Keeping to the Main Issue T HE Christian Church becomes shorn of its power when it fads to keep clearly in view, and work steadily toward the distinctive object for which it exists. The Christian - flflBI m t h e w o r l d Primarily, through the plan and l e T c h 1 1 1 M W i t n C SS t 0 t h e S a V i n ^ « of the Lord Jesus Christ; to so lift Him up before all men that through Him all men may have salvation. This mission, clearly recognized, will save the Church from work f o r " W W - t A S l h C C h U r C h h a S * —n t i a l work foremost, and by prayer and the exercise of faith has striven to evangelize the multitudes, it has waxed mighty; but when it has exalted secondary and subsidiary objects, it has been incon- sequential and ineffective. The sum of the teaching of the New Testament is that the Chris- tian Church is ordained of God to so proclaim the Gospel that m e i W y be saved from their sin. The Church is called, therefore not to engage, primarily, in sociological effort; or in acquainting any class of men with the attitude of the Church toward them as a class; or in adjusting matters of difference between capital and m ° r . ; ° figg t o d o ¡ § 1 other things of minor importance, but to call all men to repentance and to faith in Jesus Christ and Him crucified. W r S r d i g i O U S P r C SS iS f u l 1 ° f a G C O U n ts o f subordinate and superficial efforts to lift mankind. These efforts are doubtless inspired by the fact that multitudes seem to be out of sympathy with the Christian Church. But this fact is the symptom,Tfs no" t h e d ®! ase - . T o d e a l W l t h the symptom, and not with the disease in un-Chnstian. | For example, effort to interpret the Church to any particular class of men, and any particular class of men to the Church is of but scant value unless the claims of the Lord Christ on every man as a personal Saviour are pressed home on the heart and conscience of every man. Look, for instance, at the laboring man, about whom much is now being said and written Like every other man, the laboring man, first of all, is a sinner He H E
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