Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-01-14
MERITS AND FAULTS
OF THE CHURCH TODAY
JOHN BALLOON SHAW.

JOHN BALLOON SHAW
The church nowadays comes In for a
great deal of criticism. Much of that critt-
eisu1 presumably Is deserved. That we are
not rising UP to the level of our response
biNties, that we are not beginning TO use all
the opportunities that are open to the
church, that the church has its great
faults, no one could be more willing than
myself to admit. The lethargy of the
church today is widespread and it is seri-
Gus. It is robbing the church of much OF
it's power 1t is the thing out from the
midst of which the church Is calling unto
God these days and beseeching of Him to
give us a revival of His spirit Our world
illness is enormous. 1t is impossible in some
quarters to trace the lines of demarcation
between the church and the world.
And the average church without question
is altogether too exclusive, altogether too
conventional and altogether too formal
Alas, alas! how true ii Is that the spirit of
Christ, the principles which He taught and
the standards which He insisted upon are
wanting in some of our churches When
compare the modern church with the early
church of the first century and hear people
talking about self-denial 1 wonder If there
is any self-denial among them.
Yes, the church has great faults, innu-
merable faults. and they ought to grieye
u.s. Who in the midst of the church being
conscious of it's faults, does not realize that
the church must be cleansed and must be
renewed before II begins to be anything
like the power that 1t is equipped to be,
and that God expects 1T to be in this gen
Grafton? All this is true. And yet there is
another side that we ought to consider and
that we must consider II we would save
ourselves from morbdness and pesSimism.
First of ALL it would seem that while the
church is definite institution, that Is to
say, founded by God, 1t is nevertheless
human organization, its members are hu-
man, It's elders and its ministers are hui
man. We ought to remember that. l have
heard of some people who think that when
a man joins the church he passes into
state of holiness. One of the wonders to
me, / think j would put it first, is why God
should put the increase of his dominion in
the earth into the hands of such. Next TO
that put the wonder why the church has
been able to fulfill It's trust through the
ages so well, for criticlse the church as You
may, the church Is ever better than IT'S gen.
Grafton Whenever the church has fallen
it's generation has sunken low You take
the average churchman of this generation;
he stands for purity and moral rectNude
within the community as the man without
the church does not Let us remember
that the church Is a human Institution and
that it will be human until God sanetifies
His church and leads 1t up into the New
Jerusalem
The church Is in a better condition than
II ever was 1t is cleaner. Men that were
tolerated in the church of Christ fifty years
ago would not be tolerated for a minute to-
day. We say that the church Is afraid of
the rich man In the pews do not believe
1t is. The church is surely more enterpris-
ing in this age. How 1t overfows with life
and activity. Back In our grandfathers'
days the church services consisted Of the
Sunday morning and Sunday evening serv-
ice. with perhaps midweek service. But
the church has awakened and knows that
1t has faults.