complish a task which should be the privilege of the home. Salva tion would mean more to our chil dren, if we were really burdened to see it occur. While many of our Sunday school children come from non-Christian homes, my real con cern at this point is for parents and homes who profess to be Christian. Christianity grew by the cellular method of spiritual reproduction. The home became the well of sal vation from which the entire fam ily drew with joy. As an example, Billy Graham, though converted in a campaign conducted by the faith ful preacher Mordecai Ham, re ceived his head-start for heaven in a Christian home. In the early church there were no consecrated buildings, no formal altars, no vestments, no rubrics, no sacramental procedure, and no church year with its sacred times. The home and the family were the center and form, and constituted the working unit and principle of Christianity as an evangelizing force. Obviously those early Chris tians did not want to lose the sim plicity which was in Christ. Un fortunately, this is exactly what happened in the later development of Christianity. It is little wonder that the pres ent generation is “ turning off" the established church. Part of their protest involves the charge that the Church is stereotyped, and that it is only play-acting. There is a great danger when we take the church for granted; when the “ body" is emphasized above “ the spirit." Form and facilities should never become a fetish with worship only external in nature. This is not to say that our present-day worship should be returned to the home!
I a mnot an exponent of the "un derground" church, meeting in groups completely disassociated from one another and islands unto themselves. While I believe in church buildings and church or ganizations it would be wonderful to reduce the disparity between the atmosphere at home and the atmosphere in the church. Worship should begin in the home and continue there even though we al so assemble for common worship in the church. Homes should be more than just places where we have "board and room," storing the paraphernalia of daily exis tence! Everywhere, we hear the cry that "Christianity must get into the marketplace." I thoroughly agree that as Christians we cannot live sheltered and cloistered lives. We are not hot-house plants, we are maturing oaks! The fact is, home is not the easiest place to achieve holiness! This is partly due to the fact that we live in close proxim ity, sharing a certain familiarity. There are continual pressures. We see each other at the worst rather than at the best. The close rela tionships can be taken for granted. In such situations we are a defin ite target for satanic attacks. It is plain to see that if we can not live for Christ in the home, we cannot be effective for Him in the market-place. There is little point for a man to talk about Christ out side the home if he cannot com municate with his wife on the in side! Robert Speer observes, "In order to love out of the home, those early Christians knew they had to love in the home." In today's world, everyone is afraid of everyone else. Teachers
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