Article January 12, 1957 Issue

Signs of the Times

with contributions from John W. Holland

From The Presbyterian Herald Belfast, County Antrim Northern Ireland

Notice how often Jesus said, "Ye have heard that it hath been said ... but I say," and he proceeds to state something so startling in its newness that it shocked the people of his day. Like many of us, they wanted a refuge rather than a strength to meet the challenge of the times ...; they wanted a religion which would never demand the thinking out of the will of God for them in relation to changed circumstances. It was easier to cling to "an eye for an eye" than to awake to the fact that if human relationships were not to get progressively worse, men must seek, through the grace of God, to maintain love even towards the enemy.

... Religion is not simply knowing the story of God's dealings with men in the past, or even having a knowledge of the pronouncements made in God's name in the past, though all that is exceedingly important. We need to go back to God's Word ... to find if there are essential factors in dealing with the present which we may be neglecting. ... We must meet the new situation in our day in the assurance that, as He sustained and used the service of those who trusted Him then, so He will sustain us and use our service in this day.

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