Article June 30, 1917 Issue

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with contributions from The Bishop of Albany, Lyman Abbott, D. L. Ritchie

[The Christian Work]

Inspired words are always finding utterance, and he whose ears are trained well will hear them. They are not all uttered ex cathedra, nor from pulpits or chancels; they may be spoken within the walls of the humblest conventicle or by a Salvationist corporal on a street corner. We often find what strongly approves itself to us as the message of the Spirit in the columns of daily newspapers, or on the pages of magazines, or in stray leaflets or pamphlets, or in the more matured discourse of printed books. There it is that the heavenly influence diffuses itself through the channels of our human intercourse, mingling its light with our shadows, its truth with our traditions and guesses, and giving us as much as we are able to take of its great revelations.

We are thinking now, however, more of what the Spirit is saying to the world and to the church in the events that are taking place, in things that are being done. It is quite as true of the divine as of the human methods of communication that "actions speak louder than words." It is by what He does more than by what He says that the Spirit of all truth makes known His will to men. There are certain great movements now going forward which signalize the presence of God among men in impressive ways and convey intimations of His will. These movements have to do with the Christian churches, and indicate a conviction of some of them that the time has come for a pretty radical construction in their life. This conviction is, we think, largely the product of this fiendish war. The war has brought to some of them, and will, we hope, bring to more of them, a startling revelation of their own weakness.

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