Article October 7, 1939 Issue

Signs of the Times

Topic: The Christly Way

with contributions from J. C. DeVries, Homer Price Rainey, J. D. Lockard, F. Stafford

[Rev. J. C. DeVries, in the Times-Observer, Clinton, Wisconsin]

Does one search in vain for a reward for Christian living? What is the compensation for the Christian life of sacrifice? It it wrong for one walking along the Christian way to ask, What is there at the end of the road for me? We have sympathy for Peter, who quite bluntly said to Jesus: Lo, we have left all our fishing business, our homes, and many comforts just to follow thee, and we are glad to do it, but now we are nearing the end of our march and is all this to be profit or loss? ...

If you trace the concept of rewards through the Bible you can see clearly a shift of emphasis. In the Old Testament the major emphasis is upon the material reward one will receive for a religious life. In all the wandering in the desert the Hebrews had their eyes fixed not so much upon a spiritual goal as upon a "land flowing with milk and honey." They were commanded to go in "and posses it." However, when one arrives at the New Testament, the whole scene changes and the goal becomes not a promised land but a spiritual ideal. As E. D. Jones has put it, "The goal for Christian living is not Canaan but the kingdom of God; ... not something material but spiritual."

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