The church was never sent to entertain men. Certainly of all labels this would be the most difficult as well as the most thankless of undertakings. Ten thousand theaters, lecture and concert halls, and other places of amusement are attempting this gigantic task. Actors, lecturers, readers, clowns, buffoons, humorists and mountebanks of every description are daily and hourly grappling, with the work in profound uncertainty, each time, whether there will be success or failure, whether they will be greeted with clapping of hands or groans and hisses.

O how glad I am that this impossible, undignified and unprofitable toil is not laid on the Church of Christ! I look in vain all through the Scripture for the slightest authority or command in any direction. It is not there. Read Paul’s direction to Timothy. Is the entertaining idea in those solemn, tearful injunctions? Read Christ’s last charge to Peter about his sheep and lambs. Is there anything here about entertaining them or amusing them?

Sheep and lambs don’t need to be amused. Shepherds do not waste time in such a senseless proceeding. Turn to Christ’s commission to the disciples and the church after them. Is it "Go ye out into all the world and entertain men"? Nothing of the kind. Each evangelist tells what is said, and they all agree that the one word was to preach the gospel.

Some would make the word "teach" a warrant for indulging in many unevangelistic doings. But fortunately the word teach is followed by a restrictive clause. Teach what? Not philosophy, nor poetry, nor the drama, nor historic personages, or, lower still, the art of cooking. What, then? Here it is — "the things which I have spoken unto you." Where did Christ mention philosophy or philosopher, poetry or poet, drama or actor? What man did he ever mention but men of God — men who stood closely related to God and his Providence? And even then it was but a passing notice or word.

The church has become absolutely insane on the subject of entertaining men. Preachers are sought after who can amuse the people. Meetings of all kinds are devised to please and keep the congregation during, the week, while the preacher, with anecdote, sparkling wit and broad jest, must do the rest of the work on Sunday. Whatever happens, the people must be entertained. The idea being that, if not amused, they will all drift away and be lost.

This whole idea of entertaining the people at God’s house comes from Satan, and is one of the most subtle and dangerous of all his movements upon and against Christianity. He knows that if Christ is held up before the people, and men look steadily at him, they will be saved. Hence, his idea is to divert the church from doing this wise and heavenly, and powerful and saving thing. He whispers that Christ alone is not enough to draw souls: that it takes Christ and jokes, Christ and lectures, Christ and entertainments. As he discovers his success in blinding the church, he becomes more aggressive, and whispers again that, if the naked cross be held up — the simple, strict, holy life of Jesus be insisted on — then all the young people will be driven away.

That young people are young people, and must be amused; and old people have to be entertained, and entertainment must be provided. So he tempts, and so he has succeeded in thousands of instances, in sidetracking the church. He has switched her off from the one blessed heavenly employment of crying, "Behold the Lamb," and she is now part lyceum, part theater and part kitchen. As you pass her doors today you will hear the name of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Emerson, Tyndall, Darwin and others far more frequently than the name of Christ; while, instead of sobs and cries of "What must I do to be saved?" you will be greeted with clapping of hands, rattle of plates and bursts of uproarious applause.

A sidetracked church!

The church engaged in the noble, exalted, heavenly, spiritual and soul-saving employment of amusing the crowd!

Think of the Church of Christ posing as an entertainer before the public! Today the country is filled with her children engaged in this work. Her ministers are flying about in every direction in this earth-demanded, but not heaven-appointed work. One recently visited our city lecturing on an old-time philosopher. Another, the same week, came with a lecture on a politician of the present day. Who were these, this philosopher and the politician, but sinners? They were men, and sinners at that. And yet, two men, anointed of God to give their entire time to preaching Jesus Christ, cross the breadth of a large nation to speak for two hours to large assemblies about men like ourselves. Did the Holy Ghost separate them for such a work as this? In the solemn, awful, holy call to the ministry is not the soul conscious that a single message to the world is delivered to it: a single person to be held up before dying man — and that person the man Christ Jesus?

