The church of God is organized to bring a knowledge of Jesus Christ and His saving message within the reach of all men in all places, so that by God's rich grace and divine power they may receive forgiveness of sins, experience the joy of salvation, enter into sweet fellowship with Christ, and be prepared for His glorious coming. This is the divine blue print, which we, as "laborers together with God," must follow diligently.
To carry forward and maintain at full efficiency the work of God on earth, demands whole-hearted consecration, sympathetic service, earnest prayers, liberal giving, and unstinted service. It is both the high privilege and the glad duty of each member of the church to live in full harmony with- the blue print of truth, and by precept and example to promote the cause of missions at home and abroad, rescuing the lost, comforting the needy, guiding the bewildered, teaching the ignorant, and hastening on the completion of the gospel message.
On every hand we find poor souls struggling to be content with that which the world offers, but whose hopes have been blasted, their plans thwarted, their hearts chilled. Nothing but the revelation of Jesus Christ in the gospel of hope and salvation will bring gladness, satisfaction, and deliverance to these disheartened ones; and the only people and the only program which can meet the alarming situation in the world today, is God's cleansed and redeemed church, built up and established by the blue print of truth, which involves not so much new ways and methods, as it does new hearts and experiences.
It is very encouraging to know that God has a chosen, remnant people who are willing, in the day of His power, to follow true leadership to higher and still higher attainment in Christian experience and service; but the responsibility of true leadership at such a time is of solemn import. The admonition to every leader, whether he is preacher, teacher, conference or institutional worker, is that he be "an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity." "The watchmen," we are told, "are responsible for the condition of the people."—"Testimonies," Vol. V, p. 235. And in the Scriptures we find the solemn statement: "If they had stood in My counsel, and had caused My people to hear My words, then they should have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings." Jer. 23:22. We also read: "If the leaders . . . are indifferent and purposeless, the church will be careless, indolent, and pleasure loving; but if they are filled with a holy purpose to serve God and Him alone, the people will be united, hopeful, eager." — "Prophets and Kings," p. 676.
What a mighty challenge to every leader in God's cause to be true to God's blue print of truth for this day and hour! Oh, the church needs a mighty awakening, a deeper revival, a more thorough cleansing from sin. The current of spiritual life must vitalize the church individually and collectively, and to the heights of such attainment only a Spirit-filled leadership can lead.
Washington, D. C.
