Norwich bulletin., 1917-10-02
WARTIME SERMON
 AT BROADWAY. CHURCH.
Christianity Faces Today an UnPreee.
 dented Situation.

A sermon of unusual interest, in voew of the changed conditions to pc preached by Rev. Edward g. Worcester Sunday at Broadway church. Rev. MT.
 Worcester took as his theme The Need of ReadJusting Church to War Needs.
 Taking as his text Esther 1, part of the 14th verse, And who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time this," Mir. Worcester drew an analogy between the crisis which Queen Esther faced and that which the church of Christ Is facing today. Esther faced an extraordinary situation. The threatened wipinE out of her race and her near kindred, and i the peril of approaching the king with cut his order to present herself before him was an unprecedented and appaL- ing situation. It was also magnih- cent opportunity. It was no time to consider precedent or to temporize, but a time to strike out, even with her fate trembling in the balance. With , supreme courage she took her life in her hands, commenting her cause to the Most High, and won through her ordeal, gaining the love and admiration of a whole nation
 The church of Christ, in like man. ner, faces today an unprecedented sit uation It is i'll content with itself and it's work and is ready for new leader ship, if it may find it, casting aside on to the scrap heap the unnecessary and the hampering. Mankind may reach out for the very highest. ideals in the
 
 near future.
 After the war there will be victory or tragedy; but whichever it may be, it will be stupendous.
 What is the; church doing in this emergency or what is it going to do? Is it going to be satisfied with it's for mer attitude of calm peace or will it conceive brave things? The welfare of man and of the church is at stake A church without redemptive power in itself may force men to face deliver not have faced the utmost sacrifice and come back as selfish as they went They will have thought deep thoughts and hoped high hopes. There will have been certain breaking up of mental custom, making social and spiritual rebirth a possibility They will have Little time forthe church of routine
 After the war will be the test of the church. But after the war it will be too late to begin the preparation to meet this test. Now is the tirna It will have to free itself of at least three things, namely, traditionalism, paro- chialism and division.
 TraditiOna1iSm, the long established traditions of the church, the inability | to face new condition, the dependence on precedence; on these new light must l come.
 The parochial spirit of loyalty and | concern for only the local parish and | institution, must be broadened
 The division of the church is Chris | tianity's shame. The rivalries, the un- | necessary duplication of work and eff fort by the multiplying of churches of | the same denomination when fewer would be more effective, these are problems to be faced.
 There are men enough now who are out of humor with these things The church should be equipped with new ideals.
 Just now destruction rages, but the time will come for rebuilding. unless rich Tc r,1,x l reconstruction all? It was not defect i've engineering that brought us to our present pass. Who will reconstruct our human institution? Of what use is the making of tools if they are to be used for vicious ends?
 What spirit will animate our domec- racies? Education, even on a national basis, is not a panacea. The spirit of we to get it? From the atmosphere? Or through the host of Christians liv- ing now? Is there any way to bring # into the world now? How else than by the lives so lived by Christians and the speech of the living church that they shall furnish their share of these qualities?
 It is easier to map out the work of -o our own church, but we must not cave it there. We have not found it Iuite adequate before, why should 1t ,e so after the war?
 Let us imagine ourselves at the end If the war, with our soldiers coming lome and readjustfng themselves. Where will the1r church stand in their cheme of life? How strongly will it ppeal? Knowing the last word in 1 for an end larger than themselves, how will they view the ex- sting divisions of church? The church | xists really for the community.
 If you were in France today would ou set about the regeneration of so- i iety through the church? It ought to e the means and should count forI omething in the reconstruction of the rorld.