The "Watchword"
The establishment of the " Watchword"— Its aim, scope, and history
FEW question the degeneracy of the American daily newspaper and the degrading influence which it exerts in our social system. It has become a hoarse-throated tale-monger, its output being not much better than an endlessly issued chronique scandaleuse. This for the news column. The editorial page also exhibits the most unworthy traits. The proverbial timidity of capital finds here its complete expression. The daily paper would never for truth's sake offend the smallest fraction of its paying constituency. It is as calculating as those state-churchmen who, as Marx says, would give up the entire Thirty-nine Articles rather than one thirtyninth of their income. It is ever heard ''bawling forth judgments unashamed all day long," and these judgments are shaped notoriously by the counting-room. The result, of course, is the extreme of unreliability and a proneness to darken the counsel of the "leader" by words without conviction.
This decadence of the secular press has been a standing invitation to religious weeklies to assume a leadership and to acquire a confidence which the daily paper has long since forfeited. They have the more naturally taken upon themselves this leadership inasmuch as the receding emphasis laid on denominational distinctions has, in some degree, atrophied
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a former function and given them scope for the new work. But this important and valuable service has deflected attention from a still more necessary and too easily neglected line of teaching. We find very little stimulus to the culture of the inner life in the average religious weekly. It is occupied with exterior church life, with missions, education, the affairs of the denomination, and, in an increasing ratio, with the news of the whole swinging globe.
This semi-secularization of the religious press and the clear need of some publication entirely given up to the things of the closet led Gordon to issue, in the fall of 1878, an unobtrusive little monthly devoted wholly to the spiritual life. The name adopted was the " Watchword," and the motto at the head of the first page read: " Watch ye: stand fast in the faith. Let all things be done with charity."
The first number began with a commentary upon these words, into which was woven a statement of the purpose of the undertaking. After remarking upon the apparent hardihood involved in the launching of another religious paper, he says:
" The primitive faith is proclaimed by a great multitude both of preachers and of papers, but as there can never be too many engaged in setting forth the doctrines of grace, we may be welcomed in undertaking the same work with methods somewhat different from those in general use. We propose to make use of Bible readings and brief Scripture expositions and narrations of personal experiences of the work of grace, thus presenting the doctrines of grace biblically rather than theologically, experimentally rather than controversially.
" The primitive hope we believe to be sadly obscured and neglected by the great mass of Christians in our day. That hope in the apostolic age was the personal reappearing of the Lord from heaven— ' looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.' To the first disciples this event was imminent and inspiring, and constituted the most powerful motive to activity and consecration. But so dark is the ecUpse into which this hope has been thrown that its avowal is almost certain, nowadays, to bring down upon one the charge of fanaticism. Braving that charge and rejoicing profoundly in the wonderful awakening to this truth which the last twenty-five years have witnessed, we shall have much to say upon it and upon closely related topics.
" The primitive charity we may in slight measure illustrate and magnify if in the discussion of these and kindred themes we shall exhibit that forbearance toward those who differ from us which we conceive to be according to the spirit of Christ. Here is a field, certainly, which offers magnificent possibilities. There is a commendable zeal for soundness in the faith among many of our religious journals. But in the sharp contention for the faith once delivered to the saints many think they hear too often the clash of carnal weapons. Soundness in the faith by all means, but let us not forget the injunction of the apostle that we should 'be sound in faith, iti charity, in patience.' 'The heart is the best theologian,' it has been said; and also, we may add, the worst heretic when it defends the truth in uncharity and bitterness."
The temper of the new publication was deeply Christian and pietistic. How well the editor succeeded in giving practical expression to the last article of the above program is well known by all who ever read the paper. There was, however, no loud profession of undenominational charity. The stereotyped formulas of comprehension were altogether wanting here. The spirit of fellowship with all Christians was too deep and its current too calmly powerful to indulge in frothy and declamatory phrases.
In fact, the line of cleavage followed quite other than denominational lines. It was transverse, grouping associates and contributors from all churches, whose main bond of
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fellowship seemed to be the love of the Lord's appearing. W. S. Rainsford, Professor Duffield of Princeton, S. H. Tyng, Jr., George C. Needham, and W. L. Mackay of Hull, England, were among the contributors— a pledge of able and catholic management. Its clientele was extensive among that diaspora of patient and loving souls who, in distant hamlet and in crowded city, walk through life with the upward gaze, cherishing "the hope." To them it was a silent, freshening influence, like the hidden springs and veins of water which percolate from the mount of vision. It was in its editorial writing edifying, full of sober, lucid reflection, providing that soul-nourishment, that bread which the world knows not of. It was full of meaty expositions of Scripture, quaint, yet not fantastic, bearing always the mark of deep insight and singularly luminous in expression. Short sketches of the lives of saints, of missionaries, and of martyrs served as encouragement to those whose lives seemed hopelessly environed with commonplace. There were frequent quotations, too, from those wonderfully quaint and unfailingly apposite unfolders of the Word, the Puritan divines of the Commonwealth. He must have been a careless reader indeed who has not seen, at one time or another, the faces of Marshall and of Brook, of Gurnall, of John Owen, of Thomas Manton, of Joseph AUeine, peering through the print of these columns.
There was, in the earlier years, a special column for ministers, replete with mingled admonition and encouragement. It was here that Dr. Gordon sought to deepen the sense of responsibility and to lay bare the secrets of power, to stimulate hunger for souls and to inculcate interest in the whole world in those who were being narrowed by the centripetal tendency of parochial duties.
The undertaking was not begun without misgiving on the part of friends and family. To the bantering remark that every little minister sought, as his ultimate ambition, to have 132 ADONIRAM JUDSON GORDON-
an "organ," he would reply that he felt as clearly called to this work as to the ministry. It is difficult to express what it cost in every direction. It was conducted in quiet defiance of mercantile principles. He spoke of much of the writing which appears in religious weeklies, flanked by columns of questionable advertising, as giving the impression of an invalid limping between crutches. Advertisement, as diverting attention from the purely devotional tone of the paper, and as suggestive of money-making, was therefore discarded. For many years the enterprise was conducted at a financial loss. The expense in labor, care, and personal attention was incomputable, but very real and very great. The experience of hymn-book making had left Gordon with a peculiar nervous weakness which made the preparation of copy almost the severest work in which he could engage. The Monday mornings devoted to this work were the most painfully laborious days in the year. " Our aim," he remarks, " is to do our utmost in opening the Word of God and leading our readers into evangelical truth. So far the effort has not, of course, paid financially, but, what is far better, it has cost. Time, pains, money, and labor have been freely given. With the multitude of religious sheets which go forth every week, it will still be a question with many whether ours is called for. Each reader must now decide that question for himself." And then he adds characteristically, "We do not propose, as the manner of some is, to print the letters of commendation which
we have received. That would seem to us like egotism. We
do not believe that there is any ' editorial we ' large enough to hide a man's shame when he gets behind it to praise himself, or to read in solemn falsetto the compliments which others have passed upon him. The injunction, ' Let another praise thee, and not thine own lips,' is certainly violated when we repeat another's praises in an assumed tone or in a changed voice."