The peril of making proselytes.
The term "proselytes" is used, and not "converts" or "disciples." it is employed when the idea to be conveyed is "persuasion" to accept some particular opinion or hobby, or to join some particular system or party. "Conversion" suggests an inward change and renewal; "proselyting" suggests outward association with a party. "Conversion" is full of hope; "proselyting" is full of peril. The word was used by the Jews for persons who had been heathen, but had accepted Judaism, and they distinguished between
I. THE PERIL OF MAKING PROSELYTES FOR THOSE WHO MAKE THEM. Open such points as these:
1. A man must exaggerate sectarian differences before he can try to win proselytes to an opinion.
2. A man must make more of the outward form than the inward spirit.
3. A man is only too likely to use bad means in gaining such an end.
4. A man who makes proselytes honours himself rather than God.
5. And such a man is only too likely to be deceived in the result he attains.
II. THE PERIL OF MAKING PROSELYTES FOR THOSE WHO ARE MADE. Open these points:
1. Men may be overpressed to accept opinions on which they have really formed no judgment.
2. Perverts notoriously exaggerate the formalities of the new creed they adopt, and become bitterest partisans.—R.T.