Article July 28, 1962 Issue

Signs of the Times

with contributions from Lesslie Newbigin, W. H. Bourne

The Right Reverend Lesslie Newbigin Bishop of the Church of South India in the American Bible Society Record New York, New York

Often I have found myself standing on the steps of a village church, opening the Scriptures to preach the Gospel to a great circle of Hindus and Muslims standing round, while the Christian congregation sits in the middle. When I do that, I always know one thing: the words I speak will carry weight only if those who hear them can see that they are being proved true in the life of the congregation sitting in the middle.

If they can see in the congregation in the center not a new clique or a new caste or a new party, but a family into which men and women of all cliques and castes and parties are being drawn in mutual forgiveness and reconciliation to live a life that is rooted in peace with God, then there is a possibility that they may believe the Gospel.

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