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The Place of the Church in Modern Life
UMAN life is a matter of spirit. The
place which a nation occupies is deter
termined by the quality -of its spirit.
Civilization is simply the progressive
■spiritualizaition of a race. The African
jungle dweller has no civilization be
cause he has no spirit capable of produc
ing and sustaining it. A partially devel
oped spirit produces a partially devel-
H
oped civilization, such as our own at the present
time, with its contrasts of great wealth and great
poverty; ignorance and wisdom; lawlessness and
morality.
It is always true that an unequally developed spir
itual life reflects itself in an unequally developed
civilization. When the spirit of a people can no
longer sustain its civilization, that civilization de
cays and disappears. Rome was great in laws, lit
erature, art, commerce, war. Rome faded from the
earth because she went rotten at the heart. The
material civilization of Egypt was great among the
ancients, but when the spirit died, Egypt died.
Greece was great in art, in literature, in politics,
in all that stands for the best apart from religion.
Greece perished from among the nations as a polit
ical entity, because her spirit was no longer equal
to the task of sustaining and re-creating her civiliza
tion.
CHRISTIANITY A NECESSITY.
The spirit of man expresses its noblest powers in
the home, in politics, in commerce, in art, in educa
tion, and in religion. Os these, religion is the most
universal and fundamental, because most completely
spiritual. The home stands next in the scale. In
fact, 'the one is but the symbol of the other, for
“He setteth the solitary in families,’’ and from
the Father is named every home under the skies.
The Christian religion does the most of any religion
for the spirit of man. There are many religions,
but the religion of Jesus Christ is the most spiritual,
most simple, and therefore most universal. It fur
nishes the moist powerful moral impulse, the divin
es! moral ideals, in a word, does the most for the
spirit of man, and so becomes the fountain of great
est blessing trickling out through all the channels
of human activity.
The chief social instrument of the Christian reli
gion is the church. It therefore follows that the
church is the best place for the investment of life,
time, money and thought that the world contains.
Here is where our American civilization is in dan
ger. We do not believe in the church as we ought.
No one doubts our belief in politics. In fact, it is
positively pathetic to notice the fetich-like worship
of laws, which has spread so widely over our land.
'Some public abuse arises. Straightway we pass a
law in the childlike conviction that the law will
somehow enforce itself, and so destroy the abuse;
while the lesson of history ever sounds the
stern message that law is simply the ex
pression of the moral energy of a people,
and is powerless unless the same energy which
creates the law, enforces it. We believe in educa
tion, but with small reference to the fundamental
spiritual condition of the young who are being edu
cated. It is one of the most sobering phenomena
of our time, that our great educational systems do
so little for the spirit of the young. We believe in
art somewhat, especially as a means of strengthen
ing and alleviating our commercial enterprises. We
believe supremely in commerce, and all the powers
of the human spirit converge with passionate ener
gy and enthusiasm at this point in this country.
But thousands of empty and formal churches, di
vorced from vital touch with life, testify eloquently
to the solemn fact that we are blind to the supreme
need of our age. We have money, education, laws,
art, industrial opportunity. We need spirit. The
temple is beautiful, but empty. To sum up the ar
gument: Human life is a matter of spirit. All hu
man institutions are but incarnations of and min
istries to the human spirit. Religion is the most
fundamental expression of spirit. The Christian re-
< By C. A. 'Eaton, in The Standard
The Golden Age for April 11, 1907.
ligion is the best religion. The church is the best
social expression and instrument of the Christian
religion. Therefore the church is the place where
men ought to put themselves without reserve for
service.
PLACE OF THE CHURCH IN MODERN LIFE.
The place of the church in modern life is a place
of first importance. An analysis of the general con
ditions already advanced completely substantiates
this claim. First of ail, the church is of supreme
importance in modern life because it affects direct
ly the spirits of men. The school stimulates and
trains the intellect. The church re-creates and
cultures the whole man. The school is like the pio
neer who clears the land. The church is like the
sky, out of which sunshine and rain fall with trans
forming energy upon the prepared field. The church
goes to the center of a man’s life directly. It lifts
him into immediate communion with the spiritual
God. It joins his life in its entirety with God’s
life. It resurrects his spirit, illuminates his intel
ligence, energizes his morals.
The place of the church in modern life is of first
importance because the church is the best social
solvent in the world. The tendency of modern life
is for one nationality to overflow another. The
various streams of national history are beginning to
commingle in the broad stream of our common hu
manity, with common interests, and consciously rec
ognizing a common destiny. In our own country
we have a mixed population. Heterogeneous is
the word used by our writers of social questions.
