Article April 5, 1924 Issue

Signs of the Times

with contributions from Layton E. Meadows, Robert Hopkins, Clarence Reed

[From the Sentinel, Milwaukee, Wis., Jan. 7, 1924]

Two thousand years ago the Nazarene gave the solution of the salvation of man and the proof of its possibility. He overcame sickness, sin, and death, and taught others how to do so. He left a rich legacy to mankind for all time and eternity. His theology, his church (not made with hands), was not founded on creeds and dogmas; and having finished his work, he ascended unto the Father. For a few short years Christianity worked and performed fully what it is capable of. Why has this element been lost? And lost it certainly seems to be, in so far as the churches fail to recognize it. ... Words without deeds is the greatest error of this age. ... Repeating Bible texts and prayers stereotyped for the occasion is of little value unless the vital spirit of the real meaning is proved in outward and actual results. What is being done to-day? Largely a sort of mild submission to what seems inevitable—sickness, sin, and death. These things are treated as things apart from the common and vital practice of theology. Yet it was the theology of Jesus Christ that destroyed these evils in his day; and his disciples, men in the flesh, did likewise with the same theology. It would be a splendid thing for the world at large if the learned theologians would forget the things over which they quarrel and hate, so unessential, and turn their thoughts to the contemplation of the Christianity of the Christ. I am inclined to believe with Bernard Shaw, that "Christianity has not yet been tried by the churches."

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