| WAY OF FAITH |
Modern thought is a mighty force. It is either subservient to the Gospel or else
it is the deadliest enemy of the Gospel. For making it subservient, religious
emotion is not enough, intellectual labor is also necessary. And that labor is
being neglected. The Church has turned to easier tasks. And now she is reaping
the fruits of her indolence. Now she must battle for her life.
The situation is desperate. It might discourage us. But not if we are truly
Christians. Not if we are living in vital communion with the risen Lord. If we
are really convinced of the truth of our message, then we can proclaim it before
a world of enemies, then the very difficulty of our task, the very scarcity of
our allies becomes an inspiration, then we can even rejoice that God did not
place us in an easy age, but in a time of doubt and perplexity and battle.
The Christian cannot be satisfied so long as any human activity is either
opposed to Christianity or out of all connection with Christianity. Christianity
must pervade not merely all nations, but also all of human thought. The
Christian, therefore, cannot be indifferent to any branch of earnest human
endeavor. It must all be brought into some relation to the Gospel. It must be
studied either in order to be demonstrated as false, or else in order to be made
useful in advancing the Kingdom of God.
The Church must seek to conquer not merely every man for Christ, but also the
whole of man. We are accustomed to encourage ourselves in our discouragements by
the thought of the time when every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that
Jesus is Lord. No less inspiring is the other aspect of the great consummation.
That will also be a time when doubts have disappeared, when every contradiction
has been removed, when all of science converges to one great conviction, when
all of art is devoted to one great end, when all of human thinking is permeated
by the refining, ennobling influence of Jesus, when every thought has been
brought into subjection to the obedience of Christ.
The Church is puzzled by the world's influence. She is trying to overcome it by
adapting her message to the fashions of the day. But if, instead, she would
descend into the secret place of meditation, if by the clear light of the Gospel
she would seek an answer not merely to the questions of the hour but, first of
all, to the eternal problems, of the spiritual world, then perhaps, by God's
grace, through His good Spirit, in His good time, she might issue forth once
more with power, and an age of doubt might be followed by the dawn of an era of
faith.
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