077. Concerning Bigots

Concerning Bigots

Jdg_12:6 : ’93Then said they unto him, Say, now, Shibboleth; and he said Sibboleth: for he could not frame to pronounce it right. Then they took him and slew him at the passages of Jordan.’94

Do you notice the difference of pronunciation between shibboleth and sibboleth? A very small and unimportant difference you say. And yet, that difference was the difference between life and death for a great many people. The Lord’92s people, Gilead and Ephraim, got into a great fight, and Ephraim was worsted, and on the retreat came to the fords of the river Jordan to cross. Order was given that all Ephraimites coming there be slain. But how could it bo found out who were Ephraimites? They were detected by their pronunciation. Shibboleth was a word that stood for river. The Ephraimites had a brogue of their own, and when they tried to say shibboleth, always left out the sound of the ’93h.’94 When it was asked that they say shibboleth they said sibboleth, and were slain. ’93Then said they unto him, Say now Shibboleth: and he said Sibboleth: for he could not frame to pronounce it right. Then they took him, and slew him at the passages of Jordan.’94 A very small difference, you say, between Gilead and Ephraim, and yet how much intolerance about that small difference!

The Lord’92s tribes in our time’97by which I mean the different denominations of Christians’97sometimes magnify a very small difference, and the only difference between scores of denominations today is the difference between shibboleth and sibboleth. The Church of God is divided into a great number of denominations. Time would fail me to tell of the Calvinists and the Arminians and the Sabbatarians and the Baxterians and the Dunkers and the Shakers and the Quakers and the Methodists and the Baptists and the Episcopalians and the Lutherans and the Congregationalists and the Presbyterians and the Spiritualists and a score of other denominations of religionists, some of them founded by very good men, some of them founded by very egotistic men, and some of them founded by very bad men. But as I demand liberty of conscience for myself I must give that same liberty to every other man, remembering that he no more differs from me than I differ from him. I advocate the largest liberty in all religious belief and form of worship. In art, in politics, in morals and in religion let there be no gag law, no moving of the previous question, no persecution, no intolerance.

You know that the air and the water keep pure by constant circulation, and I think there is a tendency in religious discussion to purification and moral health. Between the fourth and the sixteenth centuries the Church proposed to make people think aright by prohibiting discussion and by strong censorship of the press, and by rack and gibbet, and hot lead down the throat, tried to make people orthodox; but it was discovered that you cannot change a man’92s belief by twisting off his head, and that you cannot make a man see things differently by putting an awl through his eyes. There is something in a man’92s conscience which will hurl off the mountain that you threw upon it, and, unsinged of the fire, out of the flame will make red wings on which the martyr will mount to glory.

In that time of which I speak, between the fourth and sixteenth centuries, people went from the house of God into the most appalling iniquity, and right along by consecrated altars there were tides of drunkenness and licentiousness such as the world never heard of, and the very sewers of perdition broke loose and flooded the Church. After a while the printing press was freed, and it broke the shackles of the human mind. Then there came a large number of bad books, but where there was one man hostile to the Christian religion there were twenty men ready to advocate it; so I have not any nervousness in regard to this battle going on between truth and error. The truth will conquer just as certainly as that God is stronger than the devil. Let error run, if you only let truth run along with it. Urged on by sceptic’92s shout and transcendentalisms spur, let it run. God’92s angels of wrath are in hot pursuit, and quicker than eagle’92s beak clutches out a hawk’92s heart God’92s vengeance will tear it to pieces.

I propose this morning to speak to you of sectarianism’97its origin, its evils and its cures. There are those who would make us think that this monster, with horns and hoofs, is religion. I shall chase it to its hiding-place, and drag it out of the caverns of darkness, and rip off its hide. But I want to make a distinction between bigotry and the lawful fondness for peculiar religious beliefs and forms of worship. I have no admiration for a nothingarian. In a world of such tremendous vicissitude and temptation, and with a soul that must after a while stand before a throne of insufferable brightness, in a day when the rocking of the mountains and the flaming of the heavens and the upheaval of the sea shall be among the least of the excitements, to give account for every thought, word, action, preference, and dislike’97that man is mad who has no religious preference. But our early education, our physical temperament, our mental constitution, will very much decide our form of worship. A style of psalmody that may please me may displease you. Some would like to have a minister in gown and bands and surplice, and others prefer to have a minister in plain citizen’92s apparel. Some are most impressed when a little child is presented at the altar and sprinkled with the waters of a holy benediction ’93In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost’94; and others are more impressed when the penitent comes up out of the river, his garments dripping with the waters of a baptism which signifies the washing away of sin. Let either have his own way. One man likes no noise in prayer’97not a word, not a whisper. Another man, just as good, prefers by gesticulation and exclamation to express his devotional aspirations. One is just as good as the other. ’93Every man fully persuaded in his own mind.’94 George Whitefield was expostulating with a Quaker rather roughly for some of his religious sentiments, and the Quaker said: ’93George, I am as thou art; I am for bringing all men to the hope of the Gospel; therefore, if thou wilt not quarrel with me about my broad brim, I will not quarrel with thee about thy black gown. George, give me thy hand.’94

In tracing out the religion of sectarianism or bigotry, I find that a great deal of it comes from wrong education in the home circle. There are parents who do not think it wrong to caricature and jeer the peculiar forms of religion in the world, and the denominations that differ from their own. It is very often the case that that kind of education acts just opposite to what was expected, and the children grow up, and after a while go and see for themselves, and looking in those churches, and finding that the people are good there, and love God and keep his commandments, by natural reaction they go and join those very churches. I could mention the names of prominent ministers of the Gospel who spent their whole lives bombarding other denominations, and who lived to see their children preach the Gospel in those very denominations. But it is often the case that bigotry starts in a household, and that the subject of it never recovers. There are tens of thousands of bigots ten years old.

I think sectarianism and bigotry also result from too great prominence of any one denomination in a community. All the other denominations are wrong, and his denomination is right, because his denomination is the most wealthy, or the most popular, or the most influential, and it is ’93our’94 church, and ’93our’94 religious organization, and ’93our’94 choir, and ’93our’94 minister, and the man tosses his head, and wants other denominations to know their places. It is a great deal better in any community when the great denominations of Christians are about equal in power, marching side by side for the world’92s conquest. Mere outside prosperity, mere worldly power, is no evidence that the church is acceptable to God. Better a barn with Christ in the manger, than a cathedral with magnificent harmonies rolling through the long-drawn aisle, and an angel from heaven in the pulpit, if there be no Christ in the chancel, and no Christ in the robes.

Bigotry is often the child of ignorance. You seldom find a man with large intellect who is a bigot. It is the man who thinks he knows a great deal, but does not. That man is almost always a bigot. The whole tendency of education and civilization is to bring a man out of that state of mind and heart. There was in the far east a great obelisk, and one side of the obelisk was white, another side of the obelisk was green, another side of the obelisk was blue, and travelers went and looked at that obelisk, but they did not walk around it. One man looked at one side, another at another side, and they came home each one looking at only one side; and they happened to meet, the story says; and they got into a rank quarrel about the color of that obelisk. One man said it was white, another man said it was green, another man said it was blue, and when they were in the very heat of the controversy a more intelligent traveler came, and said: ’93Gentlemen, I have seen that obelisk, and you are all right, and you are all wrong. Why did you not walk all around the obelisk?’94 Look out for the man who sees only one side of a religious truth. Look out for the man who never walks around about these great theories of God and eternity and the dead. He will be a bigot inevitably’97the man who only sees one side. There is no man more to be pitied than he who has in his head just one idea’97no more, no less. More light, less sectarianism. There is nothing that will so soon kill bigotry as God’92s sunshine.

So I have set before you what I consider to be the causes of bigotry. I have set before you the origin of this evil. What are some of the baleful effects? First of all it cripples investigation. You are wrong, and I am right, and that ends it. No desire for exploration, no spirit of investigation. From the glorious realm of God’92s truth, over which an archangel might fly from eternity to eternity and not reach the limit, the man shuts himself out and dies, a blind mole under a corn-shock.

While each denomination of Christians is to present all the truths of the Bible, it seems to me that God has given to each denomination an especial mission to give particular emphasis to some one doctrine, and so the Calvinistic churches must present the sovereignty of God, and the Arminian churches must present man’92s free agency, and the Episcopal churches must present the importance of order and solemn ceremony, and the Baptist churches must present the necessity of ordinances, and the Congregational Church must present the responsibility of the individual member, and the Methodist Church must show what holy enthusiasm and hearty congregational singing can accomplish. While each denomination of Christians must set forth all the doctrines of the Bible, it is the special function of each denomination to put particular emphasis on some one doctrine.

