Article November 10, 1906 Issue

FROM OUR EXCHANGES

with contributions from Henry Goodwin Smith, E. V. Stevens

The average man believes in salvation by character and life, and he does not believe that a man's salvation is dependent on the opinions he may hold on doubtful theological points. He will agree with the minister that good works cannot save him, but the faith, faith that the pulpit is urging as all-important, seems to him to involve a considerable number of superfluous beliefs on side issues. And he also feels that it would be a good thing for the church if the minister would preach to some of his most affluent supporters the inexorable necessity of a holy and Christlike character if they expect to be saved. Here scientific theology supports completely the average man's contention, and proclaims that a man is saved by what he is and not by what he thinks, or what he says he thinks, or thinks he thinks. "Saving faith," faith in the only Biblical sense, is simply trust in God, confidence in Jesus, and does not, of necessity, involve any intricate speculations as to the inner constitution of the Godhead, or as to the eternal relation of the Man of Nazareth to that Godhead, or as to the precise stipulations and specifications of the "scheme of salvation." These matters are interesting to the religious imagination, but a man can believe and be saved without reference to any of them.

Henry Goodwin Smith.
The Outlook.

The conviction prevails that the pulpit has lost its power. The extent of this conviction is a just cause for anxiety even to those who are persuaded that the conviction is not well founded. With many devout Christian people, there is dissatisfaction with, even distrust and undisguised disapproval of, much preaching that men hear when they claim the privileges of worship. Nothing is to be gained by minimizing or evading this fact. Apologies offered for the preacher because of the indifference or antagonism of the age cannot avail. Passionate condemnation of the age by the preacher will not excuse him. He is sent to save the age. Just here, then, we would express the conviction that preaching has not lost its power. No age has been more eager to hear and obey the preacher who really preached, whether it be from pulpit or platform or editorial chair. And in no nation have the effects of preaching been more effective in shaping its destinies than in our own country to-day. Where the preacher has a message and delivers it under the pressure of St. Paul's standard, "Woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel," he has hearers and he has followers. Men hear and obey.—The Churchman.

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