{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_21323/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_21323","id":"gutenberg_21323","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/21323","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Essays, Letters & Speeches","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Church","Church work"],"text":"Produced by Stacy Brown, Bryan Ness and the Online\nDistributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n      MY IDEAL CHURCH IS CHARACTERIZED SOLELY BY THE VERY SIMPLEST\n      INTERPRETATION OF THE OLD, OLD STORY, AND EACH MEMBER DESERVES THE\n      NAME OF THE \"FRIEND OF ALL THE WORLD\"\n\n\n\n\n      WHAT HAS THE CHURCH MEANT TO ME? IT HAS MEANT THE AGENCY THROUGH\n      WHICH I RECEIVED SUCH SPIRITUAL SIGHT AS I HAVE. IT HAS MEANT THE\n      BODY THROUGH WHICH HAS COME TO ME STRENGTH IN WEAKNESS MANY TIMES,\n      COMFORT IN TRIAL, HELP IN TIME OF NEED\n\n\n\n\nWHAT THE CHURCH MEANS TO ME\n\n[Illustration]\n\n\n\n\nWHAT THE CHURCH MEANS TO ME\n\nA FRANK CONFESSION AND A FRIENDLY ESTIMATE BY AN INSIDER\n\nBY\n\nWILFRED T. GRENFELL, M.D. (Oxon.)\n\n_Superintendent Labrador Medical Mission_\n\n\nTHE PILGRIM PRESS\n\nBOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO\n\n\n\n\n  _Copyright, 1911_\n  By Wilfred T. Grenfell\n\n\n  THE PLIMPTON PRESS\n  [W . D . O]\n  NORWOOD . MASS . U.S.A\n\n\n\n\nWHAT THE CHURCH MEANS TO ME\n\n\nThe Church to me means all who, consciously or unconsciously, are\nforwarding God's kingdom on earth. In the broad definition of the Master\nit means \"all those who are not against us.\" The way in which men\nassociate for worship, or in which they consider it most remunerative to\ninvest their efforts to forward the kingdom, gives them no right to\narrogate to themselves the title of God's Church. Any body of men\nsaying, \"We are the Church,\" seems to me ridiculous.\n\nIf they try to exclude at the same time those who approach their Maker,\nor who are endeavoring to do faithfully the things Christ would approve,\nonly in some other way, then they become offensive also. I am firmly\nconvinced the world is coming to this view, and I am glad it is already\nbeginning to express it. Through \"the Church\" the salvation of the world\nmust come. I have no use whatever for the critic whose heart is set on\nher destruction or who muckrakes it for a revenue. By this I mean the\nChurch Invisible, known only to God's Holy Spirit.\n\n\nSTANDARDS WHICH CHRIST WOULD CONDEMN\n\nThe \"offense\" of the visible churches that tells most against\nthem today in the minds of educated men is not worldliness or\nunfaithfulness; it is their inability to shake off their untenable\nposition as judges of others. The \"Church\" in Jesus' day judged him\nunfit to live. Upon Luther, Wesley, and many of the best servants of\nthe human race the churches to which they belonged passed similar\nsentences. Even the suggestion of the \"holding-up-of-skirts,\" of this\n\"I-am-holier-than-thou\" attitude, because I think differently, is\nrepellent and has not yet met the fate that certainly awaits it, before\nthere can be a reign of universal peace. Science has taught us that\ndoubt, quite as much as faith, leads to the apprehension of truth. There\nare countless men, skilled in the exact sciences and in scholarship,\npossessed of wealth and rank, who find it impossible to define their\nposition in words, yet whose humility and charity make us love them,\nwhose deeds are just such as those which have come down the ages as\nJesus' own selection for the most convincing evidence of his Sonship of\nGod. We all know today men of inferior attainments and lives who not\nonly know themselves to be infallible, but haven't the grace to leave\neven such men alone, and who have interpreted their call to the\n\"ministry\" as simply a mandate to set every one else intellectually\nright. I know that that which is hidden from the wise can be revealed to\nbabes, and that our talents--namely, social position, wealth, and\nbrains--merely enlarge in God's sight our capacity for service, and\ntherefore our responsibility. But I know also that the prizes of our\nhigh calling can be purchased only by our fidelity in following, and\nthat involves other than intellectual processes.\n\n\nTHE CASE OF THE WORKING MAN\n\nAs for the working man, to my mind if he doesn't join a visible church\ntoday it is simply because he doesn't see any good in it. The teachings\nof the Church's Master still appeal to him, but the churches to him\ndon't stand for them. He has seen the visible churches, organized to\nperpetuate Christ's teaching, striving for centuries only after\nprivilege, patronage, and political power. Was ever such a\ntopsy-turvyism? Instead of being a bridge over the great gulf between\nwealth and poverty, the Church still savors to him too much of the \"be\ncontent where you are\" sentiment. To him she is insincere, and\nconsequently his pew is empty. He doesn't want an insurance agency only\nfor the next world; he wants a kingdom of righteousness, joy, and peace,\nfirst in this world, where Christ intended it to be, as well as in the\nnext. Church authority can no longer compel his interest; she cannot\ncompete as a popular entertainer; only the proof of her unselfish love\nin matters of everyday life can save her from becoming a useless hulk,\nstranded on the beach of time. Rainsford, Stelzle, and others have shown\nthat the downtown churches need not close if the message is given in\nChrist's own undeniable way which the people can't misunderstand.\n\nThough I do see the various churches just beginning to rouse\nthemselves--no longer wholly absorbed in making every one say\n\"shibboleth\" with an \"h,\" still just as in politics the party machine\nbecomes God, crushing truth and righteousness before it, so the church\nmachine is only too often a Juggernaut's car, destroying all faith in\nGod and man. The machine has usurped the pedestal of Christ, as in Rome\nand Russia, and nearer home, if Judge Lindsey of Denver is to be\nbelieved. For there the very clergy of 145 out of 150 churches refused\nto come out boldly against dives and brothels that were defiling the\ngirls and boys of the city of Denver, because they dared not endanger\nthe interests of their machine. _Vox populi_ was right. They were\npresumably afraid to take up the cross, which real fighting the devil\ninvolves as much today as it did in Judea centuries ago. Many, outside\nall churches, support hospitals, orphanages, soup kitchens, relief\nfunds, and so forth. Big corporations and even heathen armies on the war\npath support Y. M. C. A. work, because that is a demonstratively\nvaluable working factor. The church which is afraid of offending rich\nmembers cannot have a faith in God which is worth anything.\n\nThank God for all the illustrations of her direct watchful vitality that\nshe does show. As, for instance, when the Christian Endeavorers fought\nthe question of prize-fight moving-picture shows and won out or when a\nParkhurst fought bravely for a clean police force. Even if the world\ntoday does not vex itself so much as formerly about predestination,\noriginal sin, the \"actual presence,\" or even the correct mental attitude\nto insure heaven hereafter, the churches may surely count it as a\nproduct of their work that the people _do_ trust God more simply for\nthe past and future, and are more in earnest about securing justice for\nthe downtrodden and the square deal in the present. In this they need as\nmuch as ever the Church's leading.\n\n\nWHAT MAKES THE CHURCH ATTRACTIVE\n\nThat which attracts to a church today is not higher criticism, elaborate\nritual, hair-splitting creeds, but fearless fighting for public health,\nfor good government, for righteous labor conditions, for clean courts of\njustice. It was the leader of a darky revival who, when asked why he\ndidn't _sometimes_ read the Old Testament, replied: \"No, sah. Dem\ncommandments just upset de whol' revival.\" There is no need that taking\nup politics and social questions should exclude the preaching of the\nChrist. Men will follow today a Kingsley and a Maurice, a Lincoln, a\nBeecher, a Brooks, or a Worcester as they will a Heney, a Hughes, or a\nFolk or any man in whom they see plainly reflected the unselfish love\nof the Christ.\n\nWho cares, as a matter of fact, which way these men said their prayers?\nThey may have been Catholic or Protestant, or in honest doubt, but we\nlove them and will follow them. To us they stand for real love to man,\nand so real faith in God; for true pluck and willingness to take up\ntheir cross. Oh, if every member of the churches and every wearer of\n\"the cloth\" realized the privilege of standing by every uplifting\neffort, and was always so valiant for truth as to make a Rueff or any\nagent of the devil occasionally think it worth while to take the risk of\ntrying to kill them--as in the case of this same Lincoln, of Heney, of\nLindsey, and of the Master--the world would recognize then that the\nChurch _was_ worth while, and there would be no discussing whether it\nwas going to die out or not. A little physical shooting wouldn't hurt\nthe Church. The world wants a Church Militant, not a backboneless\nintellectualism. Only the \"great Church victorious\" can be the \"Church\nat rest.\"\n\nNowhere is this fact more unanswerably demonstrated than in the\nmissionary field. Faithlessness in this respect and fearfulness of\nexpenditure, both of men and money in missionary work, have always stood\nin any church for choked channels of spiritual power, and subsequently\nspelled anaemia, atrophy, and death. Constant metabolism is as essential\nfor spiritual life as physical. A church must die that doesn't use up\nand give out energy as surely as a physical body. The period of latent\nphysical life is not long. God in his mercy has seemed to prolong latent\nspiritual life almost unduly in the case of some churches. Those who\nlove the Church are breathing a little more freely because of the\nLaymen's Missionary Movement.\n\n\nLACK OF CLEARNESS\n\nTo me personally it is hard to know exactly what the Church has meant;\nit is hard to \"know one's self.