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~ THE KING’S BUSINESS
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FEBRUARY, 1916.
E D I T O R I A L A well-known gentleman in the Middle West has just recognized the value of T he K ing ' s B usiness , and. shown his appreciation by sending the names of ten JSpersons to whom the magazine will be sent each month
Worthy of Emulation.
during the year of 1916, as a gift from him. Many letters come to us from min isters and missionaries in all parts of the world, commending this magazine and expressing a strong desire to have it regularly, but regretfully stating inability to pay for it. The example of the brother above mentioned is worthy of emulation, or, if donations are made for that purpose, the magazine will be f sent to worthy ministers and missionaries, and the names of the recipients for warded to the donors of the fund. We have had such a fund, but it is now exhausted. much of the preaching in our own land: “I have just returned home after a month’s absence, the past four weeks with their successive Sundays having been spent in various parts o f England. My journeyings have given me the opportunity o f hearing eight different preachers in as many different pulpits. I have come back assured o f one thing, i. e., that it is high time to call a halt to the ‘war sermon.’ My experience during the past month has been that out o f these eight sermons seven were on ‘The War.’ Because I realize the seriousness o f the times in which we live, I plead all the more for the unfolding o f the Word. It seems almost impossible that the preachers are so blind to their responsible opportunity., ■ “ At the commencement o f the war we heard a great deal o f the sudden swelling o f congregations. These hopes have not in any sense been realized; and I cannot help but feel that the- war sermon is largely responsible. W e get our papers daily, reading there all sides o f the present crisis. More or less, everyone is affected by the news which filters through day by day and hour by hour. I plead that Sunday should be Sunday. I f the preacher wants to boom ‘recruiting,’ let him do it during the week. If the people’s minds are to be drawn to his version o f late events, let him go to suitable platforms. The pulpit on a Sunday is certainly not the place; and there are many o f us going to church Sunday by Sunday hoping, looking for a definite spiritual message. W e go because we are taking our part gladly in the struggle, therefore stand in need o f the further equipment which shall fit us for the coming stress and strain o f the week ahead. What about our soldiers home on leave? Is it just to bid them welcome to the old place and pew, there to serve them with nothing better than ‘war fare’ ? Rather let the minister realize that he is, after all, God’s servant; that he, in God’s hands, may be the means o f bringing encouragement to those that are cast down —yea, even xom fort to them that mourn. Let us with deep humility give back to God His Own Day. Let us acknowledge before Him that it has—at least in some sense—been robbed o f its beauty and use. Above all, let the ttiinister have done with the choosing o f a convenient text, the which to serve as a ‘peg’ for the ‘hanging on’ o f a ‘war sermon.’ ” , In a recent number of The Life of Faith, the following letter appears, the substance of which would-apply to The War Sermon.
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