Chapter 15 - CITY-WIDE REPENTANCE
While repentance is distinctly an individual
exercise, yet we have in the Word of God, as we
have already seen, churches called upon to
repent, and we learn from our Lord's words, in
Matthew 12:41 and Luke 11:32, of the repentance
of a city: "The men of Nineveh shall rise in
judgment with this generation, and shall condemn
it; because they repented at the preaching of
Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is
here."
This is most suggestive, particularly in view
of the failure of the cities wherein Christ had
done most of His wondrous miracles, to turn to
God. "If," He declared, "the mighty works which
have been done in you had been done in Tyre and
Sidon, they would have repented in sackcloth and
ashes." This was one of the passages that caused
great distress of mind and absolute bewilderment
to the sensitive souls of Charlotte Bronte and
her gifted sisters. If Tyre and Sidon would have
repented under such circumstances, why did not a
loving God give them a similar testimony in
order that they might have been saved from
destruction? One answer of course is, that the
men and women of these ancient cities will be
judged at last only for rejecting the light they
had, and not on the ground of knowledge they did
not possess.
But from these Scriptures we learn that a
city in God's sight is a responsible entity, and
that He holds it accountable to obey His word
and walk in His truth. This raises a question as
to how far ministers of Christ ought to concern
themselves about the sins of the cities wherein
they labor, and to what extent they should lift
up their voices against the evils of the day,
when tolerated by those in authority. Many
preachers take the ground that the servant of
God is to confine himself wholly to explaining
the Gospel and to calling individual sinners to
repentance. The Lord will deal with civic
unrighteousness in His own way and time, we are
told, and it is best that pastors and
evangelists ignore what it is not in their
province or power to correct.
And yet God has unquestionably set His seal
in a remarkable manner upon the efforts of some
of His honored servants who in their day and
generation battled against entrenched wickedness
in civic and national affairs. Think of the
influence exerted for righteousness by
Savonarola in Florence, Calvin in Geneva, Luther
in Erfurt, Knox in Edinburgh, Wesley in London
and all England, and a host of like-minded men
who cried out unflinchingly against the
iniquities of the times in which they lived. It
is written, "The wicked flee when no man
pursueth." But our own Dr. Charles H. Parkhurst,
whose name was a terror to privileged sin, well
exclaimed, "But they go a lot faster when the
righteous get after them."
The prophets of old were set by God over
cities and peoples and nations to call them to
account for their evil-doing and to summon them
to prepare to meet their God. The Saviour, as we
have noted, dealt with cities as such, and
nothing is more pathetic than His lament over
unrepentant Jerusalem: "And when he was come
near, he beheld the city, and wept over it,
saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least
in this thy day, the things which belong unto
thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes.
For the days shall come upon thee, that thine
enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and
compass thee round, and keep thee in on every
side, and shall lay thee even with the ground,
and thy children within thee; and they shall not
leave in thee one stone upon another; because
thou knewest not the time of thy visitation"
(Luke 19:41-44). Link with this His impassioned
cry as recorded in Matthew 23:37-39: "O
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the
prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto
thee, how often would I have gathered thy
children together, even as a hen gathereth her
chickens under her wings, and ye would not!
Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.
For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me
henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he
that cometh in the name of the Lord." Surely
none can read such passages as these without
recognizing the civic consciousness of Jesus. He
yearned over men, not only as individuals
needing personal salvation, but as community
groups which would be blest on earth if they
would only heed God's Word and repent.
To many of us the story of the repentance of
Nineveh is far more wonderful than that of the
miracle of Jonah and the sea monster. People
object to the latter as being unheard of
elsewhere and so contrary to ordinary human
knowledge that it is unbelievable. But where
else in all human history do we find a great,
godless, pleasure-loving city brought to its
knees as in the case of Nineveh? If it were not
written in the Word of God and so definitely
authenticated by our Lord Himself (as also the
instance of the experience of Jonah) we might
hesitate to credit it. But here it is, solemnly
recorded on the pages of Holy Writ.
