REVERENT RESEARCH
A well-known clerical editor of two journals was recently writing in a third journal, Theology, and in the course of a startling article he made the statement that he laments the number of people who have ceased all creative thinking by the time they are twenty-five.
The author had the ministry particularly in mind, and if his startling lament shocks us, so be it!
There is an enormous amount of truth in what the author states. How few of us are doing our own thinking today.
A well-known Christian columnist told the story of a brilliant student companion of his college days who seemed to have disappeared entirely from life, although he knew he was a preacher in some part of the world. One day he ran across him and visited his home. Sitting in the preacher's home in a little country town, the famous columnist saw at once the reason for his friend's obscurity. "I think," said the columnist, "that Bill had not bought six books since he finished college twenty years ago!"
This may explain why some preachers, partly by natural inclination and partly under the pressure of their work, so often cease to study and do research in the great fields in which a preacher must live if he is to be successful.
Someone has said that no one can escape the responsibility to be, in his own little way, a reverent research student to the end of his days. Why should there be more objective research in the laboratory than in the study and the sanctuary? To explore the science of salvation is to live a reverent and adoring life.
H. W. L.
CONSERVATION IN EVANGELISM
A disturbing report of the follow-up work of large-scale evangelism in Scotland has appeared in the form of a book by Dr. John Highet, of Glasgow University. The book carries the title The Scottish Churches.
The author thinks that Christians need disturbing about the state of evangelism in the churches. He thinks they are living in a rosy optimism, without knowing how dark the religious situation really is. He speaks of elaborate campaigns such as the "Tell Scotland" movement and the "All-Scotland Crusade" by Billy Graham.
In one report it is said that some forty "converts" went back to a certain church with cards of introduction after the campaign, but none of them remained. "Of members of this particular church that attended this campaign, it is said that none has been a better member, and quite a few have disappeared." This last statement may not be as bad as it looks, and we must allow for exaggerations in areas where the disputants feel keenly about the value o£ public evangelism on the one side and its limitations on the other. However, no one can be wholly optimistic over the fact that so many people who accept Christ in large public gatherings slip away for various reasons afterward. It could be that the church follow-up or conservation work is not what it ought to be. It could be that our preaching does not sufficiently inspire and ground people into the truths of the gospel. It could be that in following up the work of large campaigns we do not sufficiently consolidate, or that we expect too much from new converts. Whatever may be the causes of these losses, it is a matter for deep concern on the part of every branch of God's church.
H. W. L.
PASSIONLESS THEOLOGY
In a recent issue of the Church Missionary Society News Letter published in London, England, there appeared a strong commendation of a book entitled Christianity, Communism, and History, by William Hordern, published by the Latterworth Press, London. We are not necessarily recommending the book, but we are calling attention to one conclusion of the author.
He calls Communism a religion, and says, "It is as a religion giving meaning and hope to life that Communism is most dangerous. Communism calls fanatical followers to work for a better world. In this crusade they find a meaning and destiny for themselves." Then the author goes on to say that if the Western world loses the struggle with Communism, it will not be because the Communist world has outproduced the West, but because in the West we have been "less dedicated and less inspired by our religious faith than the Communist world."
It sounds a little tragic for Christian leaders to have to talk in that way, but what thoughtful man can escape that conclusion?
A "well-known editor has called attention to some words of the distinguished Dr. J. S. Stewart, used in another context but very germane to this discussion. "It is no use," says Dr. Stewart, "in a day where spirit forces of passionate evil have been unleashed upon the earth, and when fierce emotions are tearing the world apart, it is no use having a milk-and-water passionless theology. No good setting a tepid Christianity against a scorching paganism. The force of the demonic has to be met with the fire of the Divine."
H. W. L.
