The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1927-03-05
By William e. GiIroy, d. D.

By William e. Gilroy, d. D.
Our lesson deals with Christian
evangelism, it's duty. methods, and
results.
Underlying such lesson as this
IS the fundamental conception of
Christianity as a religion that pri-
marily consists in a Gospel. AS
Dean Inge has recently reminded us,
voicing what others also have said,
the Gospel is good news, not good
advice.
OF course the Gospel is good ad-
vice as we'll; there is no better coun-
sci that any man could find for his
life than that which comes from the
Gospel of Christ. There is no
higher morality, no truer ethical out
look and practice than that which
the Gospel of Jesus Christ inspires.
But none the less the Gospel is
rimarily a message and not a COM
mand. 1t is a message Of good news
concerning God. It has its begin
ming in the love of God for men. the
love that is enshrined at the very
soul OF the universe and that Is, as
Henry Drummond proclaimed it, the
greatest thing in the world.
If there be no such love in the
world, If the message concerning 1t
be not the worlds greatest truth,
what foundation is there for moral
life at all? In what respect is one
thing better than another thing?
Without some faith in love and good
ness at the very heart of the uni
verse that responds to the love and
goodness of our own hearts, what
foundation can there be for nobility
of character?
It was the distinctive mission OF
Jesus to declare this great fact to
men. The very foundation Of his
work was in his message concerning
God, and it is only as his disciples
feel the reality of that message and
seek to proclaim it in word and in
deed that they truly live in the spirit
of Christ and carry on his mission
and work in the world.
1t is not enough simply to exhort
men to love one another; that very
exhortation, in fact, may be only a
means Of Encouragement to mon who
have made wreck and ruin of life.
The higher the ideal that one offers
to them the more they are apt to feel
their own degradation and the wreck
and ruin that they have made Of
things.
But if one can come to such men
with message of hope and good
cheer, if one can say to them, my
wother, God loves you," and make
lem feel the reality of that love,
there comes Immediately some i'm
pulse toward restoration and regener-
alton. That message of love as 1t
has reached the hearts of broken and
respondent men has been the power
Of God unto salvation. and has
brought men into newness and clean
illness Of moral life when they had
fallen, apparently, beyond the help
of moral incentives and appeals.
This is the place and meaning of
the Christian Gospel, and it is out
of this primary fact concerning the
nature and power of the Gospel that
the duty and privilege Of Christian
evangelism arise.
Our lesson reminds us how the
practice of this evangelism was the
power of the early church and the
basis of it's growth. Those who had
experienced the power of God spoke
Of it to others.
That is the truest and most effec-
tive, as it is the simplest and most
natural form Of evangelism. 1t is
a form of evangelism that we can
all practice, for, as the verses from
2 Corinthians in our lesson remind
us, the true power of the Christian
comes from the constraining love OF
Christ in his own soul.
What a privilege is it for Chris
tians to be ambassadors of God, to
be as those in whom Christ dwells
who speak of God as his representa-
tives, winning to the love and sup
port of his kingdom those who have
not known it's glory and it's privi-
leges!
We may close with reference to a
beautiful story of the poet Tenny
Mon. Stopping once with some
humble friends in a farmhouse, he
inquired of the farmers wife, as he
came in one morning, concerning |
the news. The farmers wife replied
that the best news was that Jesus
Christ had died for every man," to
which Tennyson responded, eyes, it
is good news, and it is true news"