Article January 18, 1913 Issue

FROM OUR EXCHANGES

with contributions from W. E. Orchard, Polemus H. Swift, David S. Cairns

[Continent.]

When we hear a great public evil denounced, how do we feel about it? Will some of us applaud the preacher and urge him to go after the rascals again? Will some of us oppose the preacher and quote solemn proverbs about shoemakers' sticking to their lasts? But the work has not gone very far unless we, and men like us, grow serious and want to know what we need to do ourselves to keep clear of the evil, and then to clear the land of it. As there is danger of a man's seeking applause, so there is danger of hearers' feeling that they have done their part when they have approved what was said. It is a dangerously virtuous feeling that we have when we declare that a sermon has really expressed our own notions. The real question is, whether those notions of ours are tending to change our lives. Applauding proves nothing except that we know our responsibility. It may betoken a good state of mind, but it says nothing about the state of will.

[Christian Register.]

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