The Penn's Grove record., 1915-04-16
LOYALTY IS NEED
Now the Time for All True Fol-
lowers of Christ to Stand
by the Church.

These are solemn and testing hours.
Who knows but that you may have
come to the kingdom for such a day
as this? Now are the times to make
men see how glorious and ~transcen-
dent a thing religion is. How infinite
ly greater it is than any of it's social
or personal manifestations! Never
again confound religion with mere
amiable living or mechanical believ.
Ing. Never think of it as being con-
cerned only, or chiefly, with the is
sues of this present life. Religion
maintains itself in perennial power be-
cause men have never been willing
to believe that they belonged only to
this present life, and have never been
able to satisfy themselves with any.
thing or everything which this life
has to give. For always, when men
have looked abroad upon their world,
they have seen the inextricable min
Cling of good and evil, the mystery
of its strife and pain and injustice.
And always when they have looked
within, upon themselves, they have
faced the inexpressible sorrow.
shame and loneliness Of human life.
Thereby they have been forced to
concern themselves with the solemn
questions which have to do with the
origin and the meaning and the des-
tiny of the race. Where did we all
come from? Where are we all 60
ing? Is there anything after this life
which can possibly compensate for It?
If a mar die, shall he live again?
Church Must Answer.
1t is the office Of the church to
answer these questions. To be able
to say: We know from whence we
came. We came out from an eter-
nal life, a loving and a gracious spirit.
And we know where we are going.
We shall return to that from which
in the beginning we came. In God
we live and nov and have our being.
In God we now exist and shall exist
forever and ever He is our refuge,
underneath are the everlasting arms.
And so l ask for your renewed, in
ward and spiritual loyalty to this part
of the church of Jesus Christ in the
present world. That church was never
more needed, nor ever had a larger
and more difficult opportunity than
now. Let us acknowledge with sim
cerity and shame her many and obvi-
u defects. For long she conceived
of herself as an ark of salvation to
which the elect withdrew from a per-
ishing and somewhat contemplate
world. Sometimes she has lived of
the community, rather than for it;
and has been more concerned with
the conserving of her prestige and
the perpetuation of her organization
than with the service of her day and
generation. To the social and indus
trial strife of the moment she was not
~over-ready to apply the teaching OF
Jesus, nor, as she contemplated the
comfortable, bourgeois a~ristocracy
which filed her pews, was she eager
to socialiZe her ethics. But also now
let us boldly reaffirm that today, as
in every day, she is doing patiently
and steadfastly the indispensable
work of the community. She is bring
ing to the modern state what no other
organization can bring-its spiritua.
dynamics. it's renewed motives, tina
vision which is the hope of the SOU
in its struggle against time-the vision
of a purified and glorifed humanity
made one with itself in God. Down
through the centuries, for all her pride
of place and lust Of power, for all hei
follies and mistakes, the church alone
has been able, in dark days like these
to say to men: You, too. our very hu
mar race, shall sometime see the ira
vail of its soul and be satisfied. Let uf
then stand by her, as she has evel
stood by our fathers and by us!-
Rev. Albert Parker Fitch, D. D.