Unlike in national origin, in social conditions and
ideals, in religion, in language, habits of thought,
how is this vast, mixed multitude to be brought into
unity and harmony? The school does much with
the children, giving them a common language and
literature, and a common political ideal. Commerce
does much. Politics helps. But the only social
unity which is permanent and real is a moral and
spiritual unity. Until we all become one in the
Lord, we are not of one mind at all. Men are never
alike, until their spirits are alike; and their spirits
are never alike until they have found the unity de
scribed in “One faith, one Lord, one baptism, one
God and Father of us all.” While the school edu
cates powers already existing’, the church puts into
each heart a new power, which is the same power
in all, producing the same love, inspired by the
same ideals, working by tlie same standard toward
the same end.
The church is of supreme importance in modern
life, because it gives morality a divine sanction,
illuminates conscience, energizes the moral nature
• and thus lifts daily life into the region of the di
vine. It develops character in its totality. The
whole man is adjusted to eternal realities and
breathed upon with divine life. Thus the church
becomes the university, not only of the common
man, but of all men in common. The church is the
university of the spirit. It has a message for the
weak, the ignorant, the degraded; and the noblest
of the race find in its fellowship and service su
preme satisfaction. I marvel at the blindness, the
indifference, the lack of statesmanship, tire niggard
liness, the actual hostility, the frivolous disregard
manifested by many toward the church of Christ.
In this they are blind. The things I have said are
true, tested either by the verdict of human history,
or by actual, present, individual experience. The
country with empty and dead churches is doomed,
not because the churches arc empty and dead, but
because the spirit, of which the church is the ex
pression and symbol, is empty and dead.
THE OPPORTUNITY OF THE CHURCH.
The modern city church stands face to face with
the most glorious opportunity of the ages. It ought
to emphasize the Spirit in everything. It ought to
break away from traditional notions of church ar
chitecture and forms of worship. It ought to be
the recognized social center, not only of its mem
bership, but of the community at large. Its build-
ings ought to breathe the atmosphere of home, a
place not only where men can find God, but where
■they can find each other. Its buildings ought to be
the natural meeting place for all the higher inter
ests in the community. In a word, the modern
church, in spirit, method and physical equip
ment, ought to be the most influential factor and
force in the civilization to which it gives life.
My advice to young men and women is, invest
your lives in the church of Christ; to strong as
piring* youths I say, go info the gospel ministry and
make the pulpits of our land throb with divine pas
sion and enthusiasm. To the faithful, consecrated
members of all churches I would say, hold fast the
faith. You are wisest of your generation. Yours
is the work that will stand the test of time and of
eternity. To the poor, I would say, enter the
church and find that wealth and poverty are but
matters of the spirit. To the thoughtless rich I
would sound the sorrowful message of Jesus, “One
thing thou lackest. ” You need to kindle your spirit
at the altar of God. Throw your enthusiasm, your
culture, your financial ability into this great spir
itual enterprise. Above the portals of all dead
and formal churches, God is writing the fateful
word Ichabod. Let them turn away, before it is
too late, from worldliness, barren intellectualism,
dull formalities, cowardly secondaryism. Let them
believe in the centrality of the church’s mission and
message; believe that man, like his Maker, is Spir
it; believe in the might and permanence of spir
itual forces, and so believing, live and work and
suffer.
Holv to Win.
Come a cropper, then all right!
Gave you quite a jolt.
Guess you wasn’t holdin’ tight—
Take another holt.
You’ll ketch on, my son, an’ stay,
No use feelin’ sore,
Layin’ down don’t never pay.
Tackle it wunst more.
No use ever givin’ up,
Actin’ like a coot.
Emerlate the brindle pup
Hanging to a root.
Make your mind up you kin do
What’s been done afore,
If you fail a time or two
Tackle it wunst more.
Hump your shoulders, set your jaw,
Spit upon your hands.
Go right at it, tooth an’ claw;
Some hit alius lands.
You’ll git knocked out wunst or twice,
That seems pretty shore.
Still you fol lei* my advice,
Tackle it wunst more.
—-Chicago News.
“John,” asked the lawyer’s wife, who had re
cently taken up (he health-culture fad, “is it best
to lie on the right side or the left side?’ “My
dear,” replied the legal luminary, “if one is on
the right side, it isn’t usually necessary to lie at
all.”
r, »»
Guest: “1 want some raw oysters They must
not be too large nor too small, not too salty and
not too fat. They must be cold, and I want them
quick.’’ Waiter: “Yes, sir. Will you have them
with or without pearls, sir?”
“Say,” said the irate victim, “you advertised
that the house was five minutes’ walk from the
station.” “Well.”’ replied the agent. “Why,
it’s nearly thirty minutes!” “Ah, then, as we
said further on in the advertisement, it is more
than we claimed.”
W. T. WINN, General Insurance, representing
several of the beet companies in all the lines.
Phones 496. 219 Empire Building.
11