure that you would kindly receive it, I would propose a day of fasting,
humiliation, and prayer, to be observed by the editors, ministers, writers, and
readers of religious periodicals. Oh,
it seems to me as if the Church would greatly benefit by having their minds
called particularly to this subject: the need of prayer for ministers, and
especially for the editors and writers of religious periodicals. My soul is sick with the way things are
these days. May the Lord pour out His
Spirit and direct us how to behave ourselves so that we may bless the Church.
I
have many more things that I may suggest at some future time, if I have reason
to believe that you will receive these things.
C.G. FINNEY