The Problem of the Church

“Are you a member of Church?” I was asked by an earnest Christian woman recently. It was at a conference of Christian people for speaking about Jesus and the great truths of Christian life and service. She is a gifted woman, earnest in her spirit of devotion and service. “Yes,” I repHed, with a bit of wonder at the question, “I certainly am; I am a member of the Church in which I was born and reared.”

“But,” she went on, “how can you be? Are there not many things there of which you do not approve, and things taught that you do not believe?” I reminded her that church membership was not a matter of approving everything that was done, nor yet a matter of beUeving certain things. It is the gathering together of those who believe in Jesus Christ, and gather in His name for mutual helpfulness, and for a great world-service.

It is because I seem to have met many whose thought of the Church has not been clear, and who have wavered in their devotion to it, that I want to talk a bit here about the Church, and our personal relation to it. This is one of the personal problems that comes up in the life of very many who would climb the highest levels, and always ring true.

There have been a good many common mistakes current in thinking about the Church. It is supposed by some that church membership necessitates a beUef in all the items of her creeds; by others that it is a sort of profession of peculiar goodness or sanctity;, and by others that it is largely for one’s own helpfulness and enjoyment. The personality of the minister has entered in to a very large degree, and very naturally. That must always have influence. The Church has sometimes, in some quarters, been thought of practically as an exclusive club to which non-members are not welcome without a personal introduction by a member in acceptable standing. It has been thought of, too, as the doorway into desirable social circles, and some very earnest, Bible-loving people have thought of it wholly as a place to be fed and fired up.

And let it be frankly said that there has been and is much in various quarters to give coloring to these various suppositions. Yet the simple thought of the purpose of the Church is quite different from any of these ideas. It will surely help, to get some clear thought of the mission of the Church, and of one’s true relation to it.

The Tie of Blood and Spirit.

The Church is a family, God’s family. It is common blood that makes a family. The child comes into the family through the blood of the parents. In quite another sense it can be said it is one blood that makes the church family. Through the blood of the Head of this family there comes the life to each one, and that life it is that makes him a member of the family.

The Church is not an organization formed by men for an agreed purpose. It is a society founded by the Holy Spirit for a great purpose. Its members belong there only because the Spirit of the Founder is in them. Each one into whom the Spirit has come is a member of the society because of that fact. The Holy Spirit is the bond of union that holds the members together. As they are drawn closer to Him they are drawn closer to each other.

Membership in a family is by birth. The child comes into the family by birth; he comes into the church family by birth too, the higher spirit-birth. The child has his father’s spirit and in some degree his likeness. The member of the church family has his Father’s spirit, and in some degree His likeness. Wherever there is a heart that has opened to the gracious Spirit of God there is a member of His family. For He quickly enters every such heart and His presence is the certificate of membership in His family, the Church.

The members of this family meet with the Head of the family, of course. Getting together is a family trait. The Spirit in each draws them together. They meet out of love for their Father. They love to tell Him of their love for Him, and to express their feelings of regard. The common word for this is worship. They meet to read their Father’s letters, and to talk about Him and His plans and wishes. Such meetings naturally bring a glow of warmth to the heart, clearer thought of His wishes to the mind, and a keener edge to the desire to please Him. They meet, too, to plan how best to win the other children of the Father who have strayed away from the home circle, and lost many of the old family traits. The Father’s letters constantly talk about going out for the others, and going to those farthest away and telling them of His yearning love for them.

For this church family is a sort of reunited ‘family. The old original family was badly broken up and scattered. The Father sent down His Son to get them back and together again. It was a great, difficult task. He lost His life on the errand, but He succeeded in the task. Some came, and more, and many more. But the Father’s heart is very hungry for the rest. He is ever calling them back. His Spirit in a man is ever urging that man to get the rest back, too, into the inner circle again.

As the members of the reunited family are scattered in all parts of the world, these meetings are held in different places. For convenience and mutual helpfulness, different branches of the family have been organized. Men have been drawn together by national ties, language ties, neighborhood ties, and by ties of friendship. Personal temperament has been a great tie.

