Article March 30, 1912 Issue

FROM OUR EXCHANGES

with contributions from Frederick Lynch, W. C. Richardson, J. Bruce Gilman

[Frederick Lynch in Christian Work and Evangelist.]

The minister for today must believe in his own times. He must have faith that our time is as holy as was olden time. He must believe that the great movements sweeping through the heart of society are as much the operations of the Spirit of God as the leading of Israel out of the oppression in Egypt. Our time is full of wonderful quickenings of the human conscience, deep stirrings of the human heart, passionate enthusiasms for humanity, growing determinations to rid the world of some of its age-long cruelties, highly organized warfares against lingering crimes. There has been a new birth of the social consciousness, which is manifesting itself in a sense of the oneness of humanity. A new society and a new world is rising upon the vision of select souls in every nation. The preacher of today must see in this the revelation of God's will and purpose as of old the prophets saw it in the operations of Israel's national life. He must be able to discern the secrets of the times and lead men in the building of the city of God. He must believe that the final purpose of God for this world is, as Christ declared, the founding of the kingdom of God in the earth, and he must see that these enthusiasms of our time are his methods, as well as revelations of the nature of the kingdom. And, above all, he must believe in the Messianic character of his own nation. He must believe that God has raised up and ordained his own country to teach the world some eternal truth just as he ordained Israel. The truth Israel taught was the righteous God demanding righteousness in His children. He has ordained the United States to teach the world the real brotherhood of man. This must be an article of faith with the preacher for our times, for it is the great truth of the twentieth century. God has sent to us fifty nationalities—millions of men of every race, language, temperament, ideal, and habit. He has jumbled them all up together in one great melting-pot. In Europe they have hated, fought, and slain each other. Here our nation must transform them into brothers of each other and servants of the Lord.

[Observer.]

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