Its character is further revealed in the character of the weapons it employs. It boasts much of its scholarship, but its scholarship is unusually shallow, as the devil's sophistries always are, and it is a scholarship which is divorced from all spiritual aptitudes and capacities. It is, in short, the scholarship of "the carnal mind which is enmity against God." Its assumptions are most brazen; its policy seems to be, "If you tell a lie, tell a big one; and having told it, stick to it". It decries the dogmatism of evangelical orthodoxy and repudiates the authority of a Book with nearly two thousand years of ministry behind it, part of the Book being much older than that, and with a feigned modesty affects the form of an interrogation mark, It boasts of its readiness to receive the truth and of its hospitality toward light from all quarters. Yet, in its antagonism toward the Bible and toward every principle of supernaturalism, it speaks with and assumption of authority that has never been surpassed by any occupant of the Papal chair. Its appeal is not to the highest but to the lowest propensities of human nature. It panders to pride and worldly ambition and to the too general desire to be up-to-date.

I believe it would not be and exaggeration to say that not one per cent of the ministers and professors who have accepted the modernist position originated the ideas they have espoused. They are no more responsible for the origin of this religious plague than the patient in the pest-house is responsible for originating the disease from which he suffers. Modernism is more than contagious; it is infectious in the sense of being atmospheric. One can scarcely read a newspaper of a magazine without inhaling the infection.

A friend recently told me of a certain ministerial gathering at which a visiting minister of the modernist school gave an address, his principal argument in support of his contentions being that everybody now believes these things. He was followed in the discussion by several ministers who rose only to express agreement with the speaker's views. Then, an old minister from the country took the floor. He said, in effect: "The speaker has asked us to accept his position chiefly on the ground that everybody now believes it. That may be good advertising but it is not true of fact. As I came to this meeting this morning, I saw placarded on the billboards and other places, ‘Everybody for smokers, but the fact is that everybody does not smoke tobacco. I am, myself, one of the exceptions; and I want to tell the speaker, too, that he is wrong in assuming that everybody has accepted his principles. I, for one, reject them absolutely, and declare my unwavering confidence in ‘the faith once for all delivered to the saints.'"

But it is in this way that modernism broadcasts its views, and who is there who does not desire to be abreast of his time? The difference between many preachers and the feminine members of their congregations is that the women follow the fashions in what they put on their heads and the preachers in what they put in their heads. It is humiliating to have acknowledge that so many of our supposed makers and leaders of public opinion are really nothing more than followers of fashion.

Modernism, moreover, does not hesitate to resort to bribery. Repeatedly I have seen it win to its side weak-kneed brethren whose besetting sin was a passion for prominence. These are simple matters, but they are deadly in their effect. We have known orthodox brethren to be won to the ranks of the "middle of the roaders" (which, in the overwhelming majority of instances, means radicals disguised) by being given a position of prominence on a convention programme, by being invited to preach anniversary sermons, or by being put to the front in some way.

One of the favorite weapons of modernism is intimidation. It talks eloquently of liberty and boasts of being free from the shackles of traditionalism, yet by every means in its power it seeks to put the terror of its ruthless hand into every orthodox breast, I think I can say that I have long desired to become like my Master, and have long prayed that He would permit me, in some measure, to follow in His steps; but I never expected to see the day when I should be like Him in this, that some would come to see me by night, because they were afraid to come by day.

Modernism, moreover, is absolutely ruthless in its methods of warfare. It has to hesitation in making use of any and every kind of poison gas in order to further its ends. Its system of espionage is as destitute of conscience and honour as was that of Germany. Its submarine fleet is most deadly in attack. It does not content itself with attacks upon those who openly combat its assumptions, but like the German pirate, it seeks to destroy both women and children. By its attack upon our schools, from University to Sunday Schools, it would destroy the faith even of little children.