What the Church Means to Me | Page 5

have felt it. Jesus had specially to rebuke his own disciples for forbidding any man from casting out devils. For whatever his opinions, he must be on our side.
Thank God there is a new spirit entering the churches, a larger spirit! Only those can survive eventually who cultivate it. A spirit that wants to use every effort to raise humanity, and seeks a return for its outstretched hand, solely in the fact that it thereby grasps more of those of "his brethren."
THE ONLY RIGHT WAY TO GROW
This is the way for a church to grow. The more it exercises its muscles in pulling men out of their pits, the more dexterous, powerful, and altogether desirable it will be, because the world will need it, and it will no longer appeal only to those who prefer its form of worship or have a bias towards its particular church polity. The law of demand and supply should be recognized as applying equally to the church as to other agencies. The desire to be needed, to find work, and not merely to be a big party product can alone develop communions able to remove the stigma of being either parasites or fads.
If a church is really anxious to fulfil its functions as set down in the only book of instructions for each of them; if it wants to call forth latent energy, as a Washington from his homestead, or a Lincoln from his farm, it must cease to lay stress on orthodoxy and get to work where the world really needs it. A surgeon may be ever so correct in his knowledge of operative surgery, but he must find a practise or he is useless. It is not so much for holding services, as for rendering services, that the world is looking to the Church today.
HUMAN NEED THE TRUE OBJECTIVE
Today the Church should not only have a message for the strong and well. In Christ's day it had a message for the sick and suffering also. I admit that the medical profession has neglected too much the influence that mind has over matter. It therefore frequently endeavors to treat a human being as if he was nothing but a conglomeration of material cells. But the Church, it seems to me, is making an infinitely more serious mistake in entirely abandoning the valuable aid it can give the physician when he has found that no organic cause accounts for the symptoms of his patient. What is known in America as the Emmanuel Movement has my entire sympathy. It is an honest effort of sane men to bring to the aid of physical sufferers demonstratively valuable spiritual influences.
THE MINISTER ONLY A SERVANT
The priest or minister is the navigating lieutenant of the Church ship. He is the tactician of the army. He is the specialist whose experience is invaluable. He is not called to be one whit holier than I am, but being on a lofty pedestal he will possibly be more closely watched. His, indeed, is a pitiable condition if he has not the spirit of his Master. His creed may seem infallible, his faith most orthodox, but for my part I would rather not be so sure of what I did believe, and pray with "the man after God's own heart," "Teach me to do the thing which pleases thee." This is a sure step on the road to the answer of, "Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief." I am convinced there would be no lack of worthy candidates for the ministry if only the churches would lay more stress on the infinite privilege of human service it opens up. There are more medical students than are needed.
THE FUTILITY OF THE INTELLECTUAL TEST
Is it then a necessity, or an advisable thing, that before a man can become a worker with the Church he must pass an intellectual test? Is it imperative for him to find exactly what he does not believe? That makes it almost impossible for him to get back afterwards. The effect on the unfortunate heathen of warring messengers, all calling for different faith tests for membership in Christ's Church, has always seemed to me little short of disastrous. The theory of Christianity wouldn't convince the heathen of the Congo that religion is desirable, or make a Russian Jew wish to adopt Russian Christianity. The same applies to the Turkish views of Austrian Christianity, or the attitude of the Indian of South America towards Christian Spain. As for me, I am satisfied in my own work, and I think my Master was, with the faith that makes a man anxious and willing to come and help me, ever believing that he that is not against us is on our side.
Joshua, a servant of God if ever there was one, is often