120 T H E K I N G ’S B U S I N E S S these latter days and have too often been possessed of the notion that, we did not have time to pray. No doubt it was the same condition that accounted for the failure of the disciples on at least one occasion. There came a man to the Savior saying, “ I brought my son to thy disciples and they could not help him.” This charge is brought against many a minister today. The man of the world, sick and tired of sin, stands helpless at the door of many a church, and sometimes an orthodox church, too, but the church has lost its power to do things for God. The disciples were deeply concerned about their failure. “ Lord,” they said, “ why could we not east the devils out of this man?” We might sum up our Lord’s answer in the words, “Maximum of work, m in im u m of prayer.” The disciples had this redeeming fact on their side—they knew enough to know that they had failed. Today there are many Christian workers who are getting nowhere and they do not seem to know; it. They go through forms and mechanical actions, speaking words that are but so much wind, never realizing that they have lost connection with the Holy "Spirit. May the thought be burned into our hearts right at the beginning of 1923 that it is perfectly possible for us to: have the. language of Jesus on our lips yet not have His power in our lives. The faith to do the deeper work for God is not born in the crowd. Have we, too, often failed? Was it not the lack of vital spiritual.force in our own lives—the lack of prayer? Shall we not resolve now to make 1923 a year famous for prayer? —K. L. B. ,A POOR SERMON TEXT FOR A MODERNIST A friend has been telling us about a sermon preached in a Congrega tional church, by a man who is a modernist. The text was, “ Having a' form -of godliness but denying the power thereof. ’’ To this preacher those who have a form of godliness are those who subscribe to an evangelical creed. He thinks that to all such the holding of a favorite doctrine is their one sufficient Christian achievement. Those who have the real power of reli gion, to his way of thinking, are those who, even though they may not subscribe to some things in the Bible, have caught the real vision of the great brotherhood of man—those who are good and who are doing good. Throwing his Bible down upon the pulpit, the preacher asserted that he could not believe for a minute that salvation was to be found only between the two lids of the Book—nature is the expression of God, and a man can rise through nature to nature’s God. . A great many people are swept off their feet by such high-sounding talk, usually accompanied by flights of oratory and dramatic gestures! Any one who will do a little thinking will observe that this preacher wrenched his text out of its setting and made it mean directly the opposite of what it means in the context. The apostle here speaks of men in the last days who will become proud, blasphemers, truce-breakers, traitors, heady, high-minded, ever learning yet never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. The text occurs right in the midst of this description and the last phrase of the verse (which the preacher omitted entirely) bids all who
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