A great city containing "six score thousand
souls that knew not their right hand from their
left" -- that is, little children -- must have
had a very large adult population indeed. This
vast throng were given over to impiety and
wickedness of such gross nature that God could
tolerate it no longer and sent His prophet to
announce its summary destruction. As in the case
of the cities of the plain, whose stench had
reached to heaven, He would blot Nineveh from
the face of the earth. But the Word of the Lord
came home so convincingly to the hearts of the
King and his councilors of state that they not
only repented themselves, but called upon all in
the city to do the same. The results were
unparalleled in the history of religious
revivals. The entire populace fell down before
the Lord in sackcloth and ashes bemoaning their
sins and crying for mercy. And God heard and
pardoned -- much to the disgust of Jonah, who
was more concerned about his own prophetic
reputation than about the salvation of an entire
people.
Perhaps the nearest thing to this in secular
history is the story of Savonarola and Florence,
Italy. The impassioned monk, moved to deepest
concern by the lasciviousness, the
licentiousness, and the godless luxury of the
Florentines, inveighed against the city,
threatening dire judgment from heaven if there
were no repentance, and moved the populace
almost as one man. Drawing his messages largely
from the last solemn book of the Bible, he
preached in the Duomo month after month
expository addresses on the Apocalypse. The
awful figures of judgment depicted therein he
declared to be about to find their fulfillment
upon the Florentines and all Italy unless the
people repeated and turned from their corrupt
behavior.
Nobles, merchants, and laborers alike felt
the power of his words and at his call they
brought their treasures of gold, jewels, and
objects of art and piled them in the public
square at his feet, to be sold or distributed
for the relief of the poor and needy. The
churches were crowded with penitent suppliants
confessing their sins and seeking divine
forgiveness. For a time at least the city was
largely purged from its iniquity and men
realized their responsibility to seek to glorify
God in their lives and with their means instead
of living in lusts and pleasures on the earth.
It is true Savonarola was burned at the stake
in the end, because of the hatred of a corrupt
clergy; in that he but shared the baptism of his
Lord and participated in His cup of sorrow. He
was, undoubtedly, the most Christlike man of his
generation, and he suffered as his Master
suffered because he was a witness to the truth.
His own words were really prophetic: "A
Christian's life consists in doing good and
suffering evil." After the lapse of centuries
the church that decreed his martyrdom honored
him as one of its outstanding apostles. Like
Israel of old, the fathers slew him and the
children built his sepulcher. So it ever is in
this inconstant world.
Calvin's outward regeneration of Geneva is
another marked instance of the power of the Word
-- when faithfully proclaimed -- to influence
civic life. Unhappily there was a great deal of
Old Testament legality about it all, and like
most men "who really amount to anything, Calvin
made some stupendous blunders, as in the case of
Servetus, for which the world has never forgiven
him. But his influence throughout was on the
side of righteousness and truth, and for this he
will be remembered forever and shine as the
stars eternally.
Macaulay declared that the Wesleyan revival
saved England from the horrors of anarchy and
revolution. Yet Wesley's great work was
preaching the Gospel and calling sinners to
repentance. That message stirred London and the
other great cities of Britain to their depths,
and even where it did not result in actual
conversion to God it made people ashamed of the
enormities they had condoned in church and state
and led to a national renovation that was an
untold blessing to millions.
Jonathan Edwards' clarion call to repentance
and faith in God meant more to the young
American nation than can now be computed. He put
the fear of the Lord in men's hearts and this
largely molded the character of the fathers of
the republic.
After the terrible war between the states the
voice of D.L. Moody was heard throughout the
land, and across the seas, arousing, heartening,
and bringing spiritual deliverance to many
thousands who had lost all that life held dear.
Accounted Chicago's most prominent and most
valued citizen for a generation, his influence
for good in that great city was simply
marvellous and, though more than another
generation has passed since his voice was hushed
in death, "he being dead yet speaketh" and his
influence is perhaps greater today than when he
was alive. His favorite text was, "He that doeth
the will of God abideth for ever," and since his
death the truth of this has been increasingly
manifest.
Observe carefully that these men, and many
others whose names might be added to the
illustrious list, wrought their works of power,
not by mixing in political squabbles, but by
faithfully preaching the Word of God, denouncing
sin fearlessly and persistently, enjoining men
to repent or face high Heaven in judgment,
exalting Christ Jesus as the only Saviour and
the supreme example for all who professed to
follow Him, and insisting that outward forms and
ceremonies could never satisfy an offended God.
There must be true self-judgment, a turning to
God from idols to serve Him wholly and to wait
for His Son from heaven.
