776 THE K I N G ’ S B US I NE S S Di\ Edward Caldwell Moore is quoted as saying: #If there is always to be a superiority of Christian devotion, of a zeal for God and love for man on the side of the conservatives, if there is always to be a religious inferiority of liberals, then it will still be to the conservatives that we shall owe the best of the world’s work.” A Unitarian writer observes: “ Some people say the religious liberal is often more liberal than religious. Why is this true ? One reason is that he has lost interest in the old forms of religion without gaining enthusiasm for the new.” One has truly said of late: “ The religion of the future will becom!e in solvent unless its ethical product is the fruit of vital union with Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord.” A revival without the Holy Ghost and the Gospel of God is a farce. The liberalists should stay out of the revival business. They will only make fools of themselves. They have no evangelistic message and they will soon come to see that definite and permanent Christian work is “ not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord.” —K. L. B. DR. BISSELL RELIEVES HIS MIND (BUT THAT’S ALL) The “ Congregationalist” features an article by Dr. Shelton Bissell, in which the doctrinal statement of Dr. Torrey’s church (the Church of the Open Door) is set in contrast with the very simple requirements of the First Congregational Church of Los Angeles, of which Dr. Carl Patton (a very pronounced liberalist) is the pastor. Dr. Bissell says that the creed of Dr. Patton’s church calls for Ohristlike living and practicing love to men, and that of Dr. Torrey’s church means simply the intellectual acceptance of a number o f doctrinal statements of purely speculative value. “ Against the position that dogmatic creedal affirmation is the test of Christian life and character,” says Dr. Bissell, “ stands the undeniable record of Christian character drawn from non-dogmatic sources of inspira tion.” He goes-so far as to say that “ if the way of orthodox dogma is right, then everyone who went to the stake for loyalty to Jesus was a fool.’? But wait—there are two or three things lacking in Dr. Bissell’s argu ment. The whole implication of the article is that the'members of Dr. Patton’s church (who are not required to believe in the authority of the Bible, the atonement of Christ, the necessity of regeneration and other things usually considered vital to Christianity), live more godly and fruitful lives than do the members of Dr. Torrey’s church (where members are required to be lieve something). For such an inference as that we should be furnished with some proof. Is it really a fact that practical godliness, devotion to Christ, compas sion for the lost, a spirit of prayer, love for God’s Word and the fruit of the Spirit is nourished in the atmosphere of liberal theology? Does liberalism really put a damper on worldliness, lust, divorce and such things ? Is it true that the members of Dr. Torrey’s church and other churches with an evan gelical creed are satisfied with mere “ intellectual acquiescence to doctrinal postulates” ? WE ARE COUNTING ON YOU— 20,000
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