The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1908-02-26
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A SERMON tIs;saGs S@
81 TAE REV. :M'ANysSsaEs
'lAWHENDEHS0NW2aSe
Theme: The Call of God to the
Church of Christ.

Brooklyn, New York.-Preaching
at the\ Irving Square Presbyterian
Church, Hamburg avenue and Weir
field street, the Rev. Ira Wemmell
Henderson, pastor, took as his theme
1.-The Call of God to the Church of
Christ" The text was Phil. 1927:
Stand fast in one spirit, with one
mind striving together for the faith
of the Gospel; and in nothing terri
fed by your adversaries." He said:
Let us unfold the text and trans
late it with care for the richness and
exactness of meaning that it ell
closes, that the authorized version
which we have read hardly sets forth.
Stand fast persistently in one spirit,
with one mind striving together 1or
the faith of the Gospel; and in moth
ing scared by your adversaries." The
apostle admonishes the people OF
God to stand fast steadily not spo-
radically, to be of singleness of mind
and heart and soul in their devotion
to the work of the living Christ, to
strive together with the best OF team
play for the truth, to be unafraid OF
their opponents. The figure is that
of a frightened horse. Be not scared
like runaway.
This is the word of Paul to the
saints in Christ Jesus which were at
PhiliDpi. 1t is the call OF Him who
sitteth between the cteTubim to His
church to-day. This is the summons
of God to those who are His people
in the bonds of Christ. He promul-
gates the plan for Christian action.
He elevates an ideal for service. Vie
asserts the positive and negative du-
ties that relate themselves to Chris
tianity. He stipulates what is to be
the aim and what is the measure OF
the efficiency Of the church OF the
living Lord. The text affords as
good a program for the guidance of
those who are banded in the in
terests Of the proclamation and ad-
vancement of the Kingdom OF God as
could well be devised,
And we may safely assert that 1t
Is because the church has too largely
relinquished her grasp upon this pro-
gram; lost, too largely, her con-
sciousness Of the mandatory respon-
sibilities that God has laid upon her.
her vision Of her divinely endowed
ideals, her unanimous fidelity to the
plans and the purposes and inspired
activities of Emanuel, that she has
to a lamentable degree ceased to
command either the influence, the
respect or the love that within the
memory of many a man alive was
hers. And I believe that the moral
and spiritual unhealthiness that is
mSnifest in America is a direct re-
suit of the desultory and fiaccid allie
glance that the church has granted
to her God.
We have been too much afraid of
our enemies and too uncertain OF
ourselves. We have over-empha-
sized the power of the forces Of en-
trenched evil, and by implication dis
counted the capacity of the Deity
successfully to energize His people
and to realize His will in them. we
have been silent when we should
have spoken fearlessly, and voluble
when silence better would have
served the time and the Kings busi-
ness. We have, especially in the
Protestant Church, let Christian lib
erty degenerate till in many quarters
it has become synonymous with
irreligious license. We have ex-
changed prophecy for time-serving
and truthfulness for popularity, to
an extent that is as disastrous as it
is disreputable. We have lost the
note Of authority. And in our
scramble to find the bait that will
lure the world toward God and that
will draw men so far under the in
tluence Of the church that we shall
be able to demonstrate the good
heartedness of the Gospel and Of the
Christian life we have become such
good fellows that we have lost our
aim, missed the heart Of Christian
service and of Christian faith.
The call of God to His church
means little to multitudes of people
who are on the rolls Of the church
visible because they haven't listened
long or intently enough to Him to
know what He thinks or says or
wants. 1t is not strange that they
do not "stand fast in one spirit, with
one mind striving together for the
faith of the Gospel" How could it
be otherwise? Faith is simply a
catchword with them; the meat OF
the Gospel is a mystery that they
have taken little effort to master;
hard fight is the last thing that they
want; salvation means about as much
to them as changing their clothes:
DR.. Newman Smyth is not far
wrong when he asserts that new
order of things will, in Gods provi-
dence, supersede our present Chris
tian religious systems. If we are to
Judge them by the fidelity OF the
majority of their members to the
exact Gospel of God in Christ, the
sooner the churches of Christ, as at
present constituted, are superseded
by a nobler order the better for the
world.
Primarily the church must de-
clare and elucidate the deepest spiri-
tual truths of the Kingdom of God
without which there can be no found
ed or balanced ethics. She must
stand as the evangel of God speak
ing with authority that truth in
Christ, under the guidance of the
Holy Spirit, which is supremely sufii-
cient for the salvation OF the souls
of men. She must deal first with the
souls of men in their relationship
with the Father. Spirituality is her
keynote. The revelation and eXpli-
cation of eternal spiritual mysteries
is her chief business.
The call of God to the Church Of
Christ to-day is no different in es-
sence than it was to the men and
women of the church at Philippi to
whom Paul wrote. If it was essen
tial for them to cut close to the pat
tern supplied to them of God it is
no less necessary that we do the
same. If they were called upon to
stand fast persistently and to a con-
clusion so are we. If they had to