Article March 28, 1908 Issue

FROM OUR EXCHANGES

with contributions from Wingate Snell

[The British Congregationalist]

To most people the unrest in the churches spells not merely dissatisfaction with our moral standards and social achievements, but an intellectual uncertainty that takes the nerve out of Christian enterprise and is a source of the gravest weakness. This is due largely to the new intellectual conditions of to-day, which are profoundly affecting every department of human thought and action. These render necessary a process of theological readjustment which must be difficult and even painful. But it is a natural process, after all, and one that experience has often made familiar in the past. The Christian faith will emerge from its present trial stronger than ever, and the Christian believer will find himself better equipped than before to meet the necessities of the hour. Much, however, depends on the use he makes of his discipline, and a very heavy responsibility rests upon the leaders of religious thought at the present time. . . . They should lead the churches along those paths of human service and sacrifice wherein alone they can test the reality of their spiritual resources and discover the depth of their spiritual needs. . . . Just as it is quite possible to dazzle the eyes by looking at the sun until one can no longer see the way by his light, it is equally possible so to bemuse oneself with theological speculation as to remove religion from all touch with practical things.

[Laird Wingate Snell in The Outlook.]

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