Editorial Postscripts

From the Ministry back page.

L.E.F. is editor of the Ministry.

Humbling—The spiritual glow will wane with the most advanced Christian, unless there is a frequent breaking down before God. This is an inescapable necessity, and must be a reality, else our labor will become mechanical, and the deadly blight of spiritual apathy and self-contentment will come in between the soul and God..

Systematize! — Organized thought is needed. It is not sufficient to have a head full of valuable but largely unrelated facts. These need to be correlated and organized to preserve balance and so prevent ex­tremism, which is simply secondaries assuming the place and importance of primaries in thought, experience, and labor. Poise, balance, and sol­idarity are needed now, and these are pre-eminently spiritual qualities.

Straight!—The straight testimony. It will be given by God's ap­pointed spokesmen. Without trimming, softening, or evasion, the truth and the whole truth will be told out. It will be feared by some and resented by others. But God's hand will be over it all. The spokes­men may wonder if their messages have been too "straight." Would it have been perhaps better to have spoken less directly and more tact­fully? But God indited it, and it will do its appointed work.

Actuality!—II matters not what it is called,—the deeper life, the higher life, the Tictorious life, or Christian experience. The phraseology is immaterial. It is the reality that counts. Many a simple soul who knows naught of theology or theological terms knows the Lord Jesus in such blessed, experimental fellowship. And contrariwise, many a theologian who can weave a fine theory about it all with learned words, is largely barren of such experimental knowledge. God give to each of us an experience in the actuality!

Depths! — Shallowness is inexcusable, with the flood light of the Scriptures focused on this age, with the vast disclosures of the Spirit of prophecy, with libraries in every town, and bookstores everywhere for our enlightenment and enlargement. And above all, since we are living in the prophetically predicted time of increase of knowledge of the Bible, and of running to and fro in its pages, with the promised guidance of the Holy Spirit " into all truth," there is no excuse for shallowness or indolence in entering into the deeps of God's thoughts for us.

Loyalty! — Is loyalty a synonym for blind allegiance? Was that the apostolic practice? Did it obtain in the period of the Prostestant Reformation or among the founders of this movement? Nay! God's own invitation is, " Come now, and let us reason together." How con­siderate God is! How kindly His attitude toward the creatures of His hand! He ever follows the principle that either force or blind acqui­escence is fundamentally unsound and unsafe. It is a conviction, born of frank, thoughtful survey of evidence and of legitimate questions satisfactorily answered, that carries men through blood and fire.

L. E. F.


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L.E.F. is editor of the Ministry.

October 1930

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More Articles In This Issue

Editorial Keynotes

The Essential Verities

A New Revelation of Jesus

A personal testimony

Evangelism, The Call of the Hour

A round table discussion.

Building Up the Midweek Prayer Service

Helpful suggestions for your consideration.

House-to-House Ministry

Our monthly bible worker's column.

The Holding Power

Daily Association notes.

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