Article December 23, 1911 Issue

FROM OUR EXCHANGES

with contributions from Philip S. Moxom, Lyman Abbott, Walter Rauschenbusch, William Charles O'Donnell, Jr.

[Rev. Philip S. Moxom in Christian Register.]

The grand heresy, I think, has been the identification of the church with the kingdom of God. It is only an instrument for the realization of that kingdom. The moment it ceases to be that, and insists that it is an end rather than a means, the sharp, solvent air of our time will show the pretense or the blunder, and society will pass beyond the church in the great secular movement toward the fulfilment of the divine kingdom. The critical question of questions today is, Will the church align itself to the new conditions, the new truths, and the new demands? The answer to that question depends on the attitude and action of the teachers, the ministers, and the members of the church. The recent marked decline in the supply of able ministers is partly the result of the church's lack of adjustment to the life of the modern world.

It is a day of decision. Religion in the deep, true sense will not decline, revelation will not cease. There are fore-gleams of a new, a great spiritual experience. Science is giving wonderful intimations concerning God and the soul, the law of love, and the eternal life. A change greater than the passing from the Ptolemaic to the Copernican astronomy is coming. Will the church welcome it and assume the spiritual leadership? The change will come through doubt and struggle and fainting of heart in the timid, but it will come.

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