Article January 9, 1915 Issue

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[American Lutheran Survey]

In a recent sermon a present-day preacher said: "The great need of our day is not the discovery of new truths, but the vitalization of the old ones; and the man of the hour would be he who could breathe new life into certain simple, elementary truths which have been in the church's possession throughout all the years of her continuance." Emphatically, the need is not for new truths. What proof is there that the old truth has ever worn out? What evidence is there in history that the gospel of Jesus Christ does not meet all the demands of the soul? If it does this, why do we need new truths? Again, if it is the truth, how can the philosophies which are actually different from it be truth? If they are not truth, how can they help? In so far as they are truth, are they not the same old gospel? If they are, is there need of them?

Why does the old truth need "vitalization"? Only because it does not reach the mature life for which God designed it until it becomes identified with men's inner and outer life. Its own vitality has never been impaired. The men who were to become one with it, and who were thus to complete God's design, have failed to respond to its vitalizing contact. This has sometimes been because the preacher of God's vitalizing truth has transmitted less than God would give him to transmit. The preacher from whom we have quoted probably meant simply this: If the preacher of this day, advanced as it is, will preach the old truth just as it is and for all that it is worth, he will need nothing more and his hearers will have abundant blessing.

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