Article April 15, 1911 Issue

FROM OUR EXCHANGES

with contributions from William Jennings Bryan, Addison Moore, E. Umbach, W. B. Selbie

[Congregationalist and Christian World.]

Here, also, is our encouragement. Much of the complaint against the church arises from blind overlooking of accomplishment. There are many good men in the earth whose goodness never comes to recognition. "The healing of the world," said Bayard Taylor, "is in its nameless saints." There is not one church, we hope, in the whole land where a Christian challenged to produce a witness would not turn instinctively to some man or woman rich in love to God and man and trusted by all men in emergencies. We are wealthier than we know in such Christlike lives. They are the salt that keeps the age from corruption and the light that sheds the rays of the divine love and goodness through the darkness of the time.

Let the church, then, that laments the apparent decadence of its influence ask itself this question first: Are we attending to our own special business of producing Christlike characters? Is the fact of church-membership a guarantee, or even a presumption, of justice, charity, brotherly kindness, long-suffering patience and broad-mindedness? Would a man in distress of body, mind, or estate turn first to a neighbor for aid and counsel because he is a Christian? Are we so free from quarrels, jealousies, and complainings that we represent in any degree the character of Jesus? In facing these questions we shall be facing our own peculiar and special work.

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