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leys •proclaimed not only justification by faith, as Luther had done; but also sanctification by faith. They preached that one may have not only the pardon of sins through Christ, but that he may also be cleansed from sin and made holy in heart through faith in Christ. It spread over England, crossed the Atlantic, and captured America. In the United States, the Wesleyan revival resulted in Methodism. Not that Methodism is the sole heir to the gospel which the Wesleys preached, but that she is the lineal descendant of their ministry. Other Christian bodies partook of the unction which enanates from the New Testa ment by the Holy Spirit; and it was through the joint ef forts of all that the new republic in the new world was evangelized, and saved from skepticism and anarchy. And now, saddest of all for us to admit, man has failed God for the fifth time. As always before, the failure is not complete; there is a remnant of loyal, faithful people. The slump affects all denominations, especially the larger ones; and it is sufficiently extensive to challenge our at tention. Latest Apostasy This latest apostasy bears various names; as Darwinism, evolution, rationalism, higher-criticism (or hyper-criti cism), modernism, etc. In the name of so-called science, or progress, or research, or scholarship, it rejects the doctrines and truths which have made the church what it is, and which have moulded our nation to its primacy among na tions. Modernism denies the Divine inspiration and authority of the Bible; the virgin birth and Deity of Christ; and the vicarious virtue of His death as an atonement for human sin. It repudiates man’s fall from original righteousness into sin, and the consequent need for an atonement for sin on God’s part, and of repentance for sin on man’s part. It scouts sin itself as a myth of a fevered imagination. It affirms that maD, as to his body, mind and spirit, is the re sult of countless ages of evolution, through innumerable transmutations of vegetable and animal life. To that end, it holds that inanimate matter automatically became ani mate; this in face of the acknowledged fact that only a living germ can produce a living organism, and only a liv ing organism can produce a living germ. The conditions in Israel in Jeremiah’s time, are now be ing repeated in the church. Many church members are astray from God, worshipping at the shrines of worldliness, pleasure, wealth, learning, self indulgence, power, etc. False prophets in many pulpits resist the truth as it is in Christ, When they are exhorted to ask for the old paths, their reply is essentially, “We will not walk therein.” Modernism first took root in Germany, and it produced the world-war, with all that has followed. It is now working the same results in the United States. The parallel between Israel and the church should be carried farther. The grant to Israel from God included from the Nile to the Euphrates River (See Gen. 15:18; Josh 1:4). It was all to be theirs for the taking. They occupied but a small portion of it, and the tribes which they did not ex terminate according to the Divine order, became a snare to them, and led to their final overthrow. The church has a wonderful heritage of Divine truth. She is now com promising on it, as Israel did with her territory; and these men whom she tolerates within, her borders, are leading her into bondage. The note of Divine authority is largely gone from her pulpits, and the world heeds not her message of human learning.
The Old Paths for Our Time? What are the old paths for our time? As a Methodist, I might say,. “Back to Wesley.” As a Protestant, I might say, “Back to Luther.” As a Christian, I must say “Back to Christ.” That is where both Luther and Wesley went. But for that, the ministry of neither would have achieved the wonderful results it did. We must hold to the Bible as God’s ihspired and infallible Word. We must preach its truths.. We must proclaim the awfulness of sin, and the Divine wrath against it. We must preach what Jesus and the apostles preached. They saw man, not in the process of evolution to saint hood of his own power, but as a fallen being, helpless to save himself, and needing an Almighty Saviour. They preached “repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ;” “repentance unto (as far as) remission of sins;” pardon of sin through faith in Christ; assurance of acceptance with God by the witness of the Spirit; peace with God and the joy of salvation. These are some of. the land-marks, showing the metes and bounds of our heritage in Christ. It was said to'Israel, “Every place that the sole of your foot shall tread upon, to you have I given it.” Jesus said, “According to your faith, it shall be done unto you.” The church must have the faith and courage to “declare the whole counsel of God.” She can possess all her territory if she will. The doctrines of the: Scriptures are preachable always and every where. Modernism is lifeless and impotent, because it repudiates Christ. It has no message of peace with God for the sin- troubled heart. It offers the stones of geology for the bread of life, the scorpion of atheism for the egg of Divine grace, the serpent of rationalism for the fish of a conscious ex perience of salvation. Modernism has no revivals. The shouts of new born souls and the praise of saints are not heard in their gatherings. The gospel has lost none of its potency, but is now as surely “the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth” as it ever has been. It needs but to be preached in its native simplicity and unction, to repeat its con quests and triumphs of old. Salvation revivals are possible today, as they were twenty-five, fifty or a hundred years ago. Times have changed but God is the same. Sin and righteousness have not changed. God has not gone out of the revival business. Thousands of people are being saved each year “in the good old fashioned way.” Many preach ers and churches have quit having revivals, but God is still doing business. We need but to get back into the old paths, preach the old doctrines, with the old faith, and we will get the old results. “My Word shall not return unto Me void, but it shall accomplish that which. I please, and shall prosper in the thing whereto I send it.” “Ye shall find rest for your souls.” Amen!
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