Another great damage done by the sectarianism and bigotry of the Church is that it disgusts people with the Christian religion. Now, my friends, the Church of God was never intended for a war barrack. People are afraid of a riot. You go down the street and you see an excitement, and missiles flying through the air, and you hear the sound of fire-arms. Do you, the peaceful and industrious citizen, go through that street? Oh, no! You say: ’93I will go around the block.’94 Now, men come and look upon this narrow path to heaven, and sometimes see the ecclesiastical brickbats flying every whither, and they say: ’93Well, I guess I’92ll take the broad road; if there is so much sharp-shooting on the narrow road, I guess I will keep to the broad road.’94 Francis I so hated the Lutherans that he said if he thought there was one drop of Lutheran blood in his veins, he would puncture them and let that drop out. Just as long as there is so much hostility between denomination and denomination, or between one professed Christian and another, or between one church and another, just so long men will be disgusted with the Christian religion, and say: ’93If that is religion, I want none of it.’94

Again, bigotry and sectarianism do great damage, in the fact that they hinder the triumph of the Gospel. Oh, how much it wastes ammunition, how many men of splendid intellect have given their whole lives to controversial disputes, when, if they had given their life to something practical, they might have been vastly useful! Suppose this morning, while I speak, there were a common enemy coming up the bay, through the Narrows, and all the forts around New York began to fire into each other’97you would cry out: ’93National suicide! why do not those forts blaze away in one direction, and that against the common enemy?’94 And yet, I sometimes see in the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ a strange thing going on; church against church, minister against minister, denomination against denomination, firing away into friend’92s fort, or the fort which ought to be on the same side, instead of concentrating their energy, and giving one mighty and everlasting volley against the navies of darkness riding up through the bay. I go out in the summer, and I find two beehives, and these two hives are in a quarrel. I come near enough not to be stung, but I come just near enough to hear the controversy, and one beehive says: ’93That field of clover is the sweetest,’94 and another beehive says: ’93That field of clover is the sweetest.’94 I come in between them, and I say: ’93Stop this quarrel; if you like that field of clover best, go there; if you like that other field of clover best, go there, but let me tell you that that hive which gets the most honey is the best hive.’94 So I come out between the churches of the Lord Jesus Christ. One denomination of Christians says: ’93That field of Christian doctrine is best,’94 and another says: ’93This field of Christian doctrine is best.’94 Well, I say: ’93Go where you get the most honey.’94 That is the best church which gets the most honey of Christian grace for the heart, and the most honey of Christian usefulness for the life.

Besides that, if you want to build up any denomination, you will never build it up by trying to pull some other down. Intolerance never put anything down. How much has intolerance accomplished, for instance, against the Methodist Church? For long years her ministry were forbidden the pulpits of Great Britain. Why was it that so many of them preached in the fields? Simply because they could not get in the churches. And the name of the Church was given in derision and as a sarcasm. The critics of the Church said: ’93They have no order; they have no method in their worship; and the critics, therefore, in irony called them ’93Methodists.’94

I am told that in the Astor Library, New York, kept as curiosities, there are seven hundred and seven books and pamphlets against Methodism. Did intolerance stop that Church? No; it is either first or second amid the denominations of Christendom, her missionary stations in all parts of the world, her men not only influential in religious trusts, but influential also in secular trusts. Church marching on, and the more intolerance against it, the faster it marched. What has intolerance accomplished against the Baptist Church? If laughing scorn and tirade could have destroyed the Church it would not have today a disciple left. The Baptists were hurled out of Boston in olden times. Those who sympathized with them were imprisoned, and when a petition was offered asking leniency in their behalf, all the men who signed it were indicted. Has intolerance stopped the Baptist Church? The last statistics in regard to it showed about forty thousand churches and four million communicants. Intolerance never put down anything.

In England a law was made against the Jew. England thrust back the Jew, and thrust down the Jew, and declared that no Jew should hold official position. What came of it? Were the Jews destroyed? What were we on both sides of the sea celebrating in all our churches as well as synagogues a few years ago? The one hundredth birthday anniversary of Montefiore, the Jewish philanthropist. Intolerance never put down anything.