Such preaching inevitably produces results in
reformation of life and purification of civic
relationship. When the conscience is reached and
the will is so captivated by grace that men turn
to the Lord and cleave to Him with purpose of
heart, all other desirable results will soon
manifest themselves.
What is needed in every city of every land
is, not a mere "new deal" or a political
reformation, but preachers of righteousness who
will proclaim the Word of God, crying, "Thus
saith the Lord," without fear or favor,
faithfully dealing with the problems of the day
in the light of the cross of Christ.
So long as ministers are afraid to expose the
vices of the rich lest their collections shrink,
or fear to cry aloud and spare not regarding
such entrenched evils as the ruthless
exploitation of labor, the horrors of
prostitution, and the abominations of the liquor
traffic, lest they offend some who perhaps
directly or indirectly derive a part of their
income from these very sources, the world will
only despise them and think of them as what they
really are, conscienceless sycophants toadying
to the wealthy while they attempt superciliously
to patronize the poor for outward effect.
On the other hand the clerical demagogue,
blatantly advocating godless schemes for the
renovation of society that involve, if
successful, the very destruction of the church
of God itself, is beneath contempt. These men,
as a rule, are unsaved and do not even pretend
to be born again. Their place, if anywhere, is
on the lecture platform, not in the pulpit which
they degrade by their utterances. It is one of
the amazing signs of our times that in many
churches communistic propaganda and similar
unscriptural plans for overturning the present
unsatisfactory order of society are not only
tolerated but applauded. Yet Sovietism is the
avowed enemy of God and His Christ, and churches
that nurture these enemies of the cross are
sheltering in their bosoms vipers that if not
sternly dealt with will sting them to death in
the end.
Real Christianity is the truest friend the
laboring man will ever know. It provides for
happiness, not only in this life, but in the
life that is to come. It respects sacredly the
natural rights of all men, exhorting the rich to
use their wealth for the blessing of their
fellows and guiding the poor into paths of
contentment and peace. The Gospel received makes
the only real brotherhood that the world has
ever seen. Tolstoi, disappointed to find how
powerless his plausible theories were to move
the hearts of men, exclaimed sadly, "I found out
that there could never be a brotherhood without
brothers." This is the great secret many of our
Christless social reformers have never yet
learned. Did ministers everywhere realize it,
they would cease trying to work from the outside
in, and would begin at once to work from the
inside out. There will never be a regenerated
society without regenerated individuals. Hence
our Lord's stress on the heavenly birth: "Except
a man be born again he cannot see [nor enter]
the kingdom of God."
This Kingdom is not, as many religious
leaders would have us believe, simply an
idealistic state of human society. It is the
aggregate of those who have humbled themselves
before God as repentant sinners and received the
Lord Jesus Christ as their own personal Saviour:
"Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but
of incorruptible, by the word of God, which
liveth and abideth for ever. For all flesh is as
grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of
grass. The grass withereth, and the flower
thereof falleth away: but the word of the Lord
endureth for ever. And this is the word which by
the gospel is preached unto you" (1st Peter
1:23-25).
Let all God-anointed preachers proclaim anew
what Spurgeon called "the three R's," Ruin,
Regeneration, and Redemption, and we may hope to
see again, not only individuals, but whole
communities brought to repentance.
To this end we need to get back to our Bibles
and back to our knees. Let prayer meetings be
re-established in churches where for years there
has not been spiritual fervor sufficient to
maintain them, and all kinds of entertainments
have been substituted in their place. Let the
Word of God be given its rightful place, and let
ministers and people cease criticizing and
sitting in judgment upon it; but, instead, let
them study it carefully in dependence on the
Holy Spirit for divine illumination. In the
light of that Word let our manner of life be
sternly judged, putting away every known evil
and confessing our past sin and failure. Then
may we expect God to be gracious, to grant
repentance unto life to cities long given over
to our modern paganism, and so to bring again
times of refreshing from the presence of the
Lord.
The days are dark. The need is urgent. Men
are dying all about us in their sins. The Gospel
is still the power of God unto salvation. Let it
be faithfully preached, and it will do its work
as of old. Nothing else has the same attractive
power or will appeal so winsomely to the weary
hearts and troubled souls of the men, women, and
children, who make up our great, godless cities,
whose appalling need should be a challenge to
every preacher of the Word.
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