Some prefer to give full expression to their feelings; others find a freeness of expression in spirit through quiet meetings.

By agreement and by growth the great branches have been built up with certain statements of belief, and certain forms of management and of worship. All this has played an important part and still docs. But these varying outer forms are incidental. They are a convenience for the mutual working together of men in a common plan of work. The vital bond of all is the Holy Spirit’s presence. He is the great dominant factor, and the one element of unity in the whole, and of continuity through all time.

A Picture oythe True Family.

Through the long years this church family has grown very large, and become very widely scattered over the earth. Its members are different in many ways. They speak many languages. Some are rich and some poor, some educated and some ignorant, with all degrees between. And sometimes differences of opinion have occurred. That is not surprising, considering the great differences of other sorts. And sometimes, it must be confessed, bad disputes have broken out. The very success attending the effort to bring in all others has led indirectly to things of this sort. For these men are not all perfect in love, nor in mental discipline, nor in self-control.

And so there are many branches of the church family, with their gatherings conducted in many different ways. There are some members of the great church family, members through the birth-mark of the Spirit’s presence in their hearts, who do not attend any of these gatherings. That is always unfortunate, for they cannot help so well in carrying out the Father’s plan for the world, and they miss the fellowship and help, and are missed too. And then there are quite a good many who do not have that birth-mark who have come into the membership of these branches. But wherever there is a man in whom the Spirit is he will be drawn to meet the others with that same Spirit. The Spirit of God in a man draws him into contact with the other members of the family.

Now a family is peculiar in this: here are gathered into one, persons of very marked differences. There are extreme differences of age, of maturity, of knowledge, of wisdom, of health and strength, and even of temperament in children of the same parents. The true family is both a school and a hospital; a place of growth, of the disciplining of the powers, and of sweetest friendships; with the zest and stimulus of constant contact, and all pervaded with the atmosphere of unselfish love.

And this is the true conception of the Church, especially of the particular group that is bound together in one place of gathering, by ties of agreement, as well as by the fundamental tie of the Holy Spirit’s presence in each. A man does not enter here because he understands the doctrines and creed of the Church, but that he mayunderstand. He does not come in because he is good, but to become good and better; not because he is in sound health spiritually, but to be helped into spiritual vigor.

The one essential thing is that he has admitted Jesus into his life as Saviour and Master. He does not attend the meetings simply to get, but to give too. His presence in an earnest, devout spirit is a great gift to the gathering. He should not go to get his torch lighted, but to take a lit torch and let it touch other lit torches, that so there may be better light and warmth. He ought to carry a live coal in- so that others may be warmed, though he is not conscious of that.

The preaching may not always be to his liking, nor the music; and some people may not be as agreeable as they might be; but these things should be thought of as incidentals to be prayed over or, may be, forgotten. They are important. We cannot help being affected by them. But we should be careful not to let our possible dislike or dissatisfaction affect our conduct or speech. A man should aim to keep his boat in the current, and not let it be swept to one side by little eddies, and maybe get stuck in the mud.

The earnest desire to meet with the other members of the great church family, even though personally unknown, to worship the Father, and listen for a message either outer or inner, and help through gift towards the great world-serlice of the

Church, will always find a blessing coming into the heart, and a bit of upHft into the life. A man may always find in the church service what he needs.

I have been in all sorts of Churches and church services, in many parts of the world, and have found that it is always possible to get a fresh touch with God. Even amid possible distractions of a strange language, or something uncongenial, there can come the deep, quiet glow into the heart that tells of the Spirit’s touch. God meets with the man who goes to the place of worship to be met. There is a blessing waiting for each of us in the gathering together in the church service, and we may get it if we will.

Fellowship and Service.

Man was made for fellowship and service. He was made male and female for mutual help in the maturing of his life, and so greater efficiency in service. Here in the original plan for man lies the plan of the Church. It is a divine institution for the mutual maturing of the life of its members, and for a great service — bearing witness to Jesus Christ before all men. Its birthday was that marvellous day in Jerusalem when the crucified and enthroned Jesus sent down the Holy Spirit upon His waiting disciples. Its beginnings were wholly Jewish, at the Jewish capital, with Jewish members, and in a Jewish atmosphere.

