Denominational Envy
J. A. James. Acts 13:42-52 And when the Jews were gone out of the synagogue, the Gentiles sought that these words might be preached to them the next sabbath.… And are not religious bodies sometimes guilty of this sin? Has it no existence in the breasts of professing Christians of different denominations? Is there no envy in Dissenters towards the Church of England, or of the Church of England towards Dissenters? Of Baptists towards Paedo-baptists, Paedobaptists towards Baptists? Of Methodists towards Congregationalists, and Congregationalists towards Methodists? What meaneth that disposition to suspect and traduce each other, which is but too common amongst all the divisions of the Christian Church? If one denomination prospers, are not all the rest too apt to look on with envious eyes, because theirs is likely to be eclipsed or diminished? Are not all the little arts of detraction most busily employed, and a hundred tongues made voluble to arrest the progress and limit the prosperity of the rising sect? And how much of this spirit is often seen in the conducting of rising congregations of the same denomination! What ill-will is often cherished by the members of the declining cause towards those of the prosperous one, and only because they are prosperous! They can never hear of the success of their neighbour society, their sister Church, without feeling and appearing uneasy and displeased, as if an injury were done to them; they profess to be incredulous of the fact; they suggest that it is more in outward show than reality; they do not scruple to mention drawbacks in the talents or perhaps the inconsistencies of the minister; detraction, yea, even slander, is employed against some of the members of this "prosperous" society, as it is sneeringly called. Such even in Christian Churches, or rather in the minds of some of their members, are the operations of envy. (J. A. James.) Parallel Verses KJV: And when the Jews were gone out of the synagogue, the Gentiles besought that these words might be preached to them the next sabbath. WEB: So when the Jews went out of the synagogue, the Gentiles begged that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath.