Arizona republican., 1909-10-25
SEEMING FAILURES
 OF THE CHURCH
The Subject of Rev. Mir. Martins
 Sermon Yesterday Morning.

Rev. Henry Martyr Campbell. pas tor of the First Presbyterian church. yesterday morning used as his text the nineteenth and the first part of the twentieth verses of the seven teenth chapter of Matthew: Then came the disciples to Jesus apart and said. Why could not we cast him out? And Jesus said unto them. Because of your unbelief." The fol- lowing is an abstract of the ser mon:
 These words were spoken to the disciples in reply to their request to know why they could not cast the devil out of the child whose father had brought him to them for heal ing while Jesus was up on the Mount of Transfiguration- Jesus told them very plainly why they failed to heal the child-'Because of your unbelief' In this age of the world there are good men and women who are de- manding certain things that God has never promised them; they are eX- pecting the fulfillment of certain de- sires that God never expects to full fill. It is possible to get nearer to God by the exercise of a simple. childlike faith in Him and His provi- dences. My whole purpose in every word spoken this morning shall be to help each one who hears to eX- ercise greater faith in God.
 Before we enter on the discussion of our theme, I want to say that, although I shall speak of the i'm perfections and apparent lack of success of the church. l do not mean to say the church is a failure. From the time Christ came into the world the church has seen one steady ad vance and that advance is going on. But when we look at the church in the light of what ought to have been done. we see there is much that may be called failure.
 From the thought suggested by the text, let us consider the follow ing propositions: The responsibility for the chureh's seeming failure lies with the church and not with God; the secret of the church's failure lies in the words. Because of your un- belief: how may we have the faith that the Master holds up as possible for us to have; and it costs to eXer- else the kind of faith we should have.
 ''The responsibility for the churchs seeming failure lies with the church. and not with God. What an effect it would have on us to realize that, II am sure the disciples felt that Christ was in some measure going to ex- cuse them. Not for a moment, He lays the responsibility for their fail- ure where it belongs. So t is with disciples in this age of the world. How we love to shift responsibility, We try to excuse our failures by saying: It is not in harmony with the will of God; the time is not ripe: it would not be for the glory of God But it is in harmony with Gods will: the time is ripe; and it is for Gods glory. How natural 1t is. Adam blamed his sin on Eve, and Eve sought to lay the blame on the serpent. We see the same thing in Abraham. Isaac, in Job and Eli jah-each trying to excuse his own failure It is so in the political world, in the social world and in the spiritual world. We think: oh. if everyone were as I am. all would be we'll It is all wrong. The re- sponsibility for the imperfectiOns of the church is mine and yours. If there is anything you can be cer- tain about. it is that God on His throne is anxious for the coming of His kingdom. He is not responsible for the failure: He will do His part. as there at the Red sea, or at Jeri- cho. or at Pentecost If we could have a proper conception of our re- sponsibility as individuals what would ! it not do for us, What did it do for Moses? Listen to him pleading l for Israel: Yet now. if thou wilt