The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-07-26
Misunderstanding

Many of the lamentabe failures of the church in the past have been due to mis- understanding of it's function. There have been those who have thought the church the guardian of public morals. Others have thought it the champion of ortho- doxy. Some have considered it refriger- ation plant offering cold storage facilities for their future hopes The church should exert helpful influence on public morals It should aid all people in the clearer un- derstanding of divine truth. And it should lead multitudes into the possession of secure hopes for the future But none of these things is the real mission of the church; they are all secondary and consequential.
 "The way to determine what the mis- sion of the church really is Is to un- derstand what the mission of Jesus was. The best known verse in the Bible, John 3:16, says of Jesus mis- sion that it was in order that who soever believeth on Him should not per- ish but have eternal life And in the first phrase of the text Jesus Himself says: I came that they may have life. When Nicodemus sought Jesus as d great teacher with a new doctrine, and desired to know Ills teaching, Jesus replied in substance that He had not come to teach new truth but to impar Tt new life. 'Ye must be born again, He said. Thus it appears plainly that the real mission of Jesus was to bring spiritual life to men. He denounced the hypocritical immortality of the Pharisees; and He taught such truth as has never come from the lips of an- other. But He did these things inci- dentally. They were some of the fruits brought forth by the spiritual life which He came to give to men.
 Life Is Derived
 "An interesting and outstanding fact about life is that it is derived. It can not be manufactured like furniture hats or shoes. The flower grows from the seed and the seed comes from last years flower; and thus the succession of life in any form may be traced back ts the. ultimate source spoken of in the beginning of Genesis, where it says: Tn the beginning God created We understand much about the oper ation and the laws of life; but the ultimate secret of its origin, and in oeed, of it's transmission Hes beyond our grasp. When we speak, therefore, of Jesus in relation to the gift of spir- ltual life. the question arises: Is He an original source of that life? Has
 
 can bestow upon others? Listen to the word of authority Speaking of the coming of Jesus. John says: Tn Him was life and the life was the light of men Speaking of Himself in words which from ordinary human lips would have been supremely arrogant and would long since have been resented as such. Jesus said: am the way, the truth and the life; no one cometh to the Father but by Me Jesus is in deed an original source of spiritual life. He came into the world to give this life to men This was His mission; and it is the mission of His church.
 But the church is not the original source. It cannot give the life as from itself It must. therefore transmit the life; or bring people into touch with the life which is in Christ. The dynamo is an original source of electrical energy; but we do not take our lamps and our motors to the dynamo; we bring wires from 1t to them. Thus, the energy is transmitted to the places where 1t is needed. Similarly, the church must trans init the spiritual life from its Lord to those who sit in darkness and need light; to those who are weak and need power: to those who are lost and need to be found. The church must hang it's wires and erect it's machinery to fit the social conditions and the economic needs of our time. It must avail itself of all that s best and most modern in equipment