America belongs to Christ. Given him of the Father, his title has never been transferred. We only occupy the land, and to-day he calls for an account of our stewardship.

      I. Historically considered, America belongs to Christ. He asserts his claims to-day and will not be denied. This child of the nations, this inheritor of the ages, discovered by a Christian sailor, whose voyage was made possible by the faith and devotion of Spain's noble Christian queen; this land, whose virgin shores heard first the song of thanksgiving and felt the gentle pressure

E. WILFLEY.

of Christian feet; whose valleys were tilled by Christian industry, and whose hillsides were marked by Christian graves--belongs to Christ. Its pioneers were cheered around their campfires by the word of God, and the voice of praise stole softly through the wigwams of the natives. Our first institutions were planted in faith, watered by the tears of devotion, enriched by the blood of sacrifice, and brought to full fruition in a harvest-time made glorious by the spirit of Christian brotherhood. In this congenial atmosphere human rights received a new emphasis and human obligations a new birth. "Might makes right" gave place to the "might of right" and ruling human motives received a new baptism. The Puritans in New England, the Dutch in New York, the Quakers in Pennsylvania, and the English Churchmen in Virginia and Georgia, placed the banner of the cross in the forefront of their civilization and recognized Christianity as the basis of society. So by right of discovery, of colonization, of its institutions, of the blood shed and the prayers offered, this goodly land, "Time's noblest offspring," belongs to Christ. Patiently, ceaselessly, wearily, uncomplainingly, he toils up the Via Dolorosa of this world's selfishness in order that he may come into his own. Shall we help him or hinder him?

      II. Logically considered, this land belongs to Christ. With a new country, new laws and institutions, freedom of speech, of the press and of religion, every condition was favorable, not only to human liberty, but also to a robust faith.

      With the direction of public affairs and the instruction of youth in the hands of those who took their inspiration from the open Bible, it is no wonder that religion played so prominent a part in the shaping of our destiny. God's name may not be in the constitution, but God's Spirit was in the hearts of those who framed it. In the founding of our Government the voice of faith was dominant; all the best that our civilization affords has come from the early acknowledgment of Christ's supremacy.

      III. The Larger Christ for Our Enlarged Needs. Though the past speaks plainly of the place and power of Jesus in the thought and life of the nation, yet only the blind can fail to see the need for greater effort in pressing the claims of the gospel in our own day. The watchmen upon the walls of Zion cry loudly in alarm; the trumpet-call to duty sounds in every ear not deaf to the voice of God. Our institutions and national life were never so much in peril as now.

      The tide of immigration, bearing on its bosom the Continental Sunday with all its riot and wantonness, is threatening the peacefulness of our American Lord's Day.

      The American saloon, that beastly [216] and abortive child of misguided liberty and sordid license, entrenched within polluted passions, bulwarked by political power and battlemented by enormous sums of blood-money, is pushing its outposts to our very firesides, and no place too sacred, no life too beautiful, for its hellish onslaughts. Classes and masses are said to be drifting farther apart; the upper ten and the submerged tenth seem hopelessly separated, while both are perils of the common good.

      In the great cities, the church is said to be in retreat. Populous and needy fields are being deserted; the temples of worship follow the pocketbooks of the biggest givers; costly pews are paid for, but unoccupied, by men who prefer to go a-motoring; an elect and gilded membership takes its religion by proxy or by the methods of absent treatment.

      There are signs upon the earth of a new Pentecost, but it can only come after a new crucifixion; and the cross may be very heavy, and the way rough and steep, but without the cross there can be no crown.

      God's bow is in the heavens. His word has gone forth and his bared right arm has been thrust athwart the path of the nations. In our sky a shadow lingers, but from its depths we hear the voice of Jesus--"It is I, be not afraid."

      It is not true that the church is in retreat; it is only shifting its base of operations. It is contended that the widespread social and spiritual unrest indicates that society is deserting the church and losing sight of Christ. Not so. Society is just beginning to see Jesus, and the glorious vision has disturbed the ominous content and sense of security into which it had fallen. Blighting apathy is giving way to intelligent sympathy. The vision of Christ and what he yearns to be to humanity has caused heart-searching and soul-hunger--not because he is getting farther away from us, but because we are drawing nearer to him, and thus getting closer together.

