Article July 28, 1906 Issue

From our Exchanges

with contributions from W. D. P. Bliss, Issac O. Rankin

Our churches lose their grip only as they fail to let go of the outlived and outloved. They have to recognize that the people have become utterly indifferent to those affairs which dominated the old pessimistic era. Who indeed constitutes the Church to-day, and who are best qualified to represent Jesus Christ to the present generation? Is it those who have formulated creeds out of antiquated science, which they insist that we shall fight for, whether we believe it or not, who have built costly churches which they lock up for six days in the week? Or is it the industrialists who work six days in the week and do all their work, but, if, on the seventh, are not found in the assembly with the minority, are somewhere giving themselves for the betterment of the world? The matter has got to be looked into. Who are the Christians of the twentieth century; and to what class does Jesus naturally belong?—The Christian Register.

If again, we are to do our work in the present day, with all its sociological and economic problems, the Church must speak the language of the people. It must, to take an instance, know the manual worker and the social reformer, it must feel what they feel of the injustice and oppression at which their souls burn, and it must apply Christian principles to the solution of their problems. The victory will be more than half won if the Church can make them understand that it knows their problems. The victory will be a miserable failure, and the repel men who ought to be won to its ranks, if it cannot bring them its inspired message translated into a language that they know.

The Churchman.

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