[T. Rhondda Williams in The Christian World]

Christians have often spoken of the apostolic age as if the apostles had succeeded in adapting themselves to every age, so that their creeds and forms and institutions must be the model for all time. The apostles never made such pretensions as have since been made for them. Paul exhorted the Christians of his day to adapt themselves to the age in which they were living. Christians of every age must do the same. As the times change we can follow Paul's principles at times only by departing from his practices.

If by clinging to the form of an apostolic institution or to apostolic opinions we get out of touch with the mind of our time and fail to reach our people, we are not buying up our opportunity. If the needs of our age require a different kind of service from that which other ages required, it is only by being prepared to render the service now that we can do our duty. In order to do this we must take account of the prevailing modes of thought in our time and its prevailing methods of life, and we must learn the language of our age. Some old forms of service are dropping out simply because the age no longer needs them, and because it does need the old religious spirit to incarnate itself in other forms of service. The main reason why so much of the modern world is outside the Christian churches today is because it feels that the churches belong so much to a world that has passed away. A clear and candid recognition of this is the first condition of advance.

[Rev. E. S. Woods in The Christian]

It remains tolerably clear that Jesus Christ did intend faith in himself to be a force which should remold society, and it is also clear that the early Christians found their faith to produce in large measure precisely that practical result. This, unless I am mistaken, is the line along which we may look, and ought to look, for a real advance. History has shown, unmistakably though fitfully, something of what the faith of Christ can do in and through isolated individuals, men or women, who go all lengths for him. It is for the future to unfold what infinitely more wonderful things that same faith will do when it once dominates men generally, in every part of their living together, when it establishes itself at the very heart of the common life of the community, the nation, the world.

[The Methodist Recorder]

The church of the future will be composed of members whose religion is the dynamic of their ethics. "Feeling good" will not be sufficient; "doing good" will be the criterion of membership. The power of the church will not rest on priestly authority or tradition, nor will its foundations lie on formal creeds and long inherited opinions. Its influence will be felt by the might of its "saved-to-serve" members, and the logic of their lives will be irresistible. We shall see Christianity in its essence as the spirit of heavenly Love binding human society together in a brotherhood of service; or as the writer of the Hebrews epistle says, "He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second." If it be He that destroys and establishes, have we any cause for fear?

[Rev. H. Maldwyn Hughes, D.D., in The Methodist Times]

The truth is not that the decline of spiritual life is due to worldliness, but that worldliness is due to the decline of the spiritual life. We shall overcome the spirit of the world not by expanding the ten commandments into a hundred and by legislating as to pursuits and pleasures that in themselves are neither moral nor immoral, but by deepening the spiritual life. When the heart is full of Christ we learn the right use of "the world," and we possess all things without being possessed of them.

[The Continent]

An ambition to advance in place, recognition, and prestige works its way into the inner shrines of the life where, in a true minister, no thought belongs except the passion to honor God and help men. Many and many a pastor who is troubled to know why he is not succeeding better, ought to look for the answer right here: He is not succeeding because he cares too much for success. If the world of spiritual fact is not real enough to a man for him to depend literally on the promise of Christ that when he seeks the kingdom of heaven all needful things shall be added to him, the ministry is certainly not the place for him.

[The Watchman-Examiner]

It is to our shame that our religion has dropped out of our every day speech. Men usually talk most freely about the things in which they are most interested. Lack of interest, however, is not the only reason why men are silent about their religion. They have a notion that to talk about religion would make them appear to be either pharisaical or sanctimonious. They dread also to obtrude their religious views for fear of giving offense or wounding the feelings of somebody. Perhaps we may sum it all up by saying that in polite circles it is not considered "good form" to talk about anything so strictly personal as religion.

[Pres. Carl G. Doney in Pacific Christian Advocate]

Moses had a pattern shown him in the mount; and all men have a pattern shown them in Christ. He is greatest and best who takes into his life the perfect interpreter, guide, and inspirer. He who follows the lead of God sees a burning light which does not delude or grow dim. Ruled by whim or fancy, life loses its glory and inspiration, but he who follows heaven's gleam has the secret of everlasting satisfaction and success. He never stagnates: he sees and believes in the unattained possibility beyond.

[The Biblical World]

The kingdom of God will not come because men in orthodox fashion say, Lord, Lord; but because they do their Lord's will, teach men to be as sane as their Lord's ideals, and manfully endeavor to have every piece of legislation, every foreign policy, every industrial program governed by their Lord's example of love and sacrifice. Some idealism may be a mere apotheosis of selfishness; the idealism of the teaching of Jesus is the apotheosis of love. For God is love.

[Prof. John Wright Buckham, D.D., in The Homiletic Review]

The "great awaking" is having its effect upon the conscience of the church in summoning her, with a voice too clear to be mistaken, to the long deferred duty of unity. The war has plainly registered the failure either of Christianity or of the church—which? The church knows, and knows well, that one of the chief reasons of her world shame has been her shameless, selfish disunion.

[The Christian Work]

Surely to be generous means to give of self without so much as a thought of exacting a return either in feeling or kind. Yet how many of us are really capable of such giving? Deep down in our hearts lies the expectation of return. Generosity is, we repeat, a word badly knocked about.