THE KING’S .BUSINESS 583 “One of you shall chase a thousand.” “If ye abide in Me and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will and it shall be done unto you.” “With God noth ing shall be impossible.” Shall we then blame conditions or other people for our prayer-failure? Shall we permit any shadow of unconquered or unforsaken sin to make our prayers powerless or our work fruitiest? With the Omnipotent One standing beside us, shall we permit the common fear to make us cowards? While millions pour out their life-blood in whole-hearted zeal for imperfect human gov ernments, shall we do our God-appointed work of praying for laborers and preach ing the Gospel with half-hearted zeal? He taught us to “pray without ceasing.” Shall one day pass without mighty intercession? Are we sinking in the troubled waters about our own feet? “Jesus caught (Peter) and said, Oh! thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?” Do the failures of men fill our hearts with gloom? "They looked unto Him and were radiant.” Shall we pray as never before “Thy Kingdom come?” Shall we pray for the vast numbers dying oil battle-fields? Shall we pray for the vaster numbers (dying unwarned on mission-fields? Shall we pray for the living millions in Africa who are still in total darkness? Will a faith that pleases God ask less than enough for all ? Shall we pray with tender hearts for the millions sorrowing in death- shadowed homes? Shall we pray daily humbly and earnestly for the thousands at home to whom God said, “Go ye,” and they went not? Do we see terrible signs of the approaching end of the age? “Lift up your hea,ds—your redemption draweth nigh.” “Seeing ye look for such things.” “What manner of'persons ought ye to be?” “Be diligent that ye may be found of Him in peace, without spot and blameless.” which the church exists, and of what the church demands of its membership. He says: “The Church says children are unregenerate and need to be born anew; the democrat says many of them are victims of vicious living conditions imposed by greed and the industrial exploitation of human rights. The Church would save them by the mystery of baptism or of faith, the democrat thinks that they would save- themselves in a fair society, etcT It is true that the Church, if it stands by the Bible, does teach that children are unregenerate until they are born again, and that they do need to be born anew, and in this the Church is perfectly correct. And while the Church knows that they often times, are “victims of vicious living conditions imposed by greed and the industrial exploitation of human rights,” it knows by long experience, universal experience, that merely correcting their living conditions will not regenerate them nor save them. But to say that the Church as a whole “would save them by the mystery of baptism or of faith” is to show one’s utter ignorance of the teachings of the Bible and the Church. The Church would save them by bring ing them to a personal acceptance of Jesus Christ as their Saviour, and a per sonal surrender to Him as their Lord and Master, and the Church has demon strated by centuries of experience that when people are thus brought to accept Christ, they are born again, their whole life is transformed and they become of some use in the regeneration of society. The critic goes on to say that “Church membership is for those who believe thus and so, and who submit to a certain ritual. These are the measures of excellence.” Now there is no question the Church does insist upon believing something, and some churches believe in submission to a certain ritual, but not most churches of the present day. But believing an orthodox doctrine and A recent writer in “The American Journal of Sociol- ogy,” has attempted to take the church severely to task for lagging behind in social reform. The whole article displays a curious ignorance of the purpose for Ignorant Criticism of the Church.
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