Men would rather have a religion which encourages self- improvement than a religion which says, “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God,” and “ There is none righteous, no, not one.” The cross is the only saving instru ment in all the world, but it is an oifense to the proud, carnal heart, which loves to say:
Christ Is Best Some say Mohammedanism is best for the Arabs and Budd hism is best for the Orientals. I’ll grant you that these re ligions fit their national philosophies, yet I suspect that these philosophies have resulted from the religions themselves. The great enemies of mankind are sin and death, and any religion which does not deliver man from these great foes cannot be a divine religion. Christianity appeals to the highest and noblest instincts of man and makes possible a victorious life in the midst of the world’s sin, which has made our earth a shambles. Who but Jesus Christ would dare to say, “ Thy sins be forgiven thee” ? Who but Jesus Christ could say, “ Be cause I live, ye shall live also” ? What religious teacher has said, “ I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and pre pare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” Jesus Christ dealt with sin on the cross, and dealt with death in the tomb, and came forth triumphant over both. Christianity therefore is afraid of neither life nor death, neither time nor eternity. There is in Christianity no pessi mism about the -triumph of good in the world, •because it believes in an Omnipotent God. Christianity is true! To the faithful individual it gives per sonal satisfaction and assurance. In a universe of discord, struggle and frustration, the believer in God finds salvation, harmony, assurance, peace and hope. Christianity is not only true, but it is the only religion which is wholly and completely true—“ Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.” Christianity is a religion of divine revelation which unifies man’s universe, and satisfies the longing of his mind in answering questions concerning his origin, nature, duty and destiny. Finally and undeniably, it removes the guilt of sin and gives to the believer a conscious access to God, a deep sense of filial relationship and abiding peace.
I would not have a god come in To shield me suddenly from sin, And set my house of life to rights; Nor angels with bright burning wings Ordering my earthly thoughts and things; Rather my own frail guttering lights Wind-blown and nearly beaten out, Rather the terror of the nights And long, sick groping after doubt. Rather be lost than let my soul Slip vaguely from my own control — Of my own spirit let me be In sole, though feeble, mastery.*
It is the same spirit as prevails in Henley’s “ Invictus” in which the author claims proudly that in the midst of the bludgeoning of fate his head is “bloody but unbowed,” and that he is still the master of his fate and the captain of his sou^' Man Is Lost! Christianity is true in that.it states an undeniable fact: man is lost and needs supernatural power to save him. While this is condemnatory, it is not unkind, for it promises to cure man of the evil of his sin. Christianity is true because the Saviour who is the Head of the Christian faith really reveals God to man and man to himself. In our mechanistic day, a book of instructions is given with every machine we buy, automobile, typewriter or sew ing machine. When something goes wrong, our first thought is, “ Where is the book that goes with the machine?” We would think a man foolish who, while knowing nothing about the mechanism of the object, attempted to tinker with out regard to the directions. Now the Bible is the Book that goes with man! It tells where he came from, what he is made for, where he is going, and how he can be kept in order. The tragedy of life is that there are so many people who try to live their lives without- studying the Book that goes with man. The old pagan who had been taught to read the Bible came back to the missionary with this surprising statement, “ The Man who wrote that Book knows my heart.” III. Christianity is true because it delivers man from his greatest enemies—Sin and Death. Whatever else man needs, he needs salvation primarily. Today Christianity is under the severest testing because it is the so-called Christian nations who have been fighting the bloodiest wars. It is not because they are Christians that they fight, but because of the fact that they have taken the benefits of Christian civilization, and ignored faith’s moral and spiritual power that they are constantly at one another’s throats. Sometime ago an Indian maharaja; conversing with an American, asked him, “ Do you know why God is punishing the Christians by letting them fight and destroy each other as they are?” Answering his own question, he then said, “ If I paid as little attention to my religion as most Christians pay to theirs, I would expect God to punish me.” Then this Hindu prince explained that though less than one per cent of the officials in his employ were British, yet for their sake he kept all his offices closed on Sunday, and had built two Christian churches, that they might have both time and place for worship. But he went on to say that services were held only about once in three months. “ What do they do on Sunday?” he asked. “ They are hunting, boating, tennising, racing, playing cards. If you ask me why God is punishing the Christian nations, I think that there you have the answer.” Now this condemnation is difficult for us to swallow, but it is inescapably true. Note, however, that the Hindu would not feel condemned for doing these same things for which he condemned the Christians. The superiority of Christianity over Hinduism is shown by the fact that Christianity con demns people who do these things, and shows man to be a sinner. *Sara Teasdale: Love Songs, copyright 1917 The Macmillan Company, used by permission. Page Eight
Temple of Jupiter, Baalbek, Syria, the walls of which are higher and thicker than those of the Parthenon on the Acro polis. It is a great unsolved mystery how these giant columns were erected with such precision and on their tops an archi trave of stone block was placed, weighing many tons. But even this is insignificant in contrast with the mystery of godliness that God in Christ reconciled the world unto Himself. T H E K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S
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