The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1907-12-30

certain and sufficient cure for whar
ails humanity.
And His Church is not a merely de-
votional agency, for the purpose main
| ly of keeping alive a spirit of wor-
ship. Prominently it is an organiza-
ton for doing things among and fol
men. that are worthy of being done
And it is because Christ knows men
| as they are. and because His Gospe
| furnishes a sure remedy for actual
needs, and because His Church pre-
sents a practical and worthy program
| for men whose lives consist largely
| in doing things, that Christ approaches
men with a claim TO their allegiance
| that outweighs in significance and en-
phasis the claim of city to an upright
citizenship, or of country to a patriotic
loyalty.
Indeed, my friends, it is a fair de-
| duction that no man adequately scans
his duty to city and nation who does
not initially respond to his sense of
duty to Christ and TO all that is bound
up in the cause of Christ. There is
no institution of greater civic i'm
portance than the Church. 1t is the
germinal body from which go forth
the higher creative forces in the life
Of the community We can not
imagine the extent and the result of
the loss that would come to a COM
munity through the closing up and
abandonment of its churches. But the
impairment of the usefulness of
church through lack of aggressive eff
fort is hardly less deplorable. And
intelligent. influential men stand by
and let the Church of Christ go on
without their hearty and devoted sup
port.
It is the fashion nowadays for men
and women to take hold enthusiastic
cally of every enterprise that aims at
the betterment of the community. The
civic spirit is abroad, and everywhere
men are enlisting in schemes for MAX
ing social conditions more wholesome.
But the best institution of all for
reaching these ends is right at hand.
The Church is no modern afterthought,
but the Divine forethought. 1t is the
permanent leaven in the lump of So
ciety. 1t is perfectly adapted to the
actual vital needs of men. IT is the
profoundest factor in the community
1t is the conservator of righteousness.
1t is the enlightener of conscience 1t
is the guardian of the family and the
home. 1t is the agency that alone ade-
quately sizes up the hunger of the
heart and proffers to men the bread
of life.
My friends. is the Church worth
while? Did the Lord Jesus Christ
make a mistake when he founded it,
and was He mistaken when He took
the long look ahead and said. "The
gates of hell shall not prevail against
this''?
Or are we, the men and women of
this Twentieth Century, making a
grievous mistake when, by Withholding
in any least measure our personal al
Iegiance to Christ, we allow the ma
chinery of His choicest plant to go on
whirring and rafting. producing only
nominal results, instead of an output
to the last limit of it's capacity?
Can any man or woman who has a
real concern for the best interests of
home and community justify himself
or herself for the failure to make |
Christ's Church the most productive |
agency in the lives of men? Christ |
has a special claim on the inteMi- |
gence, the administrative ability, the |
address that attracts, the in |
genuity that devises things, the tact
of wise leadership, the enthusiasm of |
the intense man, the Judgment of the |
conservative man, the breadth of out
look of the experienced man, the en-
terprise and alertness of the business |
man, the efficiency and resource of the /
educated man, the rugged honesty of I
the common man, the power to get |
things done, and the force to keep |
things going-ehrist has a special |
claim to all these, for these are the |
fruits of our civilization, and that CIV
iliZation comes from Him. These are |
powers of mind and heart created and |
fostered among men by the forces of |
home, and school, and society, and |
standards of intercourse among men /
inapgurated and sustained by the
spirit of Christ through all the rising |
and emancipating centuries of Chris |
tian history. We can trace every one
of these back to/the family altar and I
Christian fireside. They were born and |
bred in the atmosphere of prayer. We |
are debtors every one of us for the |
best we have to the Christian home; |
and to the Church that has invig- |
GRATED the Christian home and kept |
it true to it's God-given functions: and /
to Christ, whose presence has BEEN
the invisible but creative potency that |
has been the source of all the uplifting /
of men from the first century to the |
present day.
Did you ever consider the quiet COM
posture with which Christ spoke to |
Zaccheus. the business man of Jericho !
when He said to him. Come. [ must t
abide at thy house today? 1t was the i
simple assertion of a just claim, not |
to temporary hospital. but to a rad
zeal change in that business mans /
program. The crowd said, He is gone !
to be guest of a man that is a sin
ner" That seemed almost a crime to /
the crowd: but it was the glory of |
Christ TO touch a mans life at its |
worst and to awaken it to its best.
An earnest business man in New
York City said it was a mere touch on !
his shoulder which led him to confess |
Christ before men. II felt a gentle /
touch" he tells us. Il looked around |