The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1897-07-21
Action.
We men of Galilee, why stand We gazing up into heaven? Acts i'll. -

Ye men of Gailee, why stand We gazing up into heaven? Acts i'll.
So spake the two men in white apparel who appeared to
the eleven apostles as they stood upon Mount Oivet on
the day of our Lords ascension and looked upon Him as
He was taken from them. why stand we gazing up into
heaven - A pertinent question as it came to the apostles on
our Lords ascension day. Why should they to whom had
been entrusted the preaching of the gospel in the whole
world, be standing upon the mount and gazing with idle
wonder into that heaven whittier Christ had gone, while the
world lay about them lost in ignorance and sin Why
should they be gazing into heaven whittier Christ had gone,
perhaps with vain regrets for Him who was taken from them,
and not be obeying Christs command to return to Terusa-
lem, there to collect His dispersed followers, and to wait
the outpouring of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost?
why stand We gazing up into heaven? This must have
come as a trumpet-peal to arouse the apostles from the idle
reverie, and sadness perhaps, that was stealing over them.
Has this question lost its pertinency to our time and day !?
How many of us, without the Church and inside of it, are
spending our lives in idly gazing upon christianity. Wead-
mire the church; many of its features attract us; we like to
see it making progress; we feel kindly towards those who
are trying to advance its interests, but with that the mat
ter ends. We never lay hold Of it, or if we. do, it is with
such a feeble and half-hearted grasp that little good comes
to the church, or to US from our adherence. Christ de-
|clared that after the preaching OF John the Baptist on until
time, 'the kingdom of heaven suffered violence, and the
violent took it by force" Would that it might always be
SO would that we all might with eager and enthusiastic
minds press into the kingdom, lay hold on it, place violent
hands upon it.
Why stand We gazing up into heaven ?" The fundamental
attitude OF christianity, then, IS not that OF standing, OF con-
temptation, but of going forward, of action. The fun
|damental attitude of all christianity, of the church Of
God, is not to stand, and to receive, and to enjoy,
the precious gifts that God has bestowed, but it is to
go forward, to impart these gifts to others. As the church
in all her history has realized this, has acted in accordance
with this truth, she had advanced and made conquest; and
as the church has failed to understand this truth of her be-
ing, as she has been content to enjoy that which she had, she
has been unable to hold what she had, and has gone back
ward. What is thus true of the whole church, is true
of any single congregation of the church. If this parish
were not willing to aid the work of the church in the
diocese and in the church at large, it would show we had
no true appreciation and love of the church with its devout
and reverential service, its divine sacraments, and its pure
gospel of Jesus Christ. 1t would show that within our own
limits we were going backward, and not forward.
But again, what is thus true of the whole church, and
of each congregation, is also true of every member of the
church. My friend, what attitude do you maintain in the
church to-day That of standing, of receiving, or that of
going forward, of action l.? This is a crucial question.