Editorial Keynotes

Thoughts from the editor's desk.

I.H.E. is editor of the Ministry

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

Retrospect and Prospect

This is the time for looking backward, taking an inventory, and determining whether the year has been a prosperous one. The business man. who will not look into his affairs at least once a year is in danger of bankruptcy. Busi­ness bankruptcy is bad; it is disheartening to know that one cannot go on because he has obligated himself beyond his power to pay. Some have not only gained nothing, but they have lost what capital they started with. This brings sorrow and discouragement.

Every Christian worker ought to look over his year's work, and deter­mine whether he has had a successful year. First, he should know whether he has made progress in the Christ life for which he is aiming, or whether he is facing spiritual bankruptcy. There has not been progress for any worker whose life is not nearer to the divine Pattern this year than last year. Christlikeness must be our aim. If any passion or carnal, fleshly desire is asserting the mastery, and growing into the life web, becoming more a part of ourselves than it was at the close of last year, there is cause for alarm. Less love for prayer, less read­ing of the word, less love of the people of God, are all signs of failure; they are symptoms indicating that unless a change takes place, disaster awaits at the end.

To look into our very souls, and sit in judgment on our way of doing and living, is most important in these clos­ing days of 1931. There should be a getting rid of every known sin by con­fession to God, and making that right wherein we have wronged our fellows, that the new year may find us growing in favor with both God and man. No man can have a better start for the new year than to confess his sins, ac­cept forgiveness of past sins through the life and death of Christ, and re­solve that the incoming year shall be his very best. Christ has paid the full penalty for every sin, and we can have pardon and mercy if we will repent and accept forgiveness through faith.

We all say to others, "If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world." This cleansing belongs to the ministry and workers as well as to the laity. As the layman needs this cleansing from sin, so does the ministry. And it is ours, if we will lay hold on it by faith.

At this time, too, we should look well to our work, which is to win souls to Christ. That is our calling and busi­ness. We took that work upon us when we entered the "workers" class. For another whole year now we have not had any other work laid upon us by Him who has called us to service. "Go ye therefore, and make Chris­tians," was the charge, and it still is the work assigned the entire family of workers. It has been that for which we have labored through the year, if we have not worked in vain.

We are to make Christians. The command is not to go and get people into the church; but, Go, make Chris­tians. And it is our privilege to review our year's work, and see by close scru­tiny if we have been successful in mak­ing Christians. How many have we won to Christ during 1931? What you have done, and what I have done, makes the growth of the church for the closing year. If every paid worker throughout the world had won an av­erage of ten converts, we should have made a gain of 100,000 in 1931. How many have you brought to Christ, la­boring with them till they have ex­perienced the new birth? Nearly every worker can check up his work, and know to almost a certainty how many have been won through his ministry.

Our people have done nobly in rais­ing funds to support the workers. Few if any have had to labor with their hands to earn a livelihood, as did the apostle Paul; the people have raised the funds, so that nearly all could have freedom to work and labor as they chose. Controlling committees have allowed freedom to work; and really the results of each man's work are largely according to his own planning. Now the time has come to review the year's work and count the gains. Each one of us should ask in all seriousness, How many souls have I persuaded to accept Christ during the past year?

Our reward is wrapped up, not in our salary, but in the souls we bring to Christ. The growth of the church depends upon our effort and success in soul winning. Nothing is of vital im­portance save that each one of us shall grow in grace and at the same time win the lost and erring to seek forgive­ness in the blood of Christ. It will be another half year before we can know how many souls have been added to the church communion in the entire world field during 1931; but before the last hour of the year shall pass, each worker can know for himself how many souls he himself has brought to Christ.

This review is all-important to us as workers. It gives us confidence that we can do greater things than ever before, when once we see the importance of knowing how many souls we have seen born anew into the king­dom of God through our efforts during the past year. What you have done may be a source of great encouragement to others in stimulating them to undertake bigger things for Christ.

With the command to "go" and "make Christians," is the promise, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." In this lies our strength. Perhaps we have not been fully conscious of His presence during all the days of the past year. If our labors have been wrought without His presence, that may explain our lack of success, if there has been less success than we had hoped.

Nothing is so important for the worker as to find and maintain ac­ceptance with the Lord. He must not live under the condemnation of sin, for condemnation saps the spiritual life and power. Strong faith is essen­tial for any great work. The success­ful worker must know that God is with him, and that the Holy Spirit works through his own life and heart upon the lives and hearts of other men. It is vital, therefore, that sin shall be put out of the life, and, that God shall live enthroned within the heart as all and in all. Then faith will lay hold of the promises of God, and courage and strength will be manifest in the words and life of the worker.

Let us take an inventory of our faith and hope as we close the year 1931, and check over the capital that we have for the beginning of the new year. Experience, and what has been accom­plished in the year just closing, ought to be factors in our favor; and the in­coming year ought to be capitalized for much in the work that we hope to see accomplished.

While conscious of our own weakness and frailty, it is our privilege to look to God to supply what we lack, to know what Christ can do through us. Of ourselves we can do nothing; through Him we can do all things. And as we close the present year of service, and look forward to another, what a com­fort is the promise of our Leader, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world."   

