What the Church Means to Me | Page 7

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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