oi academic culture, of speculative disengagement and serene intellectual indifference, sided with Erasmus. The moderates throughout Europe, the gentlemen of courts, the semi-skeptical intelligences of the universi ties, told the golden-mouthed apostle of compromise that he was in the right . . . The heart of Christianity beat with Luther instead.” This is the age of Gamaliel and Erasmus when, in the name of tolerance, men halt between two opinions and answer not a word. In the church it shows up in a Laodicean lukewarmness, a little too hot to be cold, and a little too cold to be hot, a condition that even nauseates the Lord. The Gospel used to make men mad, sad or glad, but today we walk out of our churches neither sad nor mad nor glad—we just walk out. Gama liel was not affected either. Peter was glad in the Lord, and his audience was mad, but Gamaliel was just Ga maliel, tolerant and nothing more. Such a spirit shows up in our pulpits where Gama liels flourish and apostles are few. Joseph Parker, writ ing about Nathan the prophet who told King David “Thou art the man,” states: “Definite statements are manageable, but'vague charges are never to be enter tained. He is always a false accuser who makes a gen eral charge; he is a learned false witness, skilled and cunning, who says he will not go into the case; he will say nothing about it;, he thinks it better to hold his tongue. Would God his tongue had been cut when he said that! He has said more by not saying than he could have if he had told the truth . . . No man makes progress who deals in generalities.” But Nathan belongs to the category of Peter, John the Apostle, John the Baptist, Paul and Luther—and the Lord Jesus Himself. The issue is too clear-cut for mid dle-of-the-roaders, fundamental modernist and modern istic fundamentalist—neither fish nor fowl. The issues are life and death, Heaven and hell, and the case does not call for suspended judgment. The devil never had a greater ally than this modern atmosphere of genial, amiable, pleasant tolerance in which nothing is bad, everything is good, when with a “tra-la-la,” black and white are smeared into an indef inite gray. Nothing matters if everybody is in a good humor. Let us not get excited over Peter and John and their Jesus. We will not stoop to take sides. We will sfe how it works out. Well, the church is still marching on, but nobody ever got anywhere with Gamaliel. Get ting mixed up with an unpopular movement is not the worst thing, one can do. I would rather have lost my head with James than kept it with Gamaliel. This mod ern brand of tolerance has put our age into a stupor. Nothing is important enough to contend for. The devil does great business when the moral sensibilities of men have thus been doped. Even liquor ads make much of this “America of kindliness, of friendship, of good-humored tolerance.” Well did Gresham Machen declare: “The most important things are not those about which men are agreed, but those for which men will fight.” But the fatigue and languor of this age have got us. Everybody is too dead tired to line up with Peter and the Gospel. It is much more comfortable to sus pend judgment and go home to bed. To be sure, some men have made mistakes on the side of Peter and the Gospel. Peter made some himself. But he never made the supreme mistake of waiting to follow Jesus until he saw how it was going to turn out. He threw his blundering, impetuous self into the Sav iour’s cause from the very beginning. Although for g while almost everything he said and did was a mistake, his heart was not on the fence. He even -denied his Lord, but he came back. The other disciples too for sook their Lord and fled. But they ended up, all but Judas, faithful through imprisonment and scourging and martyrdom and lonely exile. They paid the price.
GU&ijen ^ b e iiin ie l Rachel Stevens Luke 12:16-21 For me to live is wealth. Tear down my barns And build me greater: in this my soul shall rest. Eat, drink, be merry. I have much in store For all the years to come— what need I more? Who says I have not chosen what is best? Thou fooll This night shall God require thy soul, And parted From its treasure by a breath, It goes alone into eternity. Then whose shall thy hoarded splendor be, The soul gone forth to death— eternal death? John 12:12, 16 For me to live is fame— the pride of life: “Spare Him and thou art not great Caesar's friend!’’ Strange how the rabble cry comes back to me, While there He stood in silent majesty— One word— for me it could have meant the end. I’ve wagered all to be great Caesar's friend, And now death summons me, and I must go. Both king and galley slave obey that call, But when I stand before the Judge of all. How shall I answer Him? I do not know. Philippians 1:21 For me to live is Christ. That I should grow Into His likeness all of my desire; Forgetting that which now behind me lies, I press on boldly toward the mark, the prize, Urged forward by the Spirit's inner fire. An Hebrew of the Hebrews, born and bred— All this I count but nothing to attain, Yea, fellowship in His last awful hour, A knowledge of His resurrection power— For me to live is Christ, to die is gain! This poem was inspired bp a Navy chaplain’s sermon. Down through the centuries, a worthy succession has followed in their train. And along that road, they ever met their opposition within and without the church. But the church never suffered as much from antagonism as from appeasement. The apostles have had their enemies, but a thousand times more dangerous have been the appeasers. We can thank God that Gamaliel had one pupil who did not follow in his steps. Paul started out an opposer, and ended an apostle, but he never lowered himself to become an appeaser. You could always tell on which side of the fence he was. Whatever he was for, it was with a vengeance. When he was against Christ, he was really against Him. When he was for Him, he was for Him! He never sat on the fence with his famous teacher. Paul never could forgive himself for persecuting the church, but he never had to confess that he appeased the opposition. The opposition slew him, but he out lived it just the same. God help us to follow him as he followed Christ!
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