Recently the city of St. Louis was regaled with the sight of a certain professor, who appeared in our midst ready to entertain the public with a series of spectacular exhibitions. He proposed to do it for the church, in the church and by the help of the church. Different from most stage managers, he finds his troupe at each church. He lays his hand upon the young people of the church and used God’s children and property for a world’s entertainment. As the church in each place he visits furnishes the troupe, he is saved much expense in keeping up a regular traveling company of actors.

The spectacle was a sad one. While there was nothing criminal or outrageous in the exhibition, yet the mission of the church was again forgotten and made to sink down to the level occupied by the amusement halls and minor grade theaters of the world.

The church is, I repeat, insane on the subject of entertaining the public. The land is traversed with preachers from great distances, lecturing upon everything and everybody but Christ. If he, the Holy One, appears at all, he is thrust in a corner; or brought out for a moment, as I have seen a child presented for a short while to the guests and then banished to a back room or kitchen.

I have sinned in this regard myself in the years that are gone. But God opened my eyes to my mistake, and I have done with the wretched halfway business forever. Don’t think I do not get invitations to lecture still. They come constantly — three only this week. One was to go to Chicago. My invariable reply is, that I cannot come. I am too busy; I have a better work. I prefer to hold up an undivided Christ. I feel that a preacher’s lips are consecrated, and as such, belong peculiarly to Christ.

Let lawyers, professors, men of science and unprofessional citizens go around lecturing on branches of science, historic characters, etc. — it is all right for them, and they will do good for Christ in these fields — but let the preacher stand by the one work given him by the Holy Ghost — and that work to cry, "Behold the Lamb!"

Some one has charged me with doing wrong in writing a book of travels to Palestine. That I should not have lost the time in doing this. But my reply is, that I wrote almost the entire volume while journeying through foreign countries, and that the time spent thus in writing and traveling was a four mouths’ leave of absence, granted me by my church in New Orleans, to rest and recuperate after three years of heavy pastoral and pulpit work.

I cannot believe that the church is under obligations to furnish lecturers to the world. Let us study how it would appear in gospel times. I arrive in Ephesus late in the afternoon, and inquire my way to the church where Apollos preaches with real spiritual power. But I am told he is not in the city. Why, is not this Wednesday one of his regular services? "Oh, yes; but he has gone up to Smyrna to lecture on the character of Plato."

"But I thought he was a man of soul-burning piety, and brought so many souls to Christ, that he would not be diverted from such a work."

"True; but he says Plato was a man of admirable character and that it will do the young men good to hear of him."

And so I go to Jerusalem and inquire after Peter. The answer is that he is not in the city: he is absent in Antioch lecturing to the people on the Life,

Sayings and Character of Socrates!

How would all this appear to us? If the thought shocks one in regard to these Scriptural characters, why should it not shock us that men equally called of God to the work of the ministry should devote their precious limited time and strength to lecturing about old-time philosophers and present-day politicians?

The fact that the newspapers say the lecture was excellent does not make it right. The fact that some of them have certificates from notable men and scientific circles does not make the proceeding, right. Let us look at one:

This is to certify that I, Pontius Pilate, heard Simon Peter lecture on the "Life, Sayings, and Character of Socrates" The lecture was replete with learning, telling hits and fine points. The lecturer handled his subject well. He showed intimate acquaintance with the customs and laws of ancient Greece, while his portrayal of the men of that early day was most graphic and impressive. We predict for Dr. Simon Peter a great future in the lecture field, and our academies of learning may congratulate themselves on such an accession into their midst.

Pontius Pilate, Governor of Judea.

Jerusalem, Month of Abib

How would such a document look and sound in apostolic times? If wrong then, why not wrong now?

I repeat for the third time that the church is insane on the subject of entertaining the people. The congregations don’t need to be amused or diverted in any way. They need Christ in his constant presence and fullness. It is not entertainment or recreation that the people want, but a full, joyous and blessed salvation. It is not such a supper as human beings can prepare that can supply the wants and satisfy the longings of the church, but such a supper as Christ prepares in the heart, and where he feasts with us. Give the people the living bread in the heart and the constant gushing of the water of life in the soul, and they will ask for nothing else, they will be satisfied.

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