Article September 21, 1912 Issue

FROM OUR EXCHANGES

with contributions from W. E. Orchard, Frank M. Thomas, Canon E. S. Hughes, W. H. Geistweit

[Watchman.]

Men do not always appreciate or know what is going on in a heart or life, though it is under their constant observation. The Nazarenes had not known of the hours of prayer that Jesus had spent on the hills around their village, or of the hours in which he had pored over the Scriptures and fathomed their depths. They had not known of Mary's "ponderings" or his spiritual experiences. There had been no marked change, only steady growth while he was in Nazareth. When he entered the Jordan and received the Holy Spirit in power and went in the fulness of the Spirit into Galilee, he burst forth like a century plant in fulness of life. Nor could they appreciate the nature of the Messianic work he was to do, because they were looking for a kingdom that came with observation, with honor among men and with civil power. It is very difficult for men to discern the signs of the times and the character of a new era. Their ideas are set in an old mold and they have no vision. Prophetic men cannot be understood or appreciated in their own times or in their own home place, because they are deemed dreamers or revolutionaries. [Universalist Leader.]

We insist that the difficulty of adjusting the church to the world of today, and the problem of the attitude of the church toward social evils, is really a problem of the fundamental philosophy of life and of religion itself. This is not saying that we may not hope for real help in solving social problems from those who stand in the traditional ways of theology. Noble men and women are magnificently inconsistent. Great things may be born in Bethlehem and come out of Nazareth. But there is a more vital question. The demand is for the church to make its venture of faith today. The call is for the church to consecrate itself to the solution of great social problems. The pleading is that of the victims of greed and of lust who cry to this mighty organization of good men and women to come and rescue them from hell. It is the world shouting in the ears of the man on his knees praying for the kingdom to come, that he may get up, stretch himself, and come forth to help renovate the world. [Rev. W. E. Orchard in Christian Commonwealth.]

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