The 1935 Autumn Council is now history. It will unquestionably go down in denominational annals as an epochal meeting, a turning point in certain lines. It will constitute a date line to which many will later refer. It was memorable for its candid recognition of certain perilous trends and laxities in our movement. It was memorable for its honest and honorable acknowledgment of these wrongs, and for its manful facing of the situation. It was memorable for its constructive work designed to stay these trends, to redirect our steps, and to call us back to a recognition of the basic principles that lie back of and govern our problems. The memorable Council keynote sounded by our leader, Elder C. H. Watson, appeared in the Review of November 21, and the constructive "Appeal," springing therefrom through action of the Council, likewise appears in the same organ the week following for denomination-wide reading, and these will be combined in leaflet form. These speak eloquently for themselves and need no editorial word here, save our expression of unreserved support of the principles enunciated. We direct particular attention to Elder Watson's special message to our workers, which appears on page 1 of this issue of the MINISTRY. It concerns the application of these principles enunciated in the Appeal. We are confident that it will have the painstaking study of all, for it is of vital importance to every worker. Other matters affecting our ministry will receive attention in a subsequent number.
Treating Symptoms
In the study of spiritual laxity in our move' ment or ministry, let us not confuse symptoms with the causes of our spiritual ills, nor place our trust in remedial efforts directed to alleviating mere symptoms, instead of reaching and correcting the sources of the difficulty. Such efforts can never, in the very nature of things, effect a cure. Legislative acts, rules, or restrictions never have and never will correct matters that are the direct result of spiritual drift, carelessness, indulgence, pride, selfishness, collusion, or variance.
We may multiply legislative acts until we are bound about as were the Jews of old; but these will all prove disappointing and ineffective if the heart is not humbled, if the causative sin is not confessed and forsaken, if worldly practices and alliances are not broken, and if the converting, transforming, humbling, unifying, enabling work of the Holy Spirit does not operate on the heart. Without this fundamental corrective for our fundamental difficulty, the laxities and perversions of the human heart will, if repressed in one way, but break out in another. Such attempts to restrain or restrict known evils will prove futile in the end.
The fact of our drift is undeniable, and is the occasion of deepest concern to the spiritually minded. And the cause of our drift is just as definitely known, or knowable. It is foundationally a personal matter, not a collective problem—though of course it becomes such. There has been a fundamental neglect of real, true, intercessory prayer in our midst. We do not plead with God, as is imperative to personal power and victory. We are too pressed with cares and duties to spare the time. There has been a waning of real, intensive, personal Bible study that alone lights the path and guides the walk, revealing God's will and way. The pressure of church problems has likewise crowded this into the background.
There has been a break in that warm, intimate fellowship with Christ through the Hcly Spirit that alone keeps the heart aflame, and the life and service from becoming formal, mechanical, or legalistic. Our walk with God has not been as close as the times demand, and our privileges would decree. Sacrifice does not have its rightful and essential place in our lives as workers, nor love its central position as the mainspring of every act and relationship to God and man, both in the world and in the church.
The honest mind recognizes all this, and is disturbed and alarmed by the situation. These factors and relationships are each and all recognized as imperative to successful, personal Christian life and growth, and to an effective ministry. It is their lack or neglect that is the cause of our troubles. It is this subtle and often gradual change in relationship to Christ that lies back of our changed attitude toward church standards, polity, or discipline. God's call, therefore, to us as leaders of His people is to serious, personal stocktaking, personal confession of sin and compromise, personal renewal of allegiance to God and His separating truth, and resolute turning from the principles and practices of the world. Herein lies the remedy for all our ills.
L. E. F.