I. H. E

The Dark Before the Dawn

Through the decades of this move­ment we have anticipated and pro­claimed strange, unparalleled times, unprecedented situations, to increase in bewildering confusion until the cli­max of irremedial trouble bursts upon a world that is unprepared. All this must needs come ere the dawn of celes­tial light pierces the darkening gloom that will pall the earth.

When these dread things begin to come to pass, we are to lift up our heads; for our Lord's return is at hand. Such is the glad, authoritative word. When they advance in swift intensity, we should sing praises of confidence and gratitude; for the ap­proaching deliverance hastens on apace. We have not followed cun­ningly devised fables. These things that we now see increasing must needs come as the climax and consummation of sin. So we rejoice not in the trouble, but in that deliverance of which it is the harbinger.

This is no time for discouragement or gloom. It is no time for doubt, un­certainty, or withdrawal. Fret not over some perplexing minor mystery you cannot understand. Relegate non­essentials to their properly subordinate place. Stand immovably on the great verities. Only these count in the ulti­mate. And as the heart of all let the character be fitted for fellowship with the sinless ones of heaven. We are to learn experimentally the song of vic­tory here, that we may sing it eter­nally on the sea of glass and in the earth made new.                  

L. E. F.

Unaffiliated Adjuncts

We feel constrained to call attention to the part that stanch Funda­mentalist journals, such as the Sunday School Times, play in these days. They stand as bulwarks against the rising tide of infidelity under its various guises. They stand for the immuta­bility of the word, the deity of Christ, the efficacy of the cross, the fact of the judgment, and the premillennial and imminent advent of our Lord. They are among the preparatory and sup­porting agencies that God is using to­day. They are adjuncts to the three­fold message. Let us recognize and capitalize them as such.               

L. E. F.

Irreconcilable Principles

The earnest seeker for truth and the ardent defender of an espoused position personify two opposite and irreconcilable principles. The first is scholarly; the second is unscholarly. The first represents the open mind; the second, the closed mind.

The truth-lover assembles all the accessible factual evidence, and draws a fair, faithful, unbiased conclusion therefrom; the defender of a position looks for one type of facts and seems blind to modifying or countering evi­dence, with resultant bias in his con­clusion.

The truth-lover counts facts the foundation of all truth. He fears no additional discoveries of fact, for, if genuine, they will only confirm those already established; the defender of a position automatically assumes that any further inquiry is unfriendly or disloyal, and not infrequently chal­lenges the orthodoxy of the one who differs, assuming that coveted title for himself.

The truth-seeker demands unassail­able evidence that will stand the re­lentless scrutiny of a hostile world; the protagonist of a position is usually content with assembling that which, in phrasings or figures, seemingly up­holds his position.

The truth-lover courts a most rigid scrutiny of his sources and the context of his excerpts; the defender of an espoused position under examination cries out in alarm of "peril," "disaster," "sapping the foundations," "dis­loyalty," et cetera.

The truth-lover looks his God and the universe in the face, joyously con­scious of the basic integrity of his own attitude, and the inevitable triumph of truth, for eternal years are hers, and new discoveries but confirm, ex­pansions and additions but establish. The defender of a position, ever on the defensive, pleads for the good old days and ways, recounts the loyalty of the originators of a position, and seeks to restrain all possible expan­sion or change.

The two positions are basically an­tagonistic and irreconcilable. Let us be truth-lovers. We believe with all our heart that this is the spirit and intent of this message, and of the vast majority of its public exponents.

L. E F.

Babylonish Titles 

In "The Field Says" section there is I a brief but significant contribution from a successful pastor-evangelist. Having had the title "doctor" con­ferred upon him by the newspapers in their reports of his meetings, the writer continued to use it for a time, and now gives his reaction and the story of its discard. This of course has reference to assumed degrees, and not to those scholastically earned. Incidentally, however, it is interest­ing to observe that some of the most highly educated men living are the simplest and most unobtrusive as to titles on their letterheads.

It is true that such generally odious sects as Mormonism has its "elders," and Russellism its "pastors." But shall we because of this ape the popu­lar titles of corporate Babylon—"doc­tor" and "reverend"? Some of the most conspicuous subverters of the faith are the outstanding "doctors" in the ecclesiastical world. To use the term "doctor" because of its popularity is unsound reasoning and an unwise course. The same logic would lead to the adoption of "father" in predomi­nantly Catholic countries to escape prejudice, or to avoid the odium of a Protestant title.

There were doctors in Christ's day and throughout apostolic times. But we can scarcely conceive of "Dr." Jesus or "Dr." Paul. And Jesus has left us an example that we should fol­low in His steps. Such current trends in titles are indicative of an attitude that is fundamentally at variance with the very spirit and simplicity of this message. May God hold us steady in simplicity, loyalty, and humility. Let us avoid every semblance of Baby­lon, in its teachings, its compromises, and its titles.                                

L. E. F.


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I.H.E. is editor of the Ministry

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

December 1931

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Kindly correctives on speech and diction.

A New Life in Christ Jesus

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