Science, history, or philosophy never made a saint. Preach Christ.
Unity does not involve uniformity, any more than variety implies variance.
There is a basic distinction between knowledge by experience and knowledge by description.
The fact that a worker can do a certain thing with a clear conscience, does not make it right or wrong. Conduct is to be judged by harmony with the revealed will of God.
Statistics are not always trustworthy guides, because they can be made to ten almost any tale, depending upon adaptation, omission, or emphasis, and so lead to false confidence on the one hand, or morbid depression on the other.
It is interesting to see how a man's message is affected by his personal practices. We recall the diatribes of one brother against the automobile, which automatically ceased when this austere and elderly laborer took unto himself a car.
There is danger of separating our denominational truths from the eternal Christian fundamentals held through the centuries from the birth of the church. The superstructure may be altered to meet the needs of the specific times and periods; but the foundation, never! The superstructure is built upon the foundations. Let us give these foundational verities their rightful prominence.
Why are so many outward regulations and exhortations necessary as relates to conduct, dress, adornment, speech, and the like? It is because of an inward lack, a basic change in controlling motives. Must not the remedy, then, deal with the inner life? Stanch the spring, and the flow will cease.
A gospel message that deals simply with the future and the past, is only partial. We need the gospel that emphatically embraces the now, the imperative present. The full gospel is designed to break the control of sin, as well as to deal with its condemnation and contamination.
No one can form a true estimate of the actual spiritual condition of a student body, an institutional group, or a church, from a public meeting or two where everyone is on dress parade. One must get into the personal problems through interviews or inquiry meetings in order to know the real situation. Here is where many visiting ministers form a false impression.
It matters not whether it is called the deeper life, the victorious life, the higher life, or the fuller life. The phraseology is immaterial; it is the reality that is imperative. The devil is gleeful if he can get us to quibbling over theological terms, but he trembles when we draw near to God in gladsome surrender and fellowship, by prayer, communion, study of His word, and resting in Christ — all made possible by the Holy Spirit.
L. E. F.
