The Brandon news., 1903-08-27
A SERMON FOR SUNDAY
AN ELOQUENT DISCOURSE ENTITLED
"PRESENT.DAY lNCARNATlON."
The Rev. G. r. McNally Gives an An
swer to the Question, "What Ails the
Church "-She Has Forgotten Her
Real Status in the World.

swer to the Question, "What AiIs the
Church ?"-she Has Forgotten Her
| Real Status in the World.
New YORK CITY.-The Rev Charles r.
| McNally, the pastor of the Sixth Avenue
Baptist Church, preached his first sermon
in, his new pulpit Sunday morning. His
He took his text from First Corinthians
xii:27: eve are the body of Christ and
severally members thereof" Mr. McNally
said:
Throughout the land, with somewhat of
a wall, the question is being asked, "What
ails the church? "That she is sick seems
to be a foregone conclusion. The religious
periodicals and some others are quick to
give diagnosis of the case. 1t is because
the pew has been elevated educationally.
1t is because the ministry has lost self-re-
spect and prestige. 1t is because men
everywhere are too busy to attend to the
concerns of the SOUL or because Christian
| ity is so "other worldly" it is not sufficient
" practical for the practical life of to-day.
Many other reasons are given for why the
church lacks power.
Is this charge against the church just?
If statistics may be trusted, it is The last
religious returns for the nation disclose the
lamentable fact that Christianity has made
no gam that even her warmest friends can
call proportionate to the increase of popu-
lation and the mighty development of com
mercial interests. In the city as well as in
the rural districts, the preachers of the gos-
| pei are finding it hard to get enough peo-
| pie to take hold of church affairs to make
the church live with a commanding infu-
ence in the community. The land is full
| of reports of mans greed, his tricks of
trade and other disregard of sacred obliga-
tlons. Men are looking to the church to
stem the tide of moral recklessness. 1t
| must be frankly conceded that the church
has seemed to be powerless to arrest the
drift. The masses of the people pass her
doors or rarely enter. Her hold upon pub
lie morals does not seem to be very strong.
| Her ability to mold the ethical life of the
world does not seem to be adequate to the
needs. If the conditions are what they
seem to be, if the church is really failing to
enlighten the world by the ethical stand
ards Of Jesus Christ, something is surely
wrong, and the church should quickly
| awaken to a realization of her real condi-
| ton, and take measures to strengthen her
! hold upon the life of the nation.
Where does the difficulty lie? [ believe
| in this: The church has too much forgotten
what her real status in the world is. She
has in her effort to solve the mighty prob
| lens that the last few generations have
presented to her, gone away from the SIM
nc teaching and simple method of Christ
| her founder. The ministry has too much
given itself to the work of education, of
| culture, of reform. The pew has too much
demanded these things. The result is the
hearts of men have been spiritually starved.
Many who would have waited on the min
! istrations of the church have forsaken her
! because their spiritual natures were not
| satisfied and developed. Education, esthet-
| is and reform they could obtain from the
schools and the papers of the day.
| 1t must be remembered that Christ,
| while incarnate, gave Himself to none of
these things. He devoted His entire min
! istry to lodging in the minds of His disci-
y IS the fact that He was in the world for
! oHe purpose and that to save men from sin.
70 the end that He might save the sinner
/ from his sin He devoted all His time, He
i rave all His energy, and sacrificed His life.
| The mission of Christ was primarily not a
mission of education or reform, it was a
mission Of salvation; 81 ..Ir, eome-to cal sin
ners to repentance" "The Son of Man is
come. to seek and to save that which was
lost" '"This is faithful saying and wor-
! thy of all acceptation, Christ Jesus came
into the world to save sinners" When the
church will concentrate her efforts upon
this one thing-the saving of sinful men
and women from the power of sin--the
questions of education and reform will take
care of themselves.
| The status of the church in the world is
pointed out by Paul in the words of our
text, eye are the body of Christ and sew
orally members thereof If Christ gave
Himself while in the flesh to saving men
| from sin by manifesting to them the life of
God, can that body-the church-in which
! He is willing to incarnate Himself do bet
ter that to devote its undivided attention
and energies to the salvation of men, by
the manifestation Of the life and will of
| God? The church is the body of Christ
In it He has incarnated Himself What
Christ was in the world while in the flesh
that the church must be in the world to-
day. What Christ did for the world while
in the flesh that the church must do for
the world to-day. "Ye," as a church and
as individual members of the church. "are
the body of Christ" Ye must be Christ
to the world. Except the church as body
and the several members thereof as inol-
world will never know Christ
| Paul, the master mind, could use such a
figure with such potent power. Of all his
hgures there is pernaps no other more elab-
orately worked out or more carefully ap-
piled. The body is not one member, but
many, and the man. members only one
1 body. So is it with the church, and the
| church is the body of Christ.
Observe that this figure permits of de-
| tailed analysis. While the church is the
| body of Christ, it is only the body, that in
| which Christ has incarnated Himself.
I. Christ is the life of the church. He
| is the inner vitalizing spirit which ami
mates and directs. The church which rec,
ognizes this has by this very recognition
| marvelously vitalized itself.
| There are two kinds of churches-the
| man-led and the Christ-led- The man-led
church gives itself to hero worship and
| leans ON the arm of flesh The Christ-led
church gives itself to the worship of Christ
| and leans hard on the arm Of God You
! may be able from the history of your city
| to supply an illustration of the fact that
there have been churches where the preach
er has been the church. When the preach
| er has gone the church has gone. Mark
! such a church as one that has been man.
led. The church has looked to it's pastor
for vitality and to lead it. What the heart
is to the body that is Jesus Christ to His
church. From Him through the agency of
the Holy Spirit it receives the impulse of
its life. The quickening, vitalizing power
can no more be impaired to the heart of
man by the visiting physician. Christ is
that inner muscle at whose every pulsation
the life blood of spiritual power is made
to surge through the body To it Christ
and Christ only can give life, color and
beauty. This should be self-evident fact.
The fact is, however, that it is not so self
evident as it ought to be.
IL