The Penn's Grove record., 1915-06-25
PROGRESS GOES ON
Church Has Prospered Through
the Ages, When All Men
Spoke of Failure"

Is the church disintegrating? is a
theme that is prod and con'd a great
deal in these times. Failure is the
word that is written big in these jere-
miads or aspersions, according to the
spirit and motives of the writers.
Failure is the best word in the en-
tire history of Christendom. Chris
tianity in the days of st. Paul was
to the Greeks foolishness. 1t was fail
ure. The modern nationalist has the
same estimate of religion. Time and
again in the progress of Christianity
has it had its obituary read. History
has proven that at every such time 1t
was only getting it's girth for greater
things, through fresh adaptations to
the times in which it was working. BY
the dead things of its seeming defeats
the church has progressed in the di-
rection of the widening truth and the
expanding horizon of power and in
1uence.
They who see failure for the church
today confuse their ideas Of the
church invisible with the church in
concrete form. It was a little girl who
the other day remarked that the mag
nolias were throwing Off their winter
overcoats. And what a burst of beauty
and bloom anne almost Immediately!
So the church discards its vestments
of service, when outworn; its gar
ments OF dignity when these have be-
come frayed. But the seamless YES
ture of the living Christ has never
been discarded. This is the mystical
element in religion, that which abides
apart from time and change, that
which is the hidden beauty and
form and power and inspiration
Of faith, that which is quicken
ing and vital, that which is divine
and permanent. This is the element
in religion that has its quality of the
eternal, it is God in human life and
affairs. This never changes.
Light Of Life and Truth.
John Robinson, in dismissing his lit
tie flock upon it's perilous voyage to
the e. world, which, after it had
been made gave the voyagers title
ever after to the designation of Pill
grim Fathers, exhorted them to be-
lieve that God had ever more light
to break forth from his Holy Word.
This light is the light of life and the
light of truth. 1t is the mystical
sHekinah ever growing at the altar of
humanity in the temple of time. 1t
is the revealing light of progressive
civilization that when it discards
dead forms, lives on in ever new and
engaging aspects. So that, despite all
the church shall go through of change
and adaptation and all the world shall
experience of revolution, the Son Of
Man will ever find faith upon the
The failures of the church are at
times painful and sometimes cata-
clysmic. But they are never indica-
tive Of the lessened power Of re-
ligion in the lives of men, Of the with
drawal of the ministry of mercy of Al
God from mankind. AS long
as Jesus Christ symbolizes the divine
in human experience will his life and
works add to the testimony of the
common consciousness of mankind:
Il know that my redeemer liveth."
Failures Need Not Worry.
So, the church need not be worried
by failures. If any branch or agency
of it shall cease to employ it's talents
to good advantage they will be taken
away and given to those who will so
employ them. The workers die, the
organizations pass through changes
or subtle, but the work and
word of the Almighty in the uplift Of
the race goes on forever. The church
is mo- disintegrating, religion is not
becoming decadent. In fact they who
eyes to see, behold the living |
ideals Of faith as more potent than
before, even though taking much
more practical fashion-as the times
demand. The practical ministry of
the loaves and the fishes, when trans
formed by the touch of the divine
quality Of love, is magnifed to meet
the needs Of all who hunger. The
only failure that men are warned
against is suggested in the words,
Hold fast that thou hast, that no