Newspaper Page Text
November 24, 1909. THE PRESBYTERIAN
fines the vision that should inspire the awakening
Church of our day. At the same time his vision outlines
the conditions on which the Church is to realize
her destiny.
First, the Church must recognize her relationship
to the Divine Lord and be loyal to that relationship.
The Church is not man's creation; it is Christ's direct
and immediate institution. The Christian Church, in
its essential character, is composed of all those who
have been created anew in Christ Jesus. The Church
is not one of many institutions. If she were, then she
would have her little day and pass away. But the
Church is unique both in her institution and in the power
which resides in her and makes possible her life and
work. The power of the Church is not in her scholarship,
noble as that is; not in her wealth, potent as that
is; nor in her organization, complete as that is; but in
her vital touch and relation with the unseen presence
and illimitable power of her risen Lord.
The Church must plant herself firmly upon the facts
of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, of
His present existence, and of His immediate relation
to the Church as her exalted Head and infallible Guide.
There must be no uncertainty or comvromise here. If
the Church would challenge the age to the acceptance
of her faith she must affirm, with the distinctness and
vigor of the apostolic age, the fact of the resurrection
of Jesus from the dead, the fact that He to whom the
Father has given all authority and dominion lives and
reigns.
Second, the Church must have a cleav and confident
hold upon Divine Truth and be loyal to that truth, if
she would fulfill her mission in the world. The Word
of God is the revelation of the great truths which the
Church is to proclaim for the saving of the world.
These truths have been committed to the Church in
trusteeship for the world. The truths are fixed and
unchangeable. The faith has been "once for all" delivered
to the saints, though the phrasing of this faith
may change, and ought to change, with every age, and
forms of expression which have come to us from other
ages. That insistence is right gives place to the language
of the day.
Our age insists upon investigating the systems
which have come to us from other ages. That insistence
is right and rational. It must not be charged that
such insistence is evidence of lack of faith or of vicillation.
On the contrary such investigation is a phase
of faith. It may be faith in battle, but it is not battle
for the overthrowing of truth. The undertone of genuine
investigation is not relish for doubt, but hunger
for truth. The Church must have an evangelical, that
is Biblical doctrine, but ift statement of that doctrine
must be as modern as the best twentieth century
thought can make it. Each generati&n must re state
its beliefs and its ideals. This is the only way in '
which we can hrinor Wth the nW for ttio o
.vr. ... w.%. ?vi HIV octrvv UI LIIC
new. The old and. the new are linked and locked
together. The form changes, the substance abides.
Third, the Church must know the conditions of the
age, adapt herself to those conditions, and meet their
demands. The Church of this generation must serve
this generation. She must meet its urgent needs and
A '- ? * a
4*
OF THE SOUTH. 7
solve its actual problems. She must hold forth the
great truths and dominant principles that apply to the
life of the day. Only thus will the Church be able to
point out the broad highway along which the affairs
ui men are to move toward tneir inevitable destiny.
Fourth, the Church must be controlled by a deep
appreciation of the value of life and by a genuine reverence
for life. There is much in modern conditions
which tend to cheapen life. The tendency of the age
is to bulk men and deal with men in the mass. This
tendency works for the suppression of the individual. ,
The man becomes part of a machine. The soul is gripped
by the system and takes on its color and shape. Of
course there are and ever have b^en exceptional men,
men of .pre-eminent personality and power, who rise
above any system and stand forth with mountainlike
prominence. But the average man, and the great multitude
is made up of average men, stands simply as
one oi a mass.
This massing of men I elittles man and makes life
cheap. In the presence of this tendency the Church
must put emphasis on the value of life and show interest
in man as man. The supreme need of the Church
is a clear vision of man as he is?tragic in His ruin,
splendid in his possibilities, glorious in his redemption.
Fifth, the Church must recognize the fact of sin in
man's life and clearly point out the way of redemption.
In heathendom a thousand millions of people are sitting
in darkness, and in Christian lands multitudes are
wretchedly wandering about without light. The light
has come unto the Christian Church. She must arise
and shine amid the world darkness, piercing the gloom
in distant lands and irradiating the shadows which
are everywhere about her in Christian lands. The only
power that can dissipate the darkness is the light that
streams from Calvary. The pierced hands are no
myth, the broken heart is no accident, the substitutionary
death is no theory, the open tomb is no fancy.
The mission of the Church is to set forth the great fact
of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for the redemption of
man.
Sixth, the Church must put emphasis upon personal
character and labor to create and culture it. There is a
well-defined and insistent deftiand today for the play
of righteousness in the lives and works of men. Not
onlv must the Churrh be ahreaQt r?f the Homand r\f tbe
age for honesty and purity and integrity, but must
lead the age in these demands and must provide for
satisfying them. The only way the Church can do this
is by developing in man those forces which make manhood.
The world estimates the value of the Church by
the character of the people who constitute it. We can
not quarrel with the test. We must meet it. The
thing that grips men and secures a hearing for faith
and a standing for the Church is what the people of
it- r*\ 1- - - -
me ^nurtri are in tnemseives. i nere must De no gap
between the creed of the Church and the character of
its members. There must be no deference to conventionalities.
The veriest villains mask themselves in
these and are patterns of propriety until detection
shows the leprosy beneath the robe. The purifying
tides of genuine godliness must flow from the deeps
of God into all our Churches and sweep away all de