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threshold o f the Christian church. One-half o f the other third go very rarely to the church. A bit o f a census was taken in Los Angeles. One church had thirty-nine people on Sunday night, thirty-seven women and two men. A busi ness man in Los Angeles told me that his church had tried to hold a service with only six people, but the outlook was so discouraging that at last they closed it for ^Sunday nights. Six churches o f one denomination were visited by a committee to investigate the attendance. They had a com bined membership of eight thousand souls, and on that Sun day night there were 240 people present. People are not worshiping God and supporting the church o f God. That is one of the saddest commentaries on American life. Until you rebuild the church altar, you cannot expect to save your institutions, no matter what else you do in America. R ebuilding the A ltar of S acrifice If we are going to save religion in the United States, we must rebuild the altar o f sacrifice. Jean McTaggart was a poor Scottish woman. She lived at the time o f one of the terrible religious persecutions in Scotland. There was no possibility o f worshiping in a kirk, and the believers hid behind the rocks when Sunday morn ings came. Finally the persecution ceased, and the privilege came o f rebuilding the altar. A t great sacrifice, the people built a small kirk. But when they needed a lintel stone to go across the door, they could not find a stone that was big enough. Jean McTaggart lived alone, a Christian with the old faith. Scotland had a great many of them. The minister called on her one day. With the help of a poker and shovel, she had dug up the hearth and had it standing beside the fireplace when the preacher came. “ I have been over to the kirk, and this hearthstone measures exactly the same as the lintel— I measured it twice— so I took it up for the lintel o f the church,” she said. They put Jean McTaggart’s old stone hearth over the door of the kirk for the lintel. And if you go there now, you will find one o f the finest stone churches in Scotland, and that old hearth is there today. W e have spoken of three altars. That lintel stone symbolizes them all. The hearth stone from Jean McTaggart’s family altar was brought to the altar of the church, and the gift was made at the altar o f sacrifice. Jean McTaggart represented Christianity at its best. The heart o f Christianity is sacrifice. Sacrifice is the center about which all Christian life revolves. T he C ross of C hrist an A ltar of S acrifice Men are trying to preach a gospel without the cross, without the blood, without sacrifice. The “ gospel” has no meaning whatsoever without the sacrificial atonement of Jesus Christ on the cross. W e must build again in our hearts that altar o f the cross. Every good minister of Jesus Christ must tell men and women o f that “ one sacri fice for sins for ever,” and then he must urge men and women to build the altar o f sacrifice and keep it at the heart o f Christianity. The other word for love is sacrifice. A questionnaire was sent out to a number o f parents, asking their views on the question o f the Christian min istry as a vocation for their sons. Almost universally the answers were of the same type. The reasons given for ob jection to this choice o f life work were that there was not enough freedom, or money, or honor to be gained by enter ing that field. But one man wrote back: “ God gave me a family o f six sons. Four o f those sons are in the Christian ministry; one is a missionary in China; and one is a Chris tian teacher. And I am happy to the last degree in their sac rifice for Christ. The greatest blessing God ever gave me was the sacrifice those boys made for Jesus’ sake.” That is a real father: That is Christianity at its finest and best. “ And he builded an altar there.”
success, joy, and happiness—-is to build at the center o f that new home a family altar. If you cannot pray together, you cannot live together. I f you want to stay out of the divorce court, build a family altar. And you people who have lost the family altar, if you want to save your children’s homes and future, must rebuild that altar. Pray together. R ebuilding the C hurch A ltar Not only must we build the family altar if we are to save religion in the United States, but we must also build the church altar. Russia tore down in Moscow the church o f the Saviour, and built on that place a shrine for Lenin, a tower 150 feet high, a monument to Lenin. It is covered with chromium. That tower— 150 feet o f it— is going to reaoh up into the heavens and is Lenin’s monument in the place of the church o f Christ. On the banks o f the Volga, the Russians have now built another monument about one hundred feet high, and it stands so that anybody who goes up and down on the boats will surely see that structure. They had great diffi culty in knowing to whom they would dedicate it— Lucifer, Cain, or Judas Iscariot. And they finally dedicated it to Judas Iscariot because he betrayed Christ. Russia is determined to put Christianity and God out o f Russian life, and builds its monument to Judas Iscariot. No matter what else they do in Russia, just as surely as God is in His heavens and as God has a way of producing judgment, Russia is doomed and damned because she has defied God and sought to stamp out the church o f Christ and the institutions o f Christ and anything relative to re ligious life. In contrast to Russia’s anti-God program is Mussolini’s wise insistence upon a knowledge of the Bible in Italy. One o f the wisest thiilgs Mussolini ever did in his life he did recently. He issued this proclamation: “ All professors and teachers shall read the New Testament, shall explain this Divine Book to the children, and see to it that they mem orize the best passages. This Book shall not be missing in any school library, for it is ever new throughout all the centuries. It is the greatest of all books, the most necessary o f all books, because it is divine. The National Govern ment desires by it to capture the children, and through them the soul o f the Italian people, for it is the discovery o f the true way which will lead the Fatherland to the worthiest and truest greatness.” Mussolini’s action puts in my heart a sort o f heaviness at every remembrance of the condition in this country. Two-thirds o f all the American people never cross the
The Trysting T la c tj By W INIFRED M. N IENHU IS Would you have God 's richest blessing On your life from day to day? Would you know the joy of vict'ry. When sore trials come your way? You must meet your Lord at dawning, Start with Him each new-born day— Meet Him in the upper chamber, Read His W ord and kneel to pray! You can never know the blessings, O r the fullness of His grace, Until you have met the Saviour In that sacred trysting place. Then, although the road be rugged, And the path you cannot trace, You can trust your Saviour's leading, Till you meet Him face to face.
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