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by Dr. Vance Havner
PILGRIMS S ome op us are beginning by now to rate as old-timers. We can re member when “I’m Bound for the Promised Land” was almost a theme song of the saints. We took seriously the Scriptures reminding us that “This World Is Not My Home.” We’re strangers and pilgrims seeking a City. This earth is our passage and not our portion. Say what you will, the Old Book gives no comfort to those who would drive their tent pegs deeply in these lowlands. It warns against the love of money, the cares of this life and the pride of it. It would have us love not the world, but lay up our treas ure in heaven. It reminds us that a man’s life consists not in the abun dance of the things which he pos- sesseth. It’s high time we heeded this counsel. We used to feel like travel ing on. Now most of the saints feel like settling down. Of course, God’s people have a right to the common comforts of life. The old mystics were sometimes mis taken: we’re pilgrims, not hermits. Living in a hole doesn’t make us any holier. Our Lord had nowhere to lay His head. The early saints bear lit tle resemblance to the new variety out not to overcome the world, but to enjoy it. The heroes of faith in He brews 11 don’t remind us of many modern successful Christians. We are plainly bidden in Scripture not to be conformed to this world. We use the same standards the world uses, but we glorify them with our religious phraseology. There is no denying that the tenor of the New Testament and the spirit of the early Christians are foreign to our pres ent-day “at-homeness” in this world. That spirit prevailed until King Con stantine paganized Christianity, try-
ing to Christianize paganism. Then we lost our pilgrim character and the marks of our heavenly citizenship. The church has become a gigantic super-corporation, another “big busi ness” so like the age in which she lives. It was a dark day when the church forgot that we had no home down here. One of our religious leaders spoke recently about the dan ger of becoming a church instead of a sect. His position was that a sect is usually small and poor, and rises up in judgment against the sins and evils of its day, whereas the church moves along Main Street and its membership is made up of the so- called best people. The tendency of the church is to conform to the pleas ures and comforts of the world and that includes conformity to a self- centered complacent society. Somebody has said that revival begins with a dedicated minority defying the values of this world and living under stringent discipline. It’s possible to have a big bank account and be poor in spirit, but the com bination is rare. If we can use the world without abusing it, well and good, but when we feather the nest too well, the eaglets do not fly. Going to heaven doesn’t thrill sci ence very much today. It’s been a long time since I’ve heard an old- fashioned sermon ab o u t heaven. “There’s a Land That is Fairer Than Day,” but most of us are not look ing that far away. We are near sighted. No longer do we view the distance scene. We’re satisfied to watch the nearest TV screen. At best we think of ourselves as citizens of earth trying to get to heaven when really we are citizens of heaven so journing on earth. Bunyan’s immortal Christian had 3
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