FROM OUR EXCHANGES

with contributions from Algernon S. Crapsey

[The British Congregationalist.]

The churches themselves have to share with the old Adam the responsibility for the neglect of the spiritual use of the Lord's Day. Men are not attracted by formal, perfunctory, and unreal public devotions. They will not listen to preaching that takes no account of modern movements of thought and is out of touch with the practical things of every-day experience. They are as desirous as ever they were for the knowledge of God and for what used to be called saving truth. There is, indeed, an extreme restlessness and an eager longing for light on spiritual things that is characteristic of large classes of the people to-day, and will not consent to be fobbed off with music, ritual, and platitudes. There is plenty of indifference, no doubt, and plenty of hostility to religion in all its forms, but behind and beneath these things there is a divine discontent which constitutes for the churches a splendid opportunity did they only know it. It may be said, indeed, that their future—we do not say the future of religion, which is a different thing—depends on the measure in which they rise to this occasion. There must be a shaking among the dry bones of crude evangelism, ignorant orthodoxy, and empty ceremonialism. The churches must set themselves to their work with fresh enthusiasm and self-sacrifice. The fire must be heated to that white glow which will burn away the ridiculous dross of sectarian jealousies and selfishness.

[Rev. Dr. Algernon S. Crapsey in The Boston Herald.]

Let the thought, therefore, come to every one of us that we are commended to a sinless life, and by that is meant that we are to put ourselves in right relations to the universe, to truth, and to mankind; for sinlessness is just that. Let us go to work to bring it to pass that there shall be no evil in the world which we can prevent, whether it be evil in our own hearts, in the streets of our city, or in the lanes and highways of our country. That is a task beside which the picking of oakum and the stepping on the treadmill is the mere task of a child. For we cannot go on promising to the men of our day and generation a heaven beyond the sky, or threaten them with a hell beyond this life, while we make no effort to create a heaven here on earth and while we let hells burn with all their fires in our very midst. Sinlessness in our own lives, sinlessness in all other lives, through the mighty power of our own transformation—this is the work that Christ has set us to do.

[Pacific Christian Advocate.]

No man should ever preach what he does not believe to be true; no minister should ever preach his doubts, for so long as doubts remain he cannot be certain that what he says is true. A Christian minister is a truthful preacher of the truth, or else he is an impostor. If he is a sincere and honest man he will be very careful to know the truth and to know as much of it as he can, and equally careful to utter nothing from the pulpit that he does not believe to be true. The business of the Church is to teach the truth, to lead men to see and know the truth and follow therein; and in doing that, it points to Christ as "the way, the truth, and the life."

[The Universalist Leader.]

Heaven is attained not by moving from this world into the next, or by dying penitent or imperitent, but by repenting of our sins as a beginning and then growing in grace. What we have to do, therefore, is to repent and grow.

[The Outlook.]

Our concern now is not with the form and manner of life beyond, but with such a shaping of life here that when the gate opens we shall take with us that purified vision which shall see God.

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THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE TEXT-BOOK

March 2, 1907

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