From our Exchanges

with contributions from C. T. Winchester, W. D. P. Bliss, Charles S. Macfarland

I do think I have the right to demand of my preacher who ministers to me the truth, that he has tested it by his own thinking or his own experience, that he has made it his own truth. I do not care to have him minister to me somebody else's probable opinion. I do not care to have him preach his reading to me. I would have him read; but his reading should have passed through his own mind. "Reading," says my Lord Bacon, "maketh a full man:" but when a man is constantly spilling over his reading, it looks as if his capacity was not great. What my preacher says to me from his pulpit on Sunday may not be novel or profound, or brilliant, or striking; I have no right to expect that. But I do expect that it shall be vital; not second-hand but fresh from his thought, warm with his own feeling. To such a message coming from such a man, this man whom I know and love as my pastor seven days in the week, whom I never see without wanting to shake hands with him in good fellowship—to such a message from such a man I shall listen, you may be sure.

Prof. C. T. Winchester.
The Hartford Seminary Record.

If we had no higher thought of spiritual power than that of some vast and everywhere present force, ready to flow in where the will of man affords it an opening, the first condition of utilizing that force would be to open the doorst of the soul to give it entrance—in other words, to venture upon it, as the chemist ventures upon mechanical forces and the machinist upon mechanical forces. And here is just the point where all the churches stand in constant danger from pure intellectuality or the inertia of fixed tradition. Joy and enthusiasm are fruits of the personal experience which comes of venturing with God. Unless we heed Christ's call to this venture, we have no power to move and hold men. We have not exhausted the possibilities of joy and strength with any call to life which does not include the demand for courage in experiment. And unless our Christianity offers that joy of personal acquaintance and experiment as a present thing and not a hope postponed beyond the grave, we are outside the field of Jesus, whose favorite word is "Now."—The Congregationalist.

America is not bad. Our men of wealth are as a class the ablest and most generous rich men of the world. They live, many of them, the gospel of wealth. But this is not the Gospel of Christ, and the wealthy know it as truly as do the poor. Therefore, while the Church endorses this false gospel, neither the rich nor the poor take the Church very seriously. ...

But if the Church will rise to the situation, if she will dare to follow the Christ, if she will say to the nation that it is wrong, if she will show plainly what is right, she will be surprised to find how many of the wealthy, as well as of the poor, will rally to such a Church. The multitudes are ready. Religion is not dead; but the people are as sheep without a shepherd. Let the Church declare her vision, let the Church, as a body, follow her Lord, and the Church of the Son of man will become the Church that will save the nation. His Gospel can save the world. I know no other that can.

Rev. W. D. P. Bliss.
The Churchman.

Intelligent missionaries are now learning that in many different ways the Spirit has spoken to those who were once regarded as children of Satan, outcasts from the kingdom of heaven. All efficient missionary work now proceeds upon the supposition that whatever is true even in paganism is as sacred as if it were found in the Hebrew or Christian Scriptures, and that the truth may shine even through the fictions of paganism.—Christian Register.

In Jesus we see the revelation of the capacity of human souls to receive God. It is our true and realized humanity revealed to our untrue, unrealized selves.

Rev. Charles S. Macfarland, Ph.D.
The Universalist Leader.

Send a comment to the editors

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit