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The Work of the Church in the Twentieth Century
Text: —I am become all things to all men, that I
may by all means save some.—l Corinthians 9:22.
HERE is considerable discussion today
in the realms of church life concerning
the church for the present time. More
minds are exercised about it than the
average man thinks. Every thinking
mind is bound to be impressed with the
fact that the church is not accomplish
ing its mission. It is doing great good;
more good than all the other institu-
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tions in the world combined; for it is Christianity,
after all, that underlies everything that is blessing
the world today.
But when everything good is said about the
church, it remains to be said with equal truth, that
it is failing, signally, to do its best.
I do not say this as a pessimistic critic, nor do I
in any sense mean to reflect upon the church as it
exists in the mind of its Founder. To Him it is
His fair bride, without spot or blemish; but as we
find it operated by our imperfect hands, it is far
from being spotless and free from censure and
criticism.
It must also be Understood that I am speaking
not of any special organization or denomination.
My idea of the church is far more significant than
that. What I mean when I refer to the church is
the spiritual body of our Lord. This embraces the
Christians of all ecclesiastical denominations and
bodies.
But, while I am not directly speaking of individ
ual churches or denominations, I am, as a matter
of fact, including them.
AS TO THE SUCCESSFUL CHURCH.
What is to constitute the successful church of
the twentieth century? This is my question,
whether it relates to the individual church, a de
nomination, or the world of believers in Christ.
In answering the question it may be said that
the church is to go ahead in the future, as in the
past, contending for the faith once delivered t>
the saints. And this is true. No church is going
to succeed in the highest sense of the word that
ignores the question of doctrine. Doctrine to the
church is like the skeleton to the body. For the
body to be strong, healthy and commanding, it
must have a strong, healthy, well-adjusted skele
ton. Bow-legs and rickets result from unhealthy,
soft skeleton tissue.
So with the church. Wherever its creed is so
broad and flexible as to straddle every fad and fan
cy of the age, it is because there is not a sufficiency
of doctrinal salt to harden and fix its faith ami
practice. I believe in doctrine, especially when it
is understood to apply to all our foundation prin
ciples. Some are so narrow as to limit the injunc
tion of the apostle to “contend for the faith,” to
the little differences between them and other peo
ple. That is not the kind of doctrine that will
strengthen. It has its place, but it is not all of
it; not all of it by a great deal. The injunction
is “contend for the faith once delivered to the
saints,” which means to take in all the fundamen
tals of our belief as Christians.
But it is not enough to contend for the faith.
Too much doctrine is like too much skeleton. The
healthy body must have nerve and blood, heart and
muscle. There is no life in the skeleton. Life is
in that which the skeleton supports, and from which
in turn it gets its life. And so in the matter of
doctrine. There is absolutely no life in our creeds,
however orthodox and scriptural they may be. Life
is in the spirit. Christ, by the Holy Spirit, is the
life of the church. When He comes and forms
Himself around our creeds and doctrines, then there
is life and power; then our doctrine serves the
church and impresses the world. Without this,
there is not only a lack of life, but the world can
not respect us. It is life that begets respect.
THE CHURCH NEEDS LIFE.
I have heard that many years ago a number of
Tabernacle Sermon by Reb. Len G. Broughton
Stenographically reported for The Golden Age.—Copyright applied for.
medical students were in a hilarious state of mind.
There were twenty or thirty dead bodies in the
room, but they were nothing but corpses, and hence
there was no especial respect for their presence.
Finally a new subject was brought in. It was <
girl, supposed to be about grown. The very first
stroke of the scalpel brought blood. The girl was
not dead. You can imagine that there was quite
a change in that room, and that it was instantan
eous. Carousing was turned to awe. Disregard was
turned into respect, and everything that could be
done was done to fully restore that girl.
The cause for this change was life. It was dis
covered that there was life in that body. It was
very faint, but it was there.
So it is to be with the conquering church. We
have not to preach less doctrine, but more life.
The old foundation verities of the Bible fought over
and successfully defended by our fathers, must have
life injected into them. The spirit of Jesus Christ
must fill them and cover them so that Christ Him
self will be the center, the heart and the life of all
our doctrine.
But not only is the church to contend for its
doctrine and its life, it must also concern itself
about the direction of its life and the application
of its doctrine. This is the main thought that I
have in mind at this time.
What are some of the main lines along which
the successful church of the present day is to seek
to apply its teaching?
WAR AGAINST SIN.
In the first place, it must declare unremitting
war against sin. The words of the old prophet,
“Prepare for war, Wake up the mighty men. Let
all the men of war draw near. Let them come up.
Beat your plow-shares into swords and your prun
ing-hooks into spears,” must be heard.and heeded
by the church today.
