theological precept or
conducting some ordained observance in the pulpit; or that religion is
only when it is labelled as such and is within the walls of a church.
That belonged to the chapter in Christianity that is now rapidly
closing, a chapter of good works and results--but so pitiably below its
possibilities. So pitiably below because men had been taught and without
sufficient thought accepted the teaching that to be a Christian was to
hold certain beliefs about the Christ that had been formulated by early
groups of men and that had come down through the centuries.
The chapter that is now opening upon the world is the one that puts
Christ's own teachings in the simple, frank, and direct manner in which
he gave them, to the front. It makes life, character, conduct, human
concern and human service of greater importance than mere matters of
opinion. It makes eager and unremitting work for the establishing of the
Kingdom of God, the kingdom of right relations between men, here on this
earth, the essential thing. It insists that the telling test as to
whether a man is a Christian is how much of the Christ spirit is in
evidence in his life--and in every phase of his life. Gripped by this
idea which for a long time the forward-looking and therefore the big men
in them have been striving for, our churches in the main are moving
forward with a new, a dauntless, and a powerful appeal.
Differences that have sometimes separated them on account of differences
of opinion, whether in thought or interpretation,[H] are now found to be
so insignificant when compared to the actual simple fundamentals that
the Master taught, and when compared to the work to be done, that a
great Interallied Church Movement is now taking concrete and strong
working form, that is equipping the church for a mighty and far-reaching
Christian work. A new and great future lies immediately ahead. The good
it is equipping itself to accomplish is beyond calculation--a work in
which minister and layman will have equal voice and equal share.
It will receive also great inspiration and it will eagerly strike hands
with all allied movements that are following the same leader, but along
different roads.
Britain's apostle of brotherhood and leader of the Brotherhood Movement
there, Rev. Tom Sykes, who has caught so clearly the Master's own basis
of Christianity--love for and union with God, love for and union with
the brother--has recently put so much stimulat
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