The Penn's Grove record., 1907-06-07
NUMBER 49,.
Subject: The Church and the World.

World" the Rev. Ira Wemmell Hen
derson, pastor, took as his text Is.
2:3, Come We, to the house of the
God of Jacob" He said:
The work of the church is properly
defnable in universal terms alone.
h church has no partial mission.
1t has no restricted message. It's
field is the world, and it's opportuni-
ties are as wide as the universe and
as diversified as nature. The wide
eXpanSe of the earth as it stretches
eastward and westward, from frozen
land to frozen land, is the sphere of
the church's activities. Only as the
church of Jesus Christ accepts her
universal responsibilities and honest
ly engages to transform the world is
she true to the commission that she
has received under God through
Jesus Christ. Just in the measure
that her message is partial the
church is a partial failure. For the
universal concepts of Christian truth
are the strength of the church. Her
~universals constitute her compelling
appeal. 1t is only because Jesus had
a world wide, an eternal vision of the
needs and the possibilities of human
1ty under the providence of God that
He has any claim upon the world at
large. And it is only because the
church has a treasury of truth pre-
served to her through Jesus that to-
day she has a claim to universal at
tention and to a universal hearing.
The moment that the church ceases
to declare truth that is universal in
its application that moment the
church ceases to be a universal fac
tor. We must be unconfined by ma
tional boundaries or by geographical
divisions or by ecclesiastical distinc-
lions if the church of Jesus Christ is
to do Christ's work. We are capable
of securing and of retaining universal
sway over the lives of humanity be-
cause of our uniYersals. For they
appeal to men in every age and in
every land regardless of their color,
their creed, their caste.
The Christian church has a uni
versal revelation, a universal mes
sage, a universal mission, a universal
opportunity, a universal responsible
ity.
The church has in Jesus Christ a
universal revelation that is the funda-
mental upon which all else in the
Christian system is u%preared. Every
where and always men have recog-
nized hat there are limits to the
comprehension of divinity by the
finite mind when unaided by a reve-
lation from on high. Men have been
conscious that while they were able to
know God partially through the
media of the enses and to formulate
in some measure ideas of divinity
through the power of human intelli-
gence, they have been fnitely unable
to know God to the entire satisfac-
ton of their souls until God has re-
vealed Himself to them. There has
always been a desire upon the part
OF humanity for a revelation of Him
self to them. And the desire has
been met. Humanity has not recog-
nized always the full content of the
divine self-revelation, but it has
never been without a revelation from
God. Before the days of Jesus men
had only a partial consciousness of
the character, of the personality of
divinity. Multitudes have no full
comprehension of God to-day. And it
is to the world that has the light Of
half the truth to which the church to-
day must address herself. For the
revelation of God in Jesus Christ is
a universal revelation. The truth
that is revealed in Jesus is supple
mental to all that humanity outside
of Him nov knows. Wherever there
is a soul that is longing for a knowl-
edge of the truth concerning God
there is the field of the church. The
revelation of God in Jesus Christ is
universal in it's outreach because it
meets a universal need, is universally
satisfying, is universally Ineligible,
is universally the elimination of re-
vealed truth.
The church has a universal mes
sage. The sense of sin is a universal
consciousness. Likewise the realiZa-
ton of human incapacity to deliver
self from the bondage of sin is uni
versal. Everywhere men aeknowl-
edge the need of a Saviour. The
longing Of every heart is that it shall
experience a salvation from sin that
is satisfying, sufficient and eternal.
The church of Jesus offers just that.
Its message is that of the universally
and the reality of sin, its conse-
quences and its o The church
declares hat humanity cannot I'M
aided from above free itself from sin.
1t proclaims the necessity of a Re-
deemer. 1t offers a sure, a comfort
ing, an everlasting salvation by the
gift of God in the personality of Jesus
Christ. And this salvation is not
restricted. 1t is not conditioned by
any captious commands. 1t is not
confined to any class. Whosoever
will may come. 1t is for all men.
And if the church will declare this
universal message the church will
receive a universal hearing. We can
not do Gods work with any less mes
sage. 1t is useless to trim it or to
pare it or to endeavor to change it in
any essential manner. 1t is Gods
message in Christ. 1t is universal.
The universal mission of the church
is to carry this universal message to
the whole world. The church has a
national mission to the land to which
it goes and to the land in which it is;
but it has more than this. 1t has a
mission to all lands, a mission hat
shall lead it to fit the Gospel to the
peculiar necessities of the peoples to
whom it is declared. But it has a
larger mission even than this. 1t has
a mission tt all lands and to every
people to declare unto the nations the
truth of God that we are all of one
flesh and blood and that the interest
Of each mar is the interest of the
world; that the welfare of one people
is the concern of all the peoples; hat
individual and national lives are to
be transformed by the grace of God
not for the mere sake of individual
and national salvation, but for the
larger purpose that a racial salvation
may become effective. All of which
is to say simply this, that the mission
Of the church in the world is to lead
individuals and nations everywhere
and in all times to a proper under
standing of the truth that salvation
is in the last analysis racial and uni
versal. The Lord Jesus Christ died
for the salvation OF the world, and a
gospel that does not declare the plan
of God to save the race as the ulti-
mate in Christian truth has fallen
short of the whole counsel of God
to the world. The church has a di-
vine call to spread this message to
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