Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-01-23
CHURCH MUST
MATCH SPIRIT
OF AGE, PLEA.
Go Forward or Be Lost, Bishop
Burns of Helena Area Tells
MethOdists.

Burns of Helena Area Tells
/ Methodists.
1.-THE church must match the spirit
Of the age" is the assertion of Bishop
| Wesley Burns of the Methodist Episco-
/ pal church, in an address that he is
delivering throughout the Helena area
of which he is head. The bishop was
one of the chief speakers at the area
conference which was held here last
week at the Methodist Episcopal chuch.
! The sermon Changing the World, =
outlines program. which. the bishop
says, the church must follow, if it is
i to keep up with the times.
! The address follows.
John Wesley was a modern. There
/! is no social emphasis of Christianity.
no industrial accent and no institu-
| tional church activity today but was
| commonplace in his thinking and min
istry. When John Wesley fashioned
| the Methodist machine. he made it with
numerous forward speeds, but no re
verse The freshness of power which
characterized the beginnings of Meth
odism are evident today in the world
pEUXTdu I'll tine CAuESAs W hit ENCIS
thing else has slumped and sagged.
the missionary program of Methodism
has gone forward, under staggering
loads. indeed, but without abatement
and without lessening Of speed.
Great as Its Ideals
The chudch must match the spirit
of the age. 1t is only as great as its
ideals. All are agreed that we have
| come to a turning point in human
destinies. We are passing through the
real processes of new era. We have
passed out of the period of astonish
ment at the world cataelysm into a
period of achievement. What is the
significance of this crisal hour: Scores
of books are written about it. Every
one feels that the 'embattled democra
cies of the world and now the disarm-
ing democracies of the world have
brought vast cataclysrnic and immeas-l
urable changes. Ramified reconstruc-
tons are imminent in society, in com
merce. in industry, in organized Chris
tianity. What are those changes?
What has happeneds What viii come
out of the social and industrial fer
ment of the day? What chance has
Jesus Christ in the new day dawning:
What is the place of the church in the
new scheme of adjustment?
Our concern is for the place and
practice of the church in the new world
order. The old and interesting world
has gone. A new and significant world
has arrived. To make the new world
a changed world. but changed after the
pattern of Christ that is our task.
There is movement outside the
ehurch-vast. significant. which lacks
~l.Ak-,
cial aspects. it's industrial unrest, its
phase of spiritual flightiness. 1t is full
of isms and fads. But the Gerry move
ment itself. like the man in Leacock's
Nonsense Novel; who mounted his
horse and rode rapidly in all directions
indicates an insistent mood for prog
ress for going somewhere. Blindly or
consciously, there is a demand for a
better world. a better chance to live
The world is moving forward into light
Whatever is our part in the present
world crusade. one great conviction
blue sparks III instensity-we must
face the questions of the new oge as a
church or lose our primacy of leader
advance or be defeated. We must
take the world for Christ or confess
our unpreparedness and impotency.
The present position of the church
is toward the front. Its doors are
opened toward the front, its programs
ace forwarded looking. its attitude
forward stepping. it's mind forward
1t heralds the new day. not
by celebrating the past but by chart
ing the coming years of the Kingdom.
At Grips With Life
''fThe church, as in no other age has
come to grips with life, and Method
ism in its modern Missionary move
ment has astonished the wroid. Its
one major objective is to makqe the
whole world an expression of the King
dom of God
when Field Marshal Haig had
pushed the Germans back and finally
halted upon the ancient rampant Of
the Hindenburg line and especially in
the underground channel between st.
Quentin and Rellecoeur. he sent
hurry call to General Pershing asking
him if he had Americans that could
break that line-that they had failed.
This is history. General Pershing
sent two American divisions that faced
the underground canal to the linden
burg line. the hardest formation thar
ever was erected by genius OF man.
General Pershing intended to
do it or not. as prophet. he sent the
9th New York boys and the Both. the
boys of Carolina, and ON the 10Th of
September, 1918, these American divi
sons through the gray dawn came out
upon the line On the left side of the
s0th division Young Carolina captain.
seeing New York captain few feet
away, stood at salute and said: Caro-
line. ready to die. salutes New York
and the New York captain replied:
New York. ready TO die sallites the
Carolinas When the great barrags
came down, they charged and the Hin
lcnburg line was but memory. The
ancient throne of Deutschland in the
lust marked but the grave of empires.
- Ahn sarno snsrif ne Chrsetia nsdnal