Article March 13, 1926 Issue

Signs of the Times

with contributions from Roger W. Babson, George H. Morrison, H. C. Culbertson, T. F. Royds, Carlos Garcis Prada

[From the Pacific Christian Advocate, Portland, Oregon]

Words, like many other things, sometimes lose their luster by constant use and handling. One word in particular which needs to have a rescue party speedily organized for it is that word which stands at the very center of Christian faith—"service." Service has recently become the most popular word in the business vocabulary. Under the persistent preaching of Rotary clubs and other organizations it has been discovered that service pays large dividends. ... With this trend in public thought and practice we have no quarrel whatever. It is good that courtesy and good will have been discovered to be great business assets. The present danger is, however, that many will gain the impression that this kind of service, which pays such good market dividends, is the same thing as service in the New Testament sense.

Christian service is a very different thing from the business policy of service ... Christ [Jesus] never guaranteed that his policy of service to men and God—to the extent of losing one's life—was bound to bring in financial returns. ... Christian service is stouter stuff than that. When Jesus wished to clearly interpret it to his disciples he used the strongest figure of speech on which a man in his day could lay his hand. He called it taking up a cross. It was the very denial of one's self, not merely the adoption of a cordial attitude which would result in increased profit. With the increasing use of that word "service" as a keynote of modern success in business practice, we need to make sure that we do not substitute it for that sacrificial, selfless living which incarnates the spirit of Jesus.

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