Gold Nugget 372 - Fools and Madmen
There have been religious ministers in all ages, and there are still in connection even with Christianity, who are foolish and “mad”.
There are men of weak minds. There are men in the ministry utterly incapable, not only of taking a harmonious view of truth, but even of forming a clear and complete conception of any great principle. We say not a word in disparagement of men of small cerebral power and feeble understanding. Heaven made them what they are; but they were never intended for the ministry. In the ministry they do enormous mischief. Their silly sentimentalities, their crude notions, their inane conceptions, bring the pulpit into contempt. They are “fools”.
There are men of irrational theologies. There are men who, though not always naturally weak-minded, nevertheless propound theological dogmas which are utterly incongruous with human reason, and therefore unbiblical and un-Divine. The doctrines that multitudes of men are predestined to eternal misery, that Christ’s death procured the love of God, that all that men require to make them good and happy for ever is to believe in something that took place eighteen hundred years ago; - such dogmas as these are often propounded in pulpits, and they are utterly foolish; they strike against the common sense of humanity, and have no foundation in the teaching of him who is the “Wisdom of God.” …
There are men of silly rituals. The crossings, the kneelings, the bowings, the robings, the upholstering, the grimacings, which constitute much of the ministry of a large number of what are called Protestant ministers, justify the people in calling them fools and madmen. The outside world is constantly pointing to the pulpit, and saying, “The prophet is a fool, and the spiritual man is mad.” Alas! That there should be any cause for it!
The Pulpit Commentary, Hosea p. 293, Hosea 9:7, (D. Thomas)
* Note: The Pulpit Commentaries were written in the late 1800s, thus the reference to “eighteen hundred years ago.”
Gold Nugget 372
Fools and Madmen
