There is no light, heat, nor power unless we keep the trolley on the wire.
Faith is rooted in the substantial knowledge of facts, not in the effervescence of emotion.
The life and health of a movement can well be judged by its power to hold its own youth. Where stand we?
We should sharply differentiate between interpreting prophecy and attempting to prophesy the course by which a foretold event will be accomplished.
The temptation of every preacher is to say things that everybody will agree with. But a message from God is not agreeable to the sinner, nor to the lukewarm Christian.
Some preachers depend upon personality instead of truth as the basis of their appeal. Thus it becomes the preaching of a man instead of the preaching of the Christ in the word.
It is one thing to tell people that they ought to keep all the commandments of God. But it is quite another thing to tell them how to keep any of them. Fellow workers, what are you doing?
Never think you are indispensable, for just then God will probably change you or shelve you. It is amazing how God's work will go on without any specified man. It has been well said that God buries His workmen, but His work goes on. Let us remain humble.
Let us emphasize the fundamentals, and the inconsequentials will be automatically crowded into the background.
There is danger that in the crush of duties we shall become a business organization, and our decisions be regarded as on a level with the opinions of common business men.
No individual worker has a right to set up a personally devised test of admission to church fellowship, incorporating features not uniformly held by the body of the ministry and accepted by the church. We must pull in even lines. We are not independents.
The very perversions, apostasies, and drifts of the day are creating a hunger for the genuine, the real, the true, that is slowly but surely proving the greatest opportunity in our history. This is indeed our golden hour. God will hold us accountable for our relation thereto.
Hypocrisy is one of the most despicable afflictions that can harass the Christian. To shout vegetarianism and privately indulge in flesh foods, to champion the " Testimonies " and inwardly question them, to let expediency be the guiding factor in decision, — surely these and similar traits are to be despised and denounced. Let us be what we are.
The waning passion for evangelism can be viewed only with deepest apprehension. It is a symptom of something that lies far deeper. The willingness of evangelists to slip into departmental work, into an executive position, or into some other special field of endeavor, is occasioned not by loss of confidence in that work, but by lack of necessary support for successful continuance, and the growing emphasis upon specialized lines.
Has not the hour come for greater modesty in prophesying the details by which the last great crisis will be effected? Of that general truth and fact there is absolute surety. On the details, thousands are destined to a terrific surprise. Conservatism here is a solemn obligation. Satan will not work in accordance with some well-meant prognostications.
L. E. F.