Its mission was a striking resemblance to that of the old Hebrew nation. That nation’s great mission was to preserve the revelation it had received of the true God, and to give it to all the world. The Hebrews were God’s preachers to the world of Himself. The Church’s mission is to tell all the world of Jesus Christ, His life and death and new life beyond death. The Church is Jesus Christ’s preacher to all nations.

The principle of organization of the two is radically different. In the nation there was a birthright membership, in the Church a membership by personal choice; there others could come in by choosing to, and fulfilling the requirements; here all come in by choice. In the nation the magnet was Jehovah, and His worship. In the Church the magnet is Jesus Christ, and His sacrifice of love. The Church is the lineal descendant of the Hebrew nation. The nation failed at the greatest crisis of its history, the coming of its King — failed through rejecting Him. The highest revelation entrusted to it was refused. The Church was brought to its birth that that rejected King, accepted as Saviour, might be taken to all men.

There are a good many family traits of the nation in its descendant. That nation was not alway true to its mission. Its leaders were frequently weak and false. It had to be severely chastened. Its light shone very dimly and unsteadily at times. Yet up to the time of the great crisis its mission had been largely fulfilled; everywhere in the civihzed world was a knowledge of the true God, and a people worshipping

Him, in the midst of idolatry. Always in its darkest days and saddest plight the true light was kept shining clear and bright by a faithful company. There was the nation within the nation; the inner group true to the national mission while the nation itself was losing sight of its high ideal.

The Church has not always been true to its mission. Yet always there have been those who have kept the fires alive, though sometimes the live coals seemed very few. But always there has been a vitality in the Church, a pecuHar quahty of real life that has thrown off the bad, broken through the false-work, risen up out of the dead elements, and swung it true to its great mission. They were all sons of the Church who led in the great protesting movement which was as a second birth to it, and to the whole world’s life.

The counter Reformation within the mother Church was another evidence of its great vitality. The more recent movements among young men, and young women, and students, and for a renewed missionary campaigning by students and young people and laymen, have all grown up within the circle of its membership; they have drawn their strength from its heart; they are simply new evidences of its vast fertihty and resource, equal to any emergency.

It is intensely interesting to note that all the creative factors that enter into our present complex, intense civilization found their birth within the Church. The mental awakening of the world’s life so marked and marvellous in every sphere of life in our day has dated practically from the great Reformation movement. There has been no such mental activity in the nations outside the sphere of the Church’s influence. ,It has been most apparent where the Church’s influence has been greatest. The whole modern system of education found a birthplace in its vitality, and is distinctively its child. Here in America pecuHarly, in the beginning, the Church built the colleges.

The spirit of robust, aggressive vigor so dominant to-day in all the world was breathed into life by the life of the Church. Church history is the backbone of all history. Other lines break and recede. The Church supplies the one continuous warp into which is woven all the rest. The whole network of benevolent institutions to help the distressed, the hospitals and the asylums of all sorts for caring for the physically and mentally needy, grew up out of its warm heart.

Great Church-names Sign-posts oj Man’s Growth. The fact that there are great divisions of the Church has been the subject of much criticism. It is not uncommon to hear the Church spoken of as being ‘’all spht up.” But these great dilisions have, in the main, come about in a very natural way. They have been a natural development historically of man’s progress in liberty, and in the development of his mental powers.

They are a great expression of his strength of thought, as well as of his individual temperament, brought into conflict with the autocratic principle of government in both Church and State from which men have so largely broken away.

The first great division was by a geographical line into east and west, Greek and Roman. Underneath that Une was a radical difference of temperament between the peoples of the West centering at Rome, and those of the East centering about Constantinople. They had been bound into one empire through the power of the sword. Now they are free to give expression to their individuality. It has been commonly said that that division came about through the dispute over two little Latin words in the creed. But that only revealed the different modes of thought of peoples diverse in temperament, and now free to give expression to their thoughts.

