These words are written on Christmas morning, in the midst of the Christmas service of a noted cathedral in a great state church at the capital of one of Europe's leading nations. The vast church is packed to the doors. Every seat is taken, and hundreds stand in the aisles. The mighty dome overhead, with its ornate architecture and resplendent marble and gold, surmounts the outspreading wings of the edifice. Stained-glass windows of marvelous beauty portray arrestingly the visitation of the Wise Men, the crucifixion, and the ascension of Christ. The giant organ pours forth melodious strains that make the very structure itself vibrate in response, and a large boys' choir adds to the attractiveness of the service.
The mighty mosaics of the four evangelists, and towering statues of the great Reformers, —Luther, Melanchthon, Zwingli, and Calvin,—each with a clasped Bible in hand, look down from the heights upon the vast congregation of worshipers below. With impressive intonation the robed minister reads from the Psalter as the congregation stands, and the responses echo back from choir and organ or the congregation. High above us the storied scenes of Holy Writ are sculptured in bas-relief upon the encircling dome. The altar has its cross and suspended Victim, and its lighted candles. Seraph and cherub of marble look down upon that which now has but a name to live, and is spiritually dead. Complacency is writ in heavy lines upon the faces of the congregation of worshipers. Everything conspires to please the senses, and to satisfy human pride and instinct.
And now the minister ascends the high canopied lectern, and preaches with vigor and persuasion to thousands of receptive ears. Yet to these, and countless thousands like them, we must reach and give the message committed to our trust. We must present the full, saving gospel in the terms and setting of God's final threefold message for this consummating hour of religious apostasy. We are to declare the full, true, changeless, everlasting gospel that converts the soul and transforms the life, and prepares a people to meet God. We are to complete the arrested Reformation of the sixteenth century, which has been steadily slipping, until there remains but little semblance to the spirit and power of the movement that was then true to all light that had been received.
But now with hostile churches, hostile governments, and indifferent and antagonistic peoples, our task is herculean. Everything is seemingly against it and contrary to it. It is seemingly new and unrecognized. It is unestablished as an organization back through the centuries. It has its roots in a foreign land and language, and is therefore an innovation, alien to national tradition and history. But, on the other hand, it alone satisfies the needs and longings of the human heart. It alone tallies with explicit demands of Holy Writ—its provisions, promises, and prophecies—and so alone meets the requirements and the challenge of the hour. It alone corrects the departures introduced through the centuries. It alone retains all truth regained through Reformation times, while going on to perfection through God's full provisions. And it alone has the approval of the divine commission for this day, and the promise of the Holy Spirit's confirming witness.
We must have this power from above, or we shall fail in our task. The Spirit of God must break through these baffling barriers, or success is not possible. 0 for that mighty flame to burn its way through sin and unbelief! 0 for that which will cause mankind to pause and listen, to hearken and to heed! Let there be a mighty, ceaseless appeal to God for power commensurate with the need, and for grace that matches the challenge of Europe, especially in lands where the sects are unrecognized, despised, and hounded by the state, and by the dominant church.
O God, hear Thou our prayers. Give power to Thy servants, as they witness and preach for Thee. Make them Thy men of God, mighty in the Scriptures, faithful and effective in turning men from error to truth, from sin to righteousness, and from darkness to light; for Thine is the work, and to Thee the glory evermore. Amen.
L. E. F.
