|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 43
We must set our faces against allowing congregations to embrace but one
social class, or several easily combined social strata in the community.
In our American towns the Protestant communions are separated more by
social caste than by religious conviction. People attend the church
where they find "their kind." Poor people do not feel themselves at
home, even spiritually, among the well-to-do, and the children of
comfortable homes are not permitted to go to the same Sunday School with
the children of the tenements. Class lines are as apparent, and almost
as divisive, in our churches as anywhere else. The Church of Christ
under such circumstances ceases to be a unifying factor in society; its
teaching of brotherhood becomes a mockery. In every community there will
be found some entirely unchurched social group; and the churches
themselves will be impoverished by the absence of the spiritual
appreciations to be found most developed in persons of that stratum. Our
denominational divisions tend to accentuate our social divisions. Church
unity, lessening the number of congregations in a locality, would help
to make the churches that remained more socially inclusive. Meanwhile
the "one class church," in any but the very rare homogeneous community,
ought to realize that, whatever Christian service it may render, it is
all the while doing the cause of Christ a great disservice, and is in
need of a radical reorganization and an equally radical spiritual
renewal into its Lord's wider sympathies.
Personally we must rigidly examine ourselves and test our right to be
considered members of the Body of Christ. There are some New Testament
evidences of the Spirit that we must still demand of ourselves. One is
loyal obedience to Jesus: "No man can say, Jesus is Lord, but in the
Holy Spirit." A second is filial trust in God: "Because ye are sons, God
sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father."
A third is self-devoting love akin to that shown on Calvary: "The fruit
of the Spirit is love;" "By this shall all men know that ye are My
disciples, if ye have love one to another." And if the Spirit is within
us, He is eager to work through us. We may be quenching Him by laziness,
by timidity, by preoccupation. We are of the Body of Christ only as we
are "members each in his part."
Above all we must constantly remind ourselves of the Church's adequacy
in God for its work. When we speak of the Church we are apt to think
first of its limitations; when Paul spoke of the Church its divine
resources were uppermost in his mind--"the Church which is His Body, the
fulness of Him that filleth all in all." Perhaps the Church's greatest
weakness is unbelief in its own divine sufficiency. We confront the
indifference, the worldliness, the wickedness of men; we face an earth
hideous with war and hateful with selfishness. We think of the Church's
often absurdly needless divisions, the backwardness of its thought, the
coldness of its devotion, the inefficiency of many of its methods, the
want of consecration in a host of its members, the imperfections and
limitations of the best and most earnest of them; and we do not really
expect any marked advance; we hardly anticipate that the Church will
hold its own. Would not our Lord chide us, "O ye of little faith! all
power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth, go ye therefore and make
disciples of all nations"? "There are diversities of workings, but the
same God who worketh all in all."
The Church exists to make the world the Kingdom of God. In the holy city
of John's vision there is no temple, for its whole life is radiant with
the presence of God and of the Lamb. In the final order there will be no
Church, for its task is finished when God is all in all. Meanwhile the
Church has no excuse for being except as it continually renders itself
less and less necessary. It has to lose itself in sacrificial service in
order to save itself. It must never ask itself, "Will the community
support me?" but "Can I inspire the community?" As it seeks to do God's
will, it can count on Him for daily bread; a more luxurious diet would
not be wholesome for its spiritual life. It exists only to spend and be
spent in bringing the children of God everywhere one by one under the
sway of His love and presenting them perfect in Christ, and in putting
His Spirit in control of homes, industry, amusements, education,
government, and the whole life of human society, until we live in
"realms where the air we breathe is love."
CHAPTER VIII
THE CHRISTIAN LIFE EVERLASTING
Various factors combine to make it hard for men today to believe vividly
in life beyond the grave. Our science has emphasized the closeness of
the connection between our spiritual life and our bodies. If there be an
abnormal pressure upon some part of the brain, we lose our minds; an
operation upon a man's skull may transform him from a criminal into a
reputable member of society. It is not easy for us to conceive how life
can continue after the body dies. Diderot put the difficulty more than a
century ago: "If you can believe in sight without eyes, in hearing
without ears, in thinking without a head, if you could love without a
heart, feel without senses, exist when you are nowhere and be something
without extension, then we might indulge this hope of a future life."
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|