The next division, the great Protestant movement, was an evidence of the new life, both mental and spiritual, of the peoples of Europe. The whole body of Protestant churches to-day tells out the vigor and vitality both of man’s life and of the Church. It spells out large the greatest movement of man towards a new intellectual life. The race was catching fire afresh. It was having a new birth.

The varying names within the Protestant Church grew up naturally in different nations. In Germany the personality of the great leader in their midst gave the name Lutheran. Under the leadership of that very different personality, Calvin, the churches in the Rhine countries from Holland to Switzerland used the name Reformed. In Scotland, always marked peculiarly for its independence and individuality, the name Presbyterian grew up, indicating a form of government radically different from that of the mother Church from which they had broken away. In England the Reformation movement took on national proportions, the King leading in the break, and so a national name was used, the Church of England.

The Methodist Church was a later movement. It is a child of the Church of England, born in its heart. It grew up out of the great awakening among the common people of England under the leadership of John Wesley. Its name is a constant reminder of the power of the Church to reach out to the masses, and, too, of the marvellous power inherent in man to develop new life. The stream of life always cuts new channels.

Others have grown up through adherence to some truth or principle that was not being recognized and emphasized as some men felt that it should be. So the great Baptist Church came into being and was peculiarly strengthened by the various persecutions endured. Many of the smaller church bodies are evidence that the unity of the Church is greater than the differences; for they are made of remnants who have refused to come into a union being effected by the larger number. Their existence reveals the fact that the unity of the Church has been dominant, though not all-inclusive.

The last hundred years and more have witnessed an unparalleled spreading out of the race over the vihole earth, subduing, developing, and organizing, even as the command was given in Eden. The pouring of the hordes of northern barbarians into southern Europe has been spoken of as one of the greatest movements of the race. But it is clear overshadowed, both in the numbers and in the vast changes involved, by the present-day emigration movements. And as the people have gone they have carried with them the church forms and names to which they were accustomed in the home land. So it comes to pass that on American soil can be found about every form of church worship, and management, and name. These differences viewed thus historically do not reveal the weakness of the Church but its strength. They mark a certain stage in its progress. They tell the story of man’s vigorous life, and of his devotion to the Church.

The New Church Unity.

And now there is a new movement in church life developing rapidly; a new stage is being entered upon. The immense strides which man has recently made and is making in obeying the divine command to subdue the earth and develop it, are rapidly working out a new family spirit among all the men of all the earth. The unity of the race is revealing itself afresh. And this is finding expression in the life of the Church.

There has been growing up in the last half-century a remarkable spirit of unity. And now there is a marked and remarkable stretching of eager hands across the dividing lines towards such a unity as Christ prayed for so fervently as He was going away. It can be thoughtfully said that there is to-day a practical unity in the Church deeper and keener, warmer and more sympathetic, than when it bore only one name.

And this is said with full alertness to the differences. But the differences are always less than the likenesses; always less than the one dominant spirit beneath varying names and forms and customs. And in our day the di’iding lines are looking towards a point of meeting. These are not straight lines, else they would never meet. They are angled lines, slanting lines, of peoples coming up from different parts of the earth, and they are drawing towards a meeting-point.

We Americans are quite in the habit of thinking of ourselves as the great world-leaders, in aggressiveness and enterprise at least. But our spirit-brothers in Japan and Korea have been ahead of us in their attempt to wipe off the slate the dividing church lines they got from us. And our blood-brothers in Britain are clear ahead here. In Scotland, a land and people as much marked for independence of thought and action as ever the old Greeks were, the coming together of churches ^ithin recent years has been most remarkable. Our Canadian neighbors have joined their Methodist bodies into one, and are now at the still greater task of uniting bodies as different in both doctrine and management as Methodist and Presbyterian and Congregational.