Sin and righteousness cannot live together. They
cannot live together in the individual, nor can they
live together in the church.
The church, if it is dominated by the spirit of
Jesus Christ, carries forever with it a sword that
knows no scabbard. It knows no flag of truce. Its
motto is, “Conquer or die!”
I know that the whining sentimentalist will cry,
“Peace, peace!” Our blessed Lord Himself has
been more misrepresented at this point than any
other. Talk about peace with Him, when the world
reeks and rolls in sin! It is preposterous! He said
Himself, “I came not to bring peace upon the
earth, but a sword.” Why did he say this? Be
cause it was true. He saw the world’s sin, and He
felt it. The church was constituted to fight it;
fight it in any way and every way possible, to fight
it individually and collectively. This the world
waits to see the church do.
To be sure, here and there, there is a little skir
mish. Certain phases of sin and iniquity are at
tacked, but the world waits to see the church of to
day set its jaw and clinch its teeth and unsheath its
sword, and wade into sin wherever it finds it, and
never stop until the last sun goes down and Christ
Himself is seated upon His throne.
And this fight against sin, let it be understood,
must be sincere. It must deal with conditions at
our door with the same unflinching bravery and
courage that it attacks the outside world. This
has not always been true. We have found it much
easier and more congenial to our people to con
sider the lawlessness in Turkey or Russia than at
home. We are quite ready to brand in letters of
flaming colors the hateful word “anarchy” upon
the nation or people that winks at the dynamite
bomb, but gloat and boast over the “unwritten
law” at home that is just as much a species of
anarchy as any dynamiter that ever throw a bomb.
SIN AT HOME.
We talk of usurpation of thrones and cry out
against the mob that does it, but our lips are shut
and our tongues are still when we stand face to
The Golden Age for May 23, 1907.
face with the bribery and corruption in our own
country and at our own door that robs the people
of their choice in government.
Grafters and grafting are big words, crimson in
color, when they are seen in the distance, but when
it is going on right in our midst by men, and some
times women, who sit in our pews and pay our
expenses, it is quite another thing. Sometimes it is
actually respectable, and serves to give church pro
motion.
Gamblers and gambling; oh, how detestable the
words! They are associated with everything that is
black and slimy, but they are not always so. If
applied to a professional black-leg, there is no word
that can express our contempt, and we fight him
without letting up. But what about it when it
is at our door? What about it when it is seen in
the fashionable euchre, whist or bridge party in
our community? What about it when it is partici
pated in by leading members of our congregations
and churches? Ah, there is where we show our
cowardice, and there is where the world loses re
spect for us!
Every sane and sensible man, whether in the
church or out of k, knows that there is no differ
ence in principle between the black-leg and his
poker and the society woman in our churches and
her bridge or whist.
The church of this day has got to have a con
science with respect to these things. It must be
consistent in its fight. It must not look abroad
while the devil lurks at its own door.
THE COMMON PEOPLE.
Again, the church of today must reach the com
mon people. Boast as we please, the fact remains
that the church at present is separate from the peo
ple. Go to the crowded centers of population, visit
the churches and look over their audiences, and the
conviction will seize one so strongly that he can’t
throw it off that there is a mighty chasm between
the church and the people. Not half the people in
our so-called Christian communities can be called
church-goers. Our own city is regarded as a great
church-going community, and yet, some time ago,
from a month’s statistics, carefully gathered, it
was seen that not more than an average of 25,000
people attend church in our city with any regu
larity. I feel sure that if a careful estimate were
made throughout all our country, even here in the
South, we should be greatly disappointed and dis
couraged in the matter of church attendance.
This is specially so among the laboring people.
They seem to think that there is little sympathy
for them in the average church. They prefer their
ledges and fraternal orders. It is actually coming
to pass that the majority of meetings of labor un
ions and labor clubs, purely secular in their char
acter, are held on Sunday.
Now, what is to be done about this lamentable
situation? In the first place, there must be more
cordiality and sympathy with this class of people
in the average church service. The church is not
intended to save those that are already saved. The
mission of the church is to seek and save the lost.
What the church needs most in the way of equip
ment is to adapt itself to the tastes and tempera
ments of the vast masses of unsaved beings around
it. Everything has got to bend in this direction,
from the architecture of the building to the ser
mon.
How many churches ever think of the crowd in
the arrangement of its choir and the selection of
its music? Usually it is a little handful in .every
church that is regarded. Here and there is a man
or woman with a musical taste and they must be
satisfied, while the vast crowd knows nothing of
such things and prefers quite a different arrange
ment.
The church that is to win favor today must give
attention to this very important line of service.
DOWN-TOWN CENTER.
Our brethren in England have waked up to the
realization of this fact, and are magnificently pro-