      What more enrapturing theme than this: Save America for the world's sake. A saved America, can save the world; a half-saved America will but trifle with the world's salvation. Then, save America for America's sake, and save America for the world's sake.

      "God in Christ reconciling the world unto himself," must now be supplemented by Christ in his people reconciling them to one another. American Christianity, torn by dissensions, weakened by strife, embittered by factions, its spiritual power atrophied by long misuse, must get together, minimizing its diversities, magnifying its unities, subtracting its divisions, multiplying its additions, until at last the Christ life shall find a new power in a unified church and a dying world be drawn to him and saved.

      What people better fitted to lead in this glorious cause than you, my brethren--you? You heroes of a hundred years!

      IV. Our Opportunity and Our Obligation. An American movement with an American spirit, favored and fostered by congenial conditions, coming in the fullness of time, with no crushing pack of medieval rubbish upon your backs, no clattering clogs of man-made curios dangling around your heels, and no ex cathedra goggles on your eyes, it is yours to be first to find Jesus in the fullness and perfection of his love and bid the world "come and see."

      This is a work we dare not trifle with. Christ's disciples were not "divinely sent to conform their thinking and speaking to a creed, nor prove a book, nor prop up the throne of God, nor support an ecclesiasticism; but to exalt Christ and subdue all things unto him."

      We stand in the faintly breaking dawn of our second century, and startling changes have come with the receding night. Among the forces that make for progress and righteousness among us, there are some that make for disintegration and death. Old perils have been met and overcome by those who have preceded us, but new perils confront us in the way. Perhaps the greatest are not bitterness and prejudice, ignorance and infidelity without, but rather false standards, short-sightedness and self-complacency within our own ranks. "Our Plea," if ever true, is true to-day. Its progress and power in the world are its own triumphant vindication. It still "needs no revision," [217] unless it be in the matter of emphasis.

      It is time for us to acknowledge the vital relation of creed and conduct, of doctrine and life. It is our boast that we have the doctrine; the world demands that we reproduce the life. We announce vociferously that we are sound in the faith; but the world quietly asks to see the fruit. Our preaching may be good, our professions better; but humanity will judge us essentially by our practice. Less dogmatizing and more evangelizing is what this day needs. The ministry is called upon, not to argue Christianity as a proposition, but to announce Christ as a loving and the only Saviour. Solemnly, but with a deep sense of its significance, I beg to say, God preserve us from the infuriate passion of the heretic hunter and fill us with the divine passion of the soul-saver. Brethren, no amount of keen thinking and fine talking can take the place of practical living and giving for the Master's cause. It is utterly futile to try to substitute boastful professions and self-congratulations for the going feet, the uplifting hands and the open purse. We can no longer hide behind the pretext that we are a poor people. We are rapidly becoming a rich people, and, to paraphrase the words of Lyman Beecher, "we must evangelize or we must perish with our own prosperity." A practical demonstration of Christ's power in our own lives and deeds will have far more weight with humankind than any doctrinal pronouncements, howsoever true and beautiful.

      What can? Only the blood of Jesus Christ. That blood is for the cleansing of the nations. That blood is for the cleansing of our nation, and is accessible only through a cleansed and consecrated church.

      Heroes of a hundred years, do you believe it? Then help the old A. C. M. S., the mother of all our enterprises, to make that cleansing complete. Rally to its support, sing its praises, read its literature, and take its offerings. Lend a hand in this entrancing cause. For believe me, brethren, it is better to win the great Northwest for Christ than to win the world's championship in baseball. Better to navigate the Congo in the steamer "Oregon" than to push the steamer "Roosevelt" through the polar seas. "As goes America, so goes the world." If we believe it, then we must act upon it. Everlasting glory or eternal shame awaits our action.

[CCR 216-218]