In our own country the United Presbyterian Church in its name tells of a coming together. And movements are in various stages of progress for union on a much wider scale. Blood-brothers of our North and South who differed intensely and sacrificially have come together materially and commercially, fraternally and socially, and have been reaching hands across the line in church life to get together again there. Never since apostolic days has there been so much evidence of the oneness of the Church.

And yet beneath all the movements towards organic union is a spirit of unity far greater than can ever find expression through mere oneness of organization. There has grown up a practical unity in service on the mission field to a large extent, and ever increasing. And at home the practical union of missionary efforts by students, by church boards, and now in this great new laymen’s movement, is most inspiring. The Church is one Church in essential spirit, and is in increasing measure becoming one Church in practical service.

Serious mistakes have been made and very serious differences have arisen. These but tell the intensity of feeling regarding matters they love of strong men who are not perfect either in love, or in knowledge, or in self control.

One group of men has made a statement of what they believed. Their followers have required that all after-comers into their circle shall assent to that statement. Another group in a later generation, under wholly different conditions, with new light, and a new way of expressing its thoughts, has not liked that statement but preferred to make its own. And so there has been friction.

Sometimes earnest men dwelling in the valleys have not been able to look over the hills for the comprehensive view which sees things in true relation to each other. But these very differences, with’ the factional heat involved, have but spelled out the vigorous vitality of men in robust life. The crowd has looked too much at the differences. But then, crowds usually do that. As a rule the crowd doesn’t think. Men differ strongly only about the things they love. The mountain peak of strong life and deep devotion and essential unity of spirit looms high over all differences. We should keep our eyes more upon its noble form.

The True Church Spirit.

In a very large social gathering in London some years ago, two gentlemen were speaking together of church matters. One of them criticised the church differences, and consequently, as he thought, the weakness of the Church. His friend asserted that these differences were largely on the surface and incidental; that underneath, at heart, there was a great unity among church people on the great essentials of the faith. The critic politely questioned the accuracy of his friend’s remark.

At once the churchman called attention to the character of the large company gathered. It was representative of many different churches and of many walks of life. He said: “At my request these people will all bow and reverently repeat the Lord’s Prayer as a confession of their common faith.” And, securing the attention of all gathered, he explained the little pleasant dispute that had arisen with his friend, and made the request.

Instantly a soft hush fell over the lively company, and with bowed heads, and in a deep, low tone, which suggested a great wealth of suppressed feeling, they repeated reverently the Lord’s Prayer. On no other one subject could there have been found such oneness of thought and such a depth of reverence. The subject of loyalty to their sovereign would have revealed as great oneness, but not the underneath depth of reverent feeling called out by loyalty to the higher Sovereign.

The great mission of the Church to remember the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ, and to tell all the world earnestly and practically and simply of Him, is being fulfilled to-day on a larger scale than ever before, and in as devoted a spirit as marked the early band of Jerusalem disciples.

Every true follower of Jesus Christ should be in the fellowship of the Church. He belongs there by birth, his new spirit-birth. The choice of the particular branch where his allegiance shall be given will be affected by family connection and tradition, or friendships, or convenience of location, or the receiving of some special spiritual blessing, or other such consideration. Thoughtful prayer will lead any one in doubt to very definite guidance in his decision.

Where he is led to go he should go heartily. That place becomes holy ground to him. The shoes of his common round of duties, and of cares, will be put’ off as he enters its doors. Here he will meet the Father, and worship Him, and receive blessing and help from Him direct. Here he will, with his brothers, remember the dying love of Jesus in the simple memorial meal of bread and wine. Here will be the fellowship of kindred spirits through which he will help, and be helped.

Through fellowship here, too, he shall come to understand better the love of Christ; for no one ever fully takes in that great love; it takes all of us together to take hold of that, and reaHze its depth and strength and tenderness. And here he can best join with his brothers in the great world-service intrusted to the Church of telling all the race about Jesus.

THE PROBLEM OF QUES-TIONED THINGS

Glimpses of Real Life.

Questions that are Not Questions.

The Sabbath Question.

Giving Comfort to the Enemy.

Paul’s Advice.

Not to Judge but to Save.

The Law of Love.