1106
THE K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
We m ust not expect too much of th is young th ing un til it ha£ breasted the storm s of th e ages, produced m artyrs and P ilgrim F ath ers, b u t th e name sounds hospitable. It is a church for the world, w ith no reserved seats, no sacram ents, w ithout th e blazing ligh t of th e cross on the sinful h e a rt; a sm iling gospel of good h ea lth ; a m u tu al adm iration society; a free-for-all race to th e goal, where th e re are crowns enough to go round; w ith no creed b u t a genial optim ism ; no doctrines b u t ou ter space; no out lines of faith b u t th e bylaws of a Dop’t W orry Society; w ith th e Ten Commandments revised to d ate; w ith P aul on a long vacation because of his unpleasant “mysticism” ; w ith no di vine redemption, b u t everything from beneath up, instead of everything good flowing from God’s wondrous grace. To expect such a church to play the p a rt of th e Sword of th e Lord and of Gjdeon in th e struggle for righteous ness would be like depending on an E aster congregation to manage a strong Sunday school. How sweet th e charm ing words, “ Grand service, pasto r; beau tifu l mu sic, lovely flowers,' inspiring sermon; your prayer lifted me to th e gate of heaven. Good-by (for ano th er year) ; be good.” The Honk o f th e Outside Church. “A# Church outside th e Church!” How cheering is th e phrase to every m inister! We can alm ost h ear the bells of th e m illennium . Every Sun day morning I see th e motor cars go by crowded by b rillian t members of th is consecrated body on th e ir w;ay to worship a t th e shore. As I lift up my old-fashioned voice to exhort th é few backward and benighted people who continue to believe in th e Church of the New Testam ent I Rejoice to h ear th e honk of th e Church outside th e Church, for I know how much faster its members are going th an I am.
In moments of b rillian t optim ism I almost believe th a t th e new Church will usher in th e kingdom of God to a needy world in a hund red thousand years. H istory’s Vain R epetition. “A Church outside th e C hu rch !” Are we to have a repetition of th e per nicious half-way covenant which cursed New England for one hund red years? Debased currency confuses th e stand ing of the good. The Church m ilitant has never gone forw ard w ithou t b ear ing th e cross of self-renunciation afte r Christ. How histo ry repeats itself! Not many years a fte r th e Civil W ar th e re were men who tried to devise a new religion th a t would best meet the needs of reconstruction. In th e m idst of th e debate P residen t Theodore Wool- sey preached on th e “Religion of the F u tu re ,” insisting th a t it m ust face the fact of sin, and acknowledge th a t for giveness and etern al life come through Christ. He sa id : “ If to love God is th e crown of character, if to call such a sentim ent into life constitutes one of th e great sources of streng th , m u st no t a re ligion which knows little of God and nothing of forgiveness be incapable of form ing beau tifu l lives? Must it not perish and be despised fo r its very weakness? A civilization w ith God and w ithout Christ leads to a te rrib le di lemma. . , . The world of th e fu tu re will be doomed, and th e religion of th e fu tu re will tu rn ou t to be a mis erable raft, unfit, a fte r th e shipwreck of hum anity, to carry th e hopes and the w elfare of m ankind down th e ages.” A D iluted Gospel Leads to a Morass. R econstructed Christianity! W e may have been too narrow in our views of the sphere of Jesus, bu t to cu t loose from th e past w ith its positive faith in th e divine Christ, placing H im on a level w ith g rea t teachers, would empty th e New Testam ent of its chief trea s ure, and rob us of our Saviour. Said
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