What the Church Means to Me | Page 7

He said if you are willing to go out and work you will get
faith by working and seeing others work.
In this way most men get faith now. The empirical method is the very
best way to get it firmly rooted. Experientia docet. "Now we believe,
not because of what you say, but because we have seen for ourselves."
Did not Judas work with Jesus? Yet it is absurd to contend that Jesus
was "unequally yoked with unbelievers" on that account. At the end of
Christ's life only Peter seemed even to guess who he was, and his
protestations were not even the asset he thought they were. For a few
minutes after he had openly, to Christ's face and before witnesses,
asserted his faith, Christ called him "Satan" and told him to get behind
him. When he was in trouble they every one ran away. They would
never have done that from a handful of soldiers if they had honestly
believed he was the very Son of God.
To sum up, What has the Church meant to me? It has meant the agency
through which I received such spiritual sight as I have. It has meant the
body through which has come to me strength in weakness many times,
comfort in trial, help in time of need. Through the Church of God,
which Phillips Brooks said is "the kingdom of good hearts united in
love," have come the talents to use in the work to which my life is
given. When I want more help it is to this wide Church I go to look for

it, and I have never looked in vain. As a man loves the members of his
family, so I love the Church of God. For resources it stands to me as a
permanent war office stands to an army in the field. Fine uniforms and
titles are of little moment as compared with wisdom and efficiency for
supplying men and sinews for war. We fully value the great leaders in
our home country, and we also love our "Bobs" or our "Wellington"
because when called on they are willing to march in the front rank
themselves.
As a peripatetic worker myself during open water in my little hospital
ship, and in winter with dogs and sleigh, I recognize that it is but
transient help which I can give alone. So I love the little hospitals,
which speak of permanence. When a call for help comes for me, often
enough my place is vacant. But the cheery haven of refuge is always
there.
The grip of fellowship the visible churches give us on our homeland
visits is a real factor in our work. It makes them real sharers in it. And I
thank God for the real Church of God. I realize as never before how
essential that is. Besides all this, she stands as a great reminder of God
to the world. "Lest we forget. Lest we forget."
My last is purely a private confession, and it is this: If it were only
through association, I love also that organization within God's Church
of which I am myself a humble member. It is because I love it I am
willing to write exactly as I feel. For I love it enough to wish with all
my heart and soul and strength that God might be able to use it to a
fuller capacity, as with open eyes and unprejudiced heart and with
wisdom developing by experience it becomes willing to see that IT also
must have its scrap heap, or its museum for honorable antiquities, on
which to lay aside the weights that are impeding it in the race, which
are crippling its usefulness, and which are bound eventually to destroy
it if it blindly continues to cling to them.
The qualification for life eternal is to have done well. The final test is
to be ethical, not theological. I expect to find more roads leading into
the Golden City than many seem even to wish for. After the school day
of life I look for an ecclesia, a mighty host, called out for more perfect

service. My ideal church is characterized solely by the very simplest
interpretation of the old, old story, and each member deserves the name
of the "friend of all the world."

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