Substitutes! — Music, our health message, visual illustrations, and scientific lectures are surely proper and essential when used as God designs — as adjuncts, not substitutes for a waning spiritual power. But when they becothe simply drawing cards to compensate for lost magnetism in the presentation of the uplifted cross, they become a subtle delusion and an actual peril to the evangelist, however helpful they are to the people. Let us not make a wrong use of a right thing.
Neglected! — We have stressed the coming deliverance from the presence of sin at the second coming of Christ, but we have failed to deal as we should with the present problem of sin's power pending that blessed day. Salvation embraces forgiveness for the guilt of sin and deliverance from the power of sin, as well as future freedom from the presence of sin. This ought we to stress, and not leave the other unstressed. Let us preach a balanced gospel as the Bible declares it.
Spiritual! —" He is a spiritual man." Just what do you mean by that expression? A man may be very religious, very ardent, very pious, very productive, very efficient, and most exemplary from the viewpoint of ethics, religious achievements, and human morality, and not be spiritual. A man is spiritual only as he is Spirit filled. Human piety, morality, or righteousness is not to be confused therewith. God wants spiritual men in the ministry, not merely ardent religious directors. They are the ones whom God will use to finish the assigned task of this movement. God make us all truly spiritual men.
Sabbaths! — Does a preacher need a Sabbath, or is his mortal frame of dust so constituted that he can work on seven days a week, month in and year out, without let down and relaxation? With him, Sabbath responsibilities are often the heaviest of the week. Yet the fourth commandment which we herald to the world specifies one day's rest in seven, even for beasts, and theirs is purely ,a physical rest. God did not design the human body for continuous, uninterrupted labor, even for Him. Some of us in our intemperance are presuming on God's mercy. We who preach the observance of both letter and spirit of the law to others, should keep it ourselves. A reform is needed within as well as without, for God doesn't want abbreviated lives of usefulness.
Reputation! — The world knows us chiefly as Bible students, propagandists, proselyters, compassing land and sea with our amazing mission program, and as zealous preachers of our distinctive doctrines. Do they know us equally well as men and women of outstanding fellowship with God, of power in prayer, of victory over the power of sin? Are we who are heralding the chronology of the times as ardently developing characters commensurate with the times, both in our own lives and in the lives of those we touch and teach? Above all professed followers of Christ in the world, we of the true, remnant church should be known as the outstanding Christians of the world.
L. E. F
