FROM OUR EXCHANGES

Lyman Abbott

[British Congregationalist.]

In times like the present it seems to us that we have to judge things by their fruits and tendencies. The issue of constant criticism is unbelief, and unbelief threatens the finest flowers of civilization. If we could perfectly reconstruct the past, and solve every problem of origins, nothing would really be accomplished, unless some fresh divine power were brought thereby into life. What men really need is the power to lift and keep themselves above the animal plane. They are in constant danger of losing the soul, of extinguishing the tiny spark of divine light that glows within them, of becoming recreants to their own ideals and to the highest expectancies of God and man. They feel in themselves the pull of the earth and of the beast. Their cry is for liberation and for conquest. When truly awakened, they pant for forgiveness, for cleansing, for holiness, for God. How can they live in perfect obedience to the moral law revealed in conscience and in Christ? How can they bear up under pain and loss, and old age and death? How can they subdue the self-regarding instincts and live generously, even nobly, for men who repay goodness with contempt and the cross? These are some of the problems which every person has to face and solve.

[Lyman Abbott in Outlook.]

Religious faith is taking on a new direction. We are becoming more interested in banishing hell from earth than in escaping from hell hereafter; more interested in bringing the kingdom of heaven on the earth than in preparing on the earth for a kingdom in a future heaven. We must frankly recognize the change. We cannot recover the lost vision, rebuild the celestial city, go back to the medieval theology or the medieval images. We must go forward, not back. Our faith in a future immortality must grow out of our experience of a present immortality. It must be more Christian, less apocalyptic; less like that of John the seer, more like that of Jesus the worker. We must get our faith in immortality by living the immortal life.

[Congregationalist and Christian World.]

The foolishness of divisions does not lie in the fact of separate organizations, for the work of the followers of Christ can be better done by independent communities in fraternal relations than by one huge hierarchic trust. It lies in the claim of each section either to be the only genuine church, or at least to be superior to all the others. "We are the church, you are sects," will not be received as the gospel by those called sects to whom it is proclaimed as good news. One of the evidences of the advance of Christianity most welcome to good men is the rarity in our times of the formation of new sects. Hardly a single one of importance has appeared thus far in the twentieth century.

[Christian World, London.]

The man whom Christ has captured, who has learned his secret, who through him finds himself in wholesome relation to God and his fellows, will gain an ever surer judgment of the importance of things. It is a glorious secret for us all—for the philosopher, for the merchant in his affairs, for the housewife in her duties. Possessing it, we shall not readily be put out with trifles; no, nor with things that are not trifles. We know what are the fundamentals by experiencing them. The heart that trusts, that prays, that loves, that serves, has got hold of life's best, and can never be robbed of its treasure.

Send a comment to the editors

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit