T HE K I N G ’S B U S I N E S S
858
MUST THE PEW PUT UP? Canon A niger’s lines well voice the lam ent of many pewholders today: “W ith eager knife th a t oft has sliced At Gentile glos§, or Jew ish fable, Before th e crowd they lay th e Christ Upon the lecture table. F rom bondage to th e old beliefs They say our rescue must begin, Yet men w ant refuge from th e ir griefs, And saving from th e ir sin.” ' There are altogether too many leaders who seem to th in k th e pew should have no voice in th e discussion concerning th e Bible. P ersonal experience of th e •power of a renewed life th rough acceptance of the Bible counts for nothing w ith these leaders. Their a ttitu d e tow ard those who have proven the Bible through v ital experience is exactly th a t of th e Pharisees tow ard th e blind man in th e n in th chapter of Jo h n ’s Gospel. Though th e healed man insisted th a t he knew th a t whereas he was blind, now he could see, they taun ted him w ith his inferior knowl edge and even suggested th a t he was never blind. Because these skeptics could not account for th e facts by th e ir theories, they sh u t th e ir eyes to th e facts altogether. But Christian experience is a much safer teacher th a n reason. There are thousands in th e pew who can say, “We know th a t we dwell in Him and He in us because He has given us th e Holy S pirit.” T h at experience cannot be so lightly set aside. The attem p ts to “ divest Christianity of its myths and m iracles and o ther disfiguring encumbrances,” will never be popular w ith men and women who know the Gospel to be “ the power of God unto salvation.” A t a recent church conference a Mr. W. R. F o ster, a layman, is reported to have made the following statem ents, which will find h earty response from thou sands of pewholders. “The pew has a rig h t to expect th a t if th e pulpit discards, as no t acceptable, any of ‘those things which are most surely believed among us,’ it shall a t least provide an equally efficacious substitute. The pew expects th a t the pulpit shall adhere to th e teaching to which i t gave adhesion, in regard to the doctrinal stand ards held by th a t p a rt of th e Church to which it belongs. In some cases these are defined w ith sufficient clearness to enable th e pew to judge how far th e preacher agrees w ith or d eparts from them . The pew has a rig h t to expect th a t any occu p an t of a pulpit, who, for any reason, finds himself unable to continue his faith in th e teaching by v irtu e of which he gained his position, w ith th e resu ltan t emolu ment, shall (unless he finds he is in erro r in his new view and abandons it) resign th e position. This would be only the commonest commercial honesty, bu t alas! th e course is very seldom followed. The pew does not expect to have doubts pu t before it as to th e credibility of our Lord; nor th e absurd statem en t th a t in this, th a t and th e other, He must have been ‘m isreported,’ nor yet th a t He adopted views th a t were the common teaching of His day, bu t which th e wise men of today assure us were erroneous. The pew has a righ t, also, to expect th a t the man in th e pulpit shall have a t least as much regard for th e Old T estam ent as his Master had.” K. L. B.
Y O U R U N N O R I S K - S e e Inset in Center
Made with FlippingBook HTML5