Article December 27, 1913 Issue

From Our Exchanges

with contributions from R. A. Dunlap

[Western Christian Advocate]

The nineteenth century immortalized itself by its inventions and discoveries. But the rediscovery of the heart, scope, and mission of Christianity was its greatest achievement. It returned to the main thought and teachings of Jesus concerning the kingdom of heaven. Upon it broke the glorious meaning of the prayer: "Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth." Religion, no longer a limited department of life, was perceived as entering into life as a whole, and giving shape, significance, and impulse to all earthly activities, personal, domestic, social, industrial, professional, governmental. No longer narrow and individualistic, but universal and corporate, there was nothing human that did not concern it. This inspiring conception changed the whole front of the church's attitude toward the world.

Its functions, therefore, were widened inconceivably. Its calls to service surpassed enumeration. The decalogue was seen to embrace as many commandments concerning man as God; the Sermon on the Mount to relate chiefly to earthly relations and responsibilities; religion to be not, first of all, a preparation for a life hereafter as much as for the life that now is; the Bible to be a book for the living even more than for the dying. The new conception, this return to Christ and his gospel, brought about a thorough revolution.

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