But now, my friends, having shown you the origin of bigotry, or sectarianism, and having shown you the damage it does, I want briefly to show you how we are to war against this terrible evil, and I think we ought to begin our war by realizing our own weakness and our own imperfections. If we make so many mistakes in the common affairs of life, is it not possible that we may make mistakes in regard to our religious affairs? Shall we take a man by the throat, or by the collar, because he cannot see religious truths just as we do? In the light of eternity it will be found out, I think, there was something wrong in all our creeds, and something right in all our creeds. But since we may make mistakes in regard to things of the world, do not let us be egotistic and so puffed up as to have an idea that we cannot make any mistake in regard to religious theories. And then, I think, we will do a great deal to overthrow the sectarianism from our heart, and the sectarianism from the world, by chiefly enlarging upon those things in which we agree rather than those on which we differ. Now, here is a great Gospel platform. A man comes up on this side the platform and says: ’93I don’92t believe in baby sprinkling.’94 Shall I shove him off? Here is a man coming up on this side the platform, and he says: ’93I don’92t believe in the perseverance of the saints.’94 Shall I shove him off? No; I will say: ’93Do you believe in the Lord Jesus as your Saviour? Do you trust him for time and for eternity?’94 He says: ’93Yes.’94 I say: ’93Come on, brother, one in time and one in eternity; brother now, brother forever.’94 Blessed be God for a Gospel platform so large that all who receive Christ may stand on it!

I think we may overthrow the severe sectarianism and bigotry in our hearts, and in the Church also, by realizing that all the denominations of Christians have yielded noble institutions and noble men. There is nothing that so stirs my soul as this thought. One denomination yielded a Robert Hall and an Adoniran Judson; another yielded a Latimer and a Melville, another yielded John Wesley and the blessed Summerfield; while our own denomination yielded John Knox and the Alexanders’97men of whom the world was not worthy. Now, I say, if we are honest and fair-minded men, when we come up in the presence of such churches and such denominations, although they may be different from our own, we ought to admire them, and we ought to love and honor them. Churches which can produce such men, and such large-hearted charity, and such magnificent martyrdom, ought to win our affection’97at any rate, our respect. So come on, ye six hundred thousand Episcopalians in this country, and ye fourteen hundred thousand Presbyterians, and ye four million Baptists, and ye nearly five million Methodists’97come on, shoulder to shoulder we will march for the world’92s conquest; for all nations are to be saved, and God demands that you and I help accomplish it.

Moreover, we may overthrow the feeling by joining in Christian work with other denominations. I like, when the springtime comes, and the anniversary celebrations begin, and all denominations come upon the same platform. That overthrows sectarianism. In the Young Men’92s Christian Association, in the Bible Society, in the Tract Society, in the Foreign Missionary Society, shoulder to shoulder, all denominations.

Perhaps I might more forcibly illustrate this truth by calling your attention to an incident which took place fourteen or fifteen years ago. One Monday morning, at about two o’92clock, while her nine hundred passengers were sound asleep in her berths, dreaming of home, the steamer Atlantic crashed into Mars Head. Five hundred souls in ten minutes launched into eternity! Oh! what a scene! Agonized men and women running up and down the gangways, and clutching for the rigging, and the plunge of the helpless steamer, and the clapping of the hands of the merciless sea over the drowning and the dead, threw two continents into terror. But see this brave quartermaster pushing out with the life-line until he gets to the rock, and see these fishermen gathering up the shipwrecked, and taking them into the cabins, and wrapping them in the flannels snug and warm; and see that minister of the Gospel with three other men getting into a life-boat and pushing out for the wreck, pulling away across the surf, and pulling away until they saved one more man and then getting back with him to the shore. Can those men ever forget that night? And can they ever forget their companionship in peril, companionship in struggle; and companionship in rescue? Never! never! In whatever part of the earth they meet, they will be friends when they mention the story of that awful night when the Atlantic struck Mars Head. Well, my friends, our world has gone into a worse shipwreck. Sin drove it on the rocks. The old ship has lurched and tossed on the tempests of six thousand years. Out with the life-line! I do not care what denomination carries it. Out with the life-boat! I do not care what denomination rows it. Side by side. In the memory of common hardships and common trials, and common prayers and common tears, let us be brothers forever. We must be.

One army of the living God,

At whose command we bow;

Part of the host have crossed the flood,

And part are crossing now.

And I expect to see the day when all denominations of Christians shall join hands around the cross of Christ, and recite the creed: ’93I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, and in the communion of saints, and in the life everlasting.’94 Amen.

Autor: T. De Witt Talmage