St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1906-01-24
Duty AGAIN FORGOTTEN.

parochial understanding OF the lump
| The Reformation was considered to be
| fulfilled when the Protestant church was
| as fully established in the countries OF
| the reformation as the church OF Rome
| had been. Once more the question OF IN
ternal strength became supreme, rather
than external and world wide ministry.
| Jealous of the still powerful Chutch OF
! Rome, the Reformed Church strengthened
I itself behind mighty battlements, and
was content to be a fortress rather than
an invading army. Like Mcclellan on
the Potomac, satisfied if no enemy dis
! lodged him from his position, the policy
of mastery inactivity came to be gener-
ally accepted; and the church that was
meant like Alexander's army to spread
till the known world was conquered,
stayed at home. impregnable and supine.
So again came the reign OF narrowness
and pettiness, of low and selfish desires,
of weak faith. When Carey asked the
modest question, whether the command
given to the apostles to teach all nations
was not obligatory on all ministers to
the end of the world" the indifference
and unbelief of Christendom was voiced
in the answer of the aged Ryland, sit
down. young man, you are miserable
enthusiast to ask such question. When
God wants to convert the world, He can
do it without your help" We are
amazed that the medieval church with
it's worldliness and corruption could call
itself the church OF Christ, in spite OF the
plain New Testament demand for purity
and unworldliness; as astonishing is it
that the church could face the gospel,
stamped on every fact and doctrine with
the legend "the Savior of the world"
and be so blind and deaf and dumb as
was the church of Carey's youth, and of
the generations Immediately preceding.
Again came sad and desperate results.
The church once more took the place OF
Christ. Men were members of the church
who were not members of Christ's body.
Men supported the church, went to
church, patronized a "Churchianity"
that was not Christianity. A new
brood of theologies appeared sects with
out number, warning creeds, bitter con-
troversies over points as big as a pin
head. New doctrines were as numerous
as the frogs of Egypt and as noisome.
The Church of Rome charges all this to
the exercise of private judgment, but
that was not the trouble. Christians
were neglecting their real work, and
when men will not make much of great
things they are left to make much of
little things. Journalism once more held
the field The Protestant churches were
coming to be as empty OF spiritual power
as the church they so bitterly identified
with the scarlet woman" and the re-
shaping to the missionary ideal and the
missionary enterprise was as necessary
for their salvation as had been the form
ing anew under Luther centuries before.
TOO LIGHT A THING.
Certainly it is necessary to preach the
Gospel at home, in our own community
our own state, our own nation; but it is
not enough to do that. 1t is too light a
thing for the Messiah, or for His church.
We can only get the fulness of Gods
blessing when we ask that "thy way
may be known upon earth" not simply
in the United States; THY salvation
among all nations" not simply among
the needy Immediately about us. The
SNUG enjoyment of our privileges in the
midst OF Christian civilization, the de-
lights of a so.called church which is
nothing more than well ordered and
prosperous club, to have these is not to
enter into the Joy of our Lord. 1t is
rather to incur the woe pronounced
upon those who are lat ease in Zlon."
The keeping of the Decalogue as system
of conduct, the maintenance of the mere
moralities of the New Testament, this is
kindergarten work. The rich young
ruler could claim as much on that score
as can we, and he was outside the king
dom of Heaven. Caring for our own, ii
we care only for our own, is too light
thing, no matter how thoroughly we
NAV endeavor to attend to the business.
The church that is content to be self
centred, sef-absorbed, is bound to be a
lightweight church at the very best.
He that provideth only for his own
so far forth denies the faith, repudiates
a central and controlling principle OF the
Gospel identifies himself with party in
the church that has always meant petit
ness and paralysis, ultimate decay and
death.
THE CHALLENGE OF OPPORTUNITY.
The one remedy is in the vigorous and
practical re-assertion of Gods plans for
salvation to the end of the earth. If a
church has the gospel at all, it has it in
trust for all men; If it has any authority
to preach the gospel it is under obliga-
ton to preach that gospel everywhere
And how Gods providence is surround
ing us with encouragement and challenge
Doors are wide open; devout young men
and women are waiting to go; work
wonderfully promising, Immediately
rewarding, is awaiting their going; the
wilderness is all ready to blossom as the
rose. There is money enough in the
church. Our own denomination is grow
ing ia actual wealth above all expenses,
something like twenty million dollars a
year; a 1.-THE, not of our income but of
our net savings, would fill our societies
treasures. 1t is estimated that we
spend for daily papers three times as
much as we give to our whole missionary
enterprise at home and abroad. 1--WE
can ii we WILL" Oh that we might feel
the wholesome and enobling pressure of
real responsibility for those whom Gods
providence has given us to evangelize.
Oh that we might see how feasible it is
to evangelize the world in our genera
ton, if without desperate strain but
quietly and simply, with full faith in the
God who has given us our wealth and
has given us our work, we honestly and
: intelligently faced what it means to be