The visitor to Westminster Abbey, that mighty mausoleum of England's immortal dead, may read these words chiseled in a stone of the floor: "May the rich blessing of God rest on every one--be he English, American or Turk--who will help to heal the open sore of the world." The prayer of David Livingstone awakens response in the heart of every man who loves the kingdom of God and longs for its coming. Good men rejoice to recognize goodness wherever found, and those who love God and his righteousness find the light in every contribution to the progress of the kingdom, by whomsoever it may be brought. Ecclesiastical boundaries can not circumscribe the fruits of devotion to Jesus Christ. The branches of unselfish service run over denominational walls and bear fruit for all the world.

      You do not need to be reminded that here we come upon a fundamental

L. A. CRANDALL.

contention of both Disciples and Baptists. We have steadily refused to be bound by formulated statements of doctrine, insisting that the Bible is "our only rule of faith and practice." Every human soul has the right to stand face to face with God and interpret him for himself. Creeds may have been created by those of our fellowship, but they are simply the expressions of opinion without other authority than that which is inherent in the truth that they may embody. We give respectful attention to the opinions of Augustine and Calvin and Luther, but deny their right to decide for us in any matter which concerns the religion of Jesus. We do not question the devotion of those who have undertaken to formulate Christian truth through the long centuries, but for us there is only one Teacher whose instruction abides unchallenged through all the changes in human thought, even He who, in a far-off land and time, bade men take his yoke upon them and learn of him.

      The kingdom of God will come on earth only as men bow at the feet of Jesus Christ, intent upon knowing and doing his will. Nothing can be substituted for this devotion without gravest danger to the vital interests of the cause to which we are ostensibly pledged. When men so misinterpret the religion of Jesus as to content themselves with creedal subscription or elaborate ritual or submission to hierarchical authority or nominal relationship to ecclesiastical organizations or superstitious devotion to relics and saints, or in any way substitute anything for personal relationship of the soul with its Lord, true Christianity languishes and dies. The measurements of the kingdom of God are not made by means of statistical tables, but by ascertaining the likeness of men to God.

      We have need to ask ourselves how Jesus interprets human life. To this there can be but one answer if we come with open minds to the study of his life and teaching. In everything that he was, in all that he said, one comprehensive commandment for man is to be found: "Thy life shall be one of sacrificial service."

      How did the Son of God live his earthly life? To what interests of humanity did he devote himself? What were the forms which his service assumed? The answer is not far to seek, and when we have found it, we have come upon original and unadulterated Christianity; the Christianity which we must strive to live out if we are sincere in our professed devotion to the pristine model. Jesus sought the welfare of man. This is the explanation of his presence [484] in the world and of every act of his earthly life. He came not to be ministered unto, but to minister; not to get, but to give; not to grasp even at that which was legitimately his own, but to forego his own rights for the benefit of others.

      Just here we need to stop and look into our hearts and out upon that part of the church of Christ which is represented here to-day. Are we bringing to our generation the same revelation of brotherhood which Christ brought to his? Are the enormous aggregations of Christian disciples, of which we are individuals, as devoted to ministry for human betterment as were Jesus and his early adherents? I hear professed followers of Jesus saying that commercial life means war; that the Golden Rule is impracticable; that it is folly to undertake to mix religion with business. I see the twentieth-century Dives living in his palace, indifferent to Lazarus lying at his gate; and this Dives is a member of a Christian church, and presumably assumes to reproduce the Christianity of the first century.

      Possibly it may be urged that Jesus never undertook to remedy wrong social conditions; that he paid no attention to industrial injustice or corporate greed. It is true that Jesus had nothing to say concerning sanitation or housing of the poor or starvation wages. He did not even undertake the task of segregating the social evil in Jerusalem. He did far better; he undertook to beget a temper in the hearts of men which would make these evils impossible. He was not a lopper of branches, but a destroyer of the roots.

      But the ultimate purpose of Christ reached deeper than the opening of blind eyes or the cleansing of tainted blood or the righting of the social wrongs. His ministry to physical wretchedness was the automatic, involuntary expression of the love which filled his heart. He came to make manhood and womanhood; to seek and to save that which was lost; to take away the sin of the world. Because the abiding values are spiritual, he sought spiritual renewal. He set before himself the establishment of the kingdom of God on earth, and this could be accomplished only by men who were born from above. So the first word of his public ministry was a call to "Repent ye; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."

      But we have yet to touch upon the heart of this problem. All activities have a producing cause. The condition to all helpful ministry to the souls of men, to all forms of service by which the world is lifted out of sin to righteousness, is the possession of the "mind of Christ." No other motor can furnish the power by which we are to conquer the world for God. Ambition for ecclesiastical pre-eminence will produce extraordinary manifestations of energy, but it will not serve to renew the human heart. Even devotion to truth regarding the forms and ceremonies of our religion falls far short of being a permanently adequate mainspring for our evangelizing ministry.

      When John, the aged, was writing out of his heart to the hearts of his fellow-Christians, he avowed that "love is of God; and every one that loveth is begotten of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not, knoweth not God; for God is love." Here is our goal. Other things are important; this is vital. Love is the divine dynamic. It answers every demand made by God upon the soul. If we seek Christian unity and the restoration of unadulterated Christianity, our first task is to enthrone love in our own hearts and the hearts of fellow-believers.

[CCR 484-485]