January 1929
21
T h e
K i n g ' s
B u s i n e s s
Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried, rose again,” and all the affirmations of the Apostles. 10th. I t was a praying church; “they continued stead fastly in prayer.”
14th. It was a church o f “signs and w o n d e r s Pente costal blessings, miracles of healing, conversion of sinners, Holy Ghost power. Our great need, is for the manifestation of the charac teristics in the 20th century of the First Century church of Jesus Christ. Such a church will meet the needs of the changing order in “This Believing World.” What kind of a church do you want in your community ? What kind of a church would your church be if every member were just like you? “If you want to live in the kind of a church Like the kind of a church you like, You needn’t slip your clothes in a grip And start on a long, long hike; For you’ll only find what you left behind, For there’s nothing that’s really new, I t’s a knock at yourself when you knock the church, It isn’t the church—it’s you.” The church we need today is a church of the spirit of the church of the first century, functioning in our complex age in the name of Christ. Bishop Candler of the M. E. Church, South, cites a very distinguished minister who spent a Sunday in New York. He heard three noted men in prominent churches, but did not hear one syllable of the Gospel. He heard only “trashy pulpit trifling” and wrote down his obser vations thus: “Suppose,” says Dr. Candler, “I had been a mes senger from another planet sent down to report on Christianity, would I have been able to give any clear account of Christianity after hearing these celebrated preachers? No, not a syllable! Suppose that we turn back the clock of time 1900 years and imagine that this is the first Sabbath after the resurrection Sabbath, and that these three men are the kind of preachers sent forth by Jesus to establish Christianity in that hostile world; is it conceivable under the widest stretch of imagination that such preaching could have established a church of any description anywhere? The question is not hard to answer. The more serious question is, How long can such preaching keep Christianity in the world? How long can such preachers dwell only on the periphery of Christian truth and run on the spiritual capital of past ages of faith?” P reaching T o H eads , N ot H earts We heard recently of a preacher whose head is covered with a fine crop of gray hair. He was fulfilling a preaching engagement in a large city. He was riding on the top of a city bus, and in the seat behind him traveled a man who recognized the preacher from the photograph on the bill that had announced the service. The man went to hear him preach. After the close of the service he sought an interview with the preacher. “You will excuse me, sir,” he said, “but I have a confession to make. I came from town this afternoon on the s e a t 1
“Prayer is the Christian’s vital breath, The Christian’s native air; His watchword at the gates of death; He enters heaven with prayer.” A C hurch T hat P ractices
11th. The early church was a practicing church; they lived up to their profession and practiced what they preached. 12th. It was a fraternal church; they helped each other; they had things in common. They were “stewards of the gift of God.” 13th. It was a church with an open door. Its message was :4§?“Whosoever will may take of the water of life freely.” They “added daily” to its membership. All were welcome.
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The K ind of a Pastor We Need B y K. L. B.
E have heard of a man who might have been a good preacher but for two faults: He had no delivery and he had nothing to deliver. An Indian chief told of a preacher who wished to show to his tribe that there is a God. The Indian replied: “Do you think
we don’t know that? Go back where you came from.” Another came and said, “You must not steal, you must not get drunk, you must not lie.” They answered: “Do you think we don’t know that? Teach that first to the people you belong to.” After that came Christian Henry Rauch and said, “The Lord of heaven bids me say He will make you blessed and deliver you from your misery; for this purpose He became man and shed His blood.” “As sOon as he had done speaking, he lay down quietly by my bow and tomahawk and slept as sweetly as a child. ‘A h !’ I thought. ‘What a man is th a t! I could strike him dead, but he has not a fear.’ I could not forget his words. I dreamed in my sleep of the blood of Christ shed for me. Thus through grace the awakening among us began. Therefore, I say, preach Christ our Saviour and His birth in Bethlehem and His death on Calvary, and His redeeming grace, if you would find an entrance among the heathen.” Perhaps we have fallen into a habit of thinking of the heathen as those who dwell across the seas. The truth is that every man whose heart-cry after God remains unsatisfied, is a heathen. When the Church bell rings, the passerby hears it saying, “Come and hear what a minister has to say about the great verities of the spiritual life ! Come and hear what a man who professes to have learned the Scriptures, has to say on divine authority, as to the great problems of eternity! Come and hear how to be saved from the shame and power and penalty of sin!” The man enters, and oftentimes what does he hear?
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