Article January 23, 1960 Issue

"THE PRACTICAL TRUTH"

MARGARET A. LARSON

There are those in the world today who take a gloomy view of Christianity. They question its ability to meet the world's problems and needs and suggest that it is wholly impractical in the earthly scheme of things. They appear to believe that Christianity is only a Utopia for the idealist, who keeps his head in the clouds. Yet no man was more practical or more intent upon showing the practicability of his teaching by demonstration than the master Christian, Christ Jesus.

Jesus was a carpenter. Then as now carpentry was considered a very useful and practical trade. Later when Jesus went out into the world, he went not to serve as a carpenter, but to perform another service—to teach and heal mankind, to be their Saviour. Out of the great depths of his own understanding of God, he knew men needed moral courage, healthy bodies, peace of mind, if they were to be useful to themselves and to others. What good is any object if its owner is sick, fearful, confused, incapacitated, or otherwise unable to make use of it?

In Jesus' travels, during which he instructed and comforted, he was practical, for he healed the sick, the blind, the lame. Nor did he ignore situations in which men find themselves in their dealings with others. When a tax was demanded of him, he told Peter where to find the money—in a fish's mouth. He was practical when he fed the multitude, stilled the storm, saved Peter from drowning. Never was he more so than when he stated (John 6:63), "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life."

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