Joy Power | Page 5

spirit is a dream. Man shall not live by bread alone,
neither shall he listen for any word from the mouth of God. I proceeded
forth and came from darkness, I came of myself, I know not who sent
me. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me,
but I can not give unto them eternal life, for they shall perish and death
shall pluck them out of my hand. Let not your heart be troubled; ye
believe not in God, ye need not believe in me. Keep my
commandments, and I will not pray for you, and ye shall abide without
a Comforter. In the world ye shall have tribulation, but be of good
cheer, for ye know not whether there is a world to come. I came forth
from darkness into the world, and again I leave the world and return to
darkness. Peace I leave with you. If ye loved me ye would rejoice
because I said, I go into darkness, and where I am there shall ye be

also.'
Is it conceivable that any suffering, sorrowing human soul should be
comforted and strengthened by such a message as this? Could it
possibly be called a gospel, glad tidings of great joy to all people?
And yet what has been omitted here from the words of Christ? Nothing
but what men call doctrines: the personality of God, the divinity of
Christ, the Atonement, the presence and power of the Holy Spirit, the
sovereignty of the Heavenly Father, the truth of the divine revelation,
the reality of the heavenly world, the assurance of immortal life. But it
is just from these doctrines that the teaching of Jesus draws its peculiar
power to comfort and inspire. They are the rays of light which disperse
the gloom of uncertainty. They are the tones of celestial music which
fill the heart of man with good cheer.
Let us never imagine that we can strengthen Christianity by leaving out
the great doctrines which have given it life and power. Faith is not a
mere matter of feeling. It is the acceptance of truth, positive,
unchanging, revealed truth, in regard to God and the world, Christ and
the soul, duty and immortality. The first appeal to faith lies in the
clearness and vividness, the simplicity and joy, with which this truth is
presented.
There has not been too much preaching of doctrine in this age. There
has been too little. And what there has been, has been too dull and cold
and formal, too vague and misty, too wavering and uncertain.
What the world wants and waits for to-day is a strong, true, vital
preaching of doctrine. The Church must realize anew the precious value
of the truths which Christ has given her. She must not conceal them or
cast them away; she must bring them out into the light, press them
home upon the minds and hearts of men. She must simplify her
statement of them, so that men can understand what they mean. She
must not be content with repeating them in the language of past
centuries. She must translate them into the language of to-day. First
century texts will never wear out because they are inspired. But
seventeenth century sermons grow obsolete because they are not

inspired. Texts from the Word of God, preaching in the words of living
men,--that is what we need.
We must think about the doctrines of Christianity more earnestly and
profoundly. We must renew our Christian evidences, as an army fits
itself with new weapons. The old-fashioned form of the "argument
from design in nature" has gone out with the old-fashioned books of
science which it used. But there is a new and more wonderful proof of
God's presence in the world,--the argument from moral ends in
evolution. Every real advance of science makes the intelligent order of
the universe more sublimely clear. Every century of human experience
confirms the Divine claims and adds to the Divine triumphs of Jesus
Christ. Social progress has followed to a hair's breadth the lines of His
gospel; and He lays His hand to-day with heavenly wisdom on the
social wants that still trouble us, "the social lies that warp us from the
living truth." Christ's view of life and the world is as full of sweet
reasonableness now as it was in the first century. Every moral step that
man has taken upward has brought a wider, clearer vision of his need of
such a religion as that which Christ teaches.
Let not the Church falter and blush for her doctrines. Let her not turn
and go down the hill of knowledge to defend her position in the valley
of ignorance. Let her go up the hill, welcoming every wider outlook,
rejoicing in every new