Article January 1, 1903 Issue

Religious Items

with contributions from Macduff, Cunningham Geikie, Theodore Parker, Stopford A. Brooke, Charles B. Upton

He [the editor of The United Presbyterian] thinks that the special need of the Church at the present time is expressed in words which he quotes from Dr. William Speer: "It is the prayer that shall bring again the rushing, mighty wind, so the it shall fill not this or that house, but the nation, the world; that shall scatter forth thousands of evangelists, and teachers, and helpers." Undoubtedly the Church does need prayer, and it needs the movement of spiritual forces similar to those that operated on the Day of Pentecost. But what the Church needs more than anything else at the present time is an appreciation of the immutable and universal character of spiritual law. People take the laws of nature seriously, but they think that the laws which pertain to the soul are of little account, if, indeed, they are really laws at all. We need to realize practically that the spiritual laws of life cannot be affected in any way by our obedience or disobedience, by our respect or disrespect for them: but that we are blessed or condemned by our attitude to those laws. If the members of our modern Churches really felt that they were not simply playing at Church, the Church would not be a social resort, it would not be one among the many respectabilities of life, but would become the exponent of principles of living which men could take home seriously to themselves, and go to work and practise in their daily lives in precisely the same way as they put into practice business or agricultural truths.

New-Church Messenger.

The crisis of the Church is upon us. From one point of view the Church is in a position of tremendous power. Its membership is counted by millions; it numbers among them the illustrious and the great. It is equipped with institutions for every work; schools of every grade, almost beyound number, and agencies for the transmission of knowledge. It is in close touch with the whole world. Men are hastening with the speed of the wind, and words are flashing to the ends of the earth in the lightning's path. In the hands of the Church is wealth untold to command all. And yet the world is driving on in a mad career of worldliness. The Church, the witness of Jesus, is speaking with a voice too weak to be heard outside its walls. The great agency of God for His kingdom is exhibiting but little power as against the kingdom of Satan. We believe in the kingdom of God, and are sure of its ultimate extension to all the world, but at the present time the power promised is not upon the Church at large.

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