Christian Church?

<u>What Do They Want?</u>

There can be no doubt about the knocking. But--<i>but</i> what is it they are
after? Well, in plainest talk, they are after the thing that has made
Christian nations great, great to the point of world-leadership and
world-supremacy.

Do you remember the famous reply, often quoted, given to a foreign visitor
at the English court? He had asked the secret of the greatness of England,
which impressed him so forcibly. And her gracious majesty, of blessed
memory, Queen Victoria, placed her hand upon a Bible, and replied in the
memorable words, "<i>This</i> is the secret of England's greatness."

Just how much that wise woman had in mind I am sure I do not know. I feel
very sure she did not refer to the church system of England. But to
something far more and deeper than that, of which the church system is
only one expression. Where the Bible has gone, and where it has so
largely dominated the life of the people, as in England, there has been
both a moral regeneration <i>and</i>, mark it keenly, a <i>new mental life</i>. Its
touch has awakened the mental powers. There has been aroused and released
into activity that <i>spirit of energy</i> which has become the most marked
characteristic of the Western world.

These two, the mental life and the remarkable energy, lie at the basis of
all our wonderful modern science. And this, in turn, lies at the basis of
all our phenomenal development. It is this that makes the West different
from the East. The leading nations are Christian nations. The germ of
vigorous life is in the Gospel of Christ.

This is the thing the heathen world is knocking so earnestly at our door
for to-day. I do not say that they think of it in that way. They are just
coming, groping out of the darkness, with eyes blinking and blinded by the
brightness of our light. They stretch eager, reaching fingers out toward
the light, without knowing much about it. The glare of it has caught them.

And if they are caught, moth-like, and hurt by its flame--if they copy our
vile vices, which are no part of our Christianity, but the remnants of our
own original savagery cropping out in spite of Christianity--if so, is it
surprising? Their eyes are bothered by the sudden change from black
darkness to brilliant light.

But there's a deeper asking. Underneath all, the thing they are really
asking for, all unconsciously most of them, is that which lies at the
root of all ou