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The CKurcK’s Greatest
Hour of Opportunity
A Very Timely Message Bj> DR . R. A . T O R R E Y
In answer to th e question, “W hat should th e Churches of P ro te sta n t America do to meet th e present situ atio n ?” Dr. Torrey w rote to th e Christian Herald, as follows: 1. The churches should put all narrow personal interests aside, and resolve at any cost they will do what lies in their power to present the simple and pure Gospel as it is found in the Word of God to every man, woman and child at home, and to every man, woman and child, as rapidly as pos sible, in heathen lands. 2. ' They should avoid all wastes of men, money and effort. There is no question that the present division of real Christians into separate, and sometimes warring, sects oftentimes results in an appalling waste of men, money and effort. Many a community has from! three to ten churches and three to ten ministers, where one church and one minister would meet all the needs of the community better than they are met with this division of forces. Very frequently these churches and these ministers stand for the same essential truths, and the points of difference among them are concern ing questions of entirely secondary, or less than secondary, importance. For example, many a Methodist minister preaches exactly the same Crucified, Risen, and Ascended Lord Jesus Christ as is preached by many a Preshy-, terian minister and many a Baptist minister. The questions that divide them are simply questions of church government, or questions of modes 6f administration of church ordinances. In such a case there should not be three ministers, but one; and very frequently it would be possible to get a better minister than any one of the three who can be had under existing conditions. There cannot possibly be a union of all Protestants, for many Protes tants differ from one another on questions that are really vital; hut there should he a new alignment, for many a Presbyterian minister agrees with many Methodist ministers on questions that are vital, and differs from other Presbyterian ministers on questions that are vital. There cannot' be co operation among professed Christians who disagree upon really funda mental questions, and the new alignment should be along these fundamental lines. It matters not to me whether a man is a Methodist, or a Baptist, or a Congregationalist, or a Lutheran, or what he is, if he believes in the absolute authority and inerrancy of the Scriptures, in the real deity of Jesus Christ and the real human nature of Jesus Christ, in the atonement of Jesus Christ by His shed blood, redeeming us from the curse of the broken law, in regeneration by the power of the Holy Spirit, in salvation on the simple and single ground of the atoning blood and on the simple and single condition of faith in Him who shed the blood, in the future conscious endless punish-
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