THE K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S th a t one phase of th e commission of th e church is to gath er out of the world th e members for th e body of Christ, the church, b u t Christ w ants a body for a very special and specific purpose. He w ants a body in .order th a t He may express H imself in the world and th a t He may do in the world th e thing th a t He came to do and th e th ing th a t is involved in His g reat program of re demption and one of the things th a t is involved in th a t work is the conserva tion of the life of th e world. If it were no t for th e conserving power of th e life of God in th e chosen body th a t gives expression to th a t life in the life of the world the world would go to pieces— it could not stand tw enty-four hours ap art from th a t conserving power and th e re a son th a t the chaos th a t we are now expe riencing has come is because the church has lost its conserving power— it has ceased to create th e conscience of the so-called Christian nations. Where, for example, is the expression of th e Divine purpose in connection w ith the great ethical questions th a t are involved in" th is world crisis? Where was th e voice of th e church a t the very beginning of th is aw ful w ar? Did it no t have any g reat ringing message th a t could arrest th e atten tio n of th e world regarding arb itra tio n and th e n a tu ra l ways in which disputes ought to be settled? Or ta k e it today, to use a single illu stra tio n , where is th e voice of th e church when nations like our own and G reat B ritain are face to face w ith a ques tion like th e liquor question, which is not an economic or social bu t a moral question. On the confession of the leaders of th is government strong drink is an enemy and a debaser of th e best life of th e nations. Yet because of political expediency we continue th is g reat enemy in a time when the nations are bleeding almost to death. P rom a political point of view th e voice [of the representatives of th a t business, some of whom are said to have been greatly favored by th e Kaiser, is evidently more
20 phasis for a generation or more. He en tru sted us w ith prosperity un til we were en tru sted w ith more goods than th e church has ever had in all of its history. Then He challenged us to use th is accum ulation of wealth in carrying out th e essential n atu re of love in th e giving of th e Gospel to those who had it not and instead of using th is for the evangelization of the world the church literally took th is tru st en tru sted to it and began to use it upon itself in a selfish way and God’s people called by His name came to the place where they were using things th a t were essential to the carrying ou t of th e Divine com mission in a rio t of luxurious living. He asked for our boys and girls th a t they m ight go to th e u tterm o st p arts of the world b u t we refused to give them. He literally th rew open doors to all th e nations of th e ea rth and positively asked us if we would no t give a com paratively small quota of our boys and girls th a t they m ight go ou t to these nations and tell th e story. But, we had g rea ter ambitions for them and we refused to give them . We dreamed of big things, and when we talked of big things we had in m ind m aterial th ing s; b u t today we have got to give our boys in order to save th e very life of the nations of which we refused th e mis sionary challenge of a few years ago. To have given th e life to God would have been to save it b u t the w ithhold ing of th e life of these boys and girls has been the losing of it. Jesus tried to teach th e disciples these g reat lessons because they were th e salt of th e earth , and, if th e life of the world was to be saved a t all, it was to be saved th rough th e ir being really salted, and th a t means two things. In the first place salt preserves. It is a conserving power and God intended th a t th e church should be a conserving power in th e life of the world. T hat I fear is the element in th e life and the mission of th e church th a t many of us had lost sight of. I fully appreciate
Made with FlippingBook - Online Brochure Maker