\" The attitude of practically all men's\nminds is to excuse their own shortcomings by attributing the cause\nelsewhere. Thus Paddy blames the Government for the hole in his\ntrousers, just as he does for the typhoid resulting from the dump heap\nin front of his own door. When I first essayed to write on this subject,\nI several times tore up the manuscript, feeling that I had written that\nwhich was calculated to rend her at whose breast my own spirit had first\nfound life-giving sustenance and afterwards wisdom, encouragement, and\naid.\n\nYet history seems plainly to show that there have been times when the\nworld would have been more Christian if the organizations to which men\noften limit the name of church had ceased to exist. I presume the\nexperience we have all had with organizations calling themselves \"the\nChurch\" has driven us, at times at least, to the same conclusions in our\nown day about those particular branches. But this bears no reference to\nthe body of men who love Christ better than their own lives. They are\nreally the Church, and mean everything to me, to the world outside, and\nto all aspirants to the dignity of the name of Christian.\n\n\nORGANIZATIONS ESSENTIAL\n\nThe visible Church stands to me above all else as appointed of God for\nall that organization means in the attainment of any other object.\nAtmospheric religion is desirable, but to progress, to permanence,\norganization is essential. Moreover, being conscious of the idiosyncrasy\nof the human mind, I have every use for the various communions if no man\nis to be excluded.\n\nBut I look on one and all simply as a means to an end, and as agencies,\nnot entities. Theoretically there is no reason why they should not love\none another. Alas! they haven't always done so. A large membership of\nineffective persons may be only an incubus. Like sailors on my vessel,\nif they are incompetent they are a hindrance, and in every way expensive\nand undesirable. I never care to emphasize the large number that the\ncrew of my hospital ship consists of. As long as I can do the work I\ntake pride in the small number I can handle it with. It is far better\nfor the individuals themselves to have more responsibility and see\nclearly the result of their own handiwork. They feel also, then, that it\nis more important to be ready at all calls, and when at it they will\nwork far more keenly. History proves that when Constantine filled the\nEastern Church with nominal Christians he led directly to its downfall.\nYet one of the most difficult things I have had to learn is that\nreligious people find it impossible to believe that others do not care\none iota whether a man is labeled a Methodist or an Episcopalian. I\ncertainly do not, and I do not believe God does.\n\n\nCHRIST COUNTS, NOT CREEDS\n\nI sat in a small, mean little cabin on our coast some time ago while a\ntrained nurse from New York washed a sick baby and taught the mother how\nto save the poor little mite's life. It was that gentlewoman's ministry\nfor Jesus Christ. For the privilege she was paying her own expenses and\nreceiving no salary. If ever I realized the Master standing by in my\nlife it was then and there in the semi-darkness of that hut. _That_\nkind of ministry never fails to grip the laboring man. An hour later, as\nI spoke to a preacher about this angel of mercy, he said, \"Yes, but it\nis a pity she is a Roman Catholic.\" Yes, it is hard, this faith in Jesus\nChrist. It will bring her no praise of men. Yet it was such sermons as\nthis nurse's that Jesus thought it worth while wasting his time on, when\nthe world lacked theology far more than it does today. Those sermons of\nhis in their modest settings have been the most brilliant of the world's\npossessions ever since. I think the Church grades her preachers wrongly.\nThere is no failure of Christ's aims. His message is bearing fruit in\nthe hearts of many men whom the-necessary-to-define-your-mental-attitude\nschool would rule out of the kingdom. Even Elijah made a mistake in the\nmatter of how many servants God had.\n\n\nUSEFULNESS THE SUPREME TEST\n\nThese divisions of the Church mean to me cargo vessels, and if for any\nreason they can't carry, they should go out of commission. If one is\nbeyond repair or the type has been superseded, it should go out\npermanently. We continue to run old three-deckers for fighting battles,\nor Columbian caravels for freighting purposes. It appears to some to\ncause a temporary setback to fighting efficiency to send a once\nserviceable ship to the scrap heap, but it is the best and cheapest in\nthe end. In the North Sea fishery I saw hundreds of sailing craft that\nhad helped to make fortunes, that had kept the markets full, and that\nstill had years of life, laid up, and then sold practically for old\njunk. Why? Simply because swift steam-trawlers had been found to do the\nwork better.\n\nThese sub-organizations, as far as I am concerned, are existing merely\nto help men to work in the spiritual field. They are not like some\nyachts, just to carry bunting and paint to be admired. As for church\naffiliation, what I like to see is a hungry man going where he will be\nfed and get strength. I trust it does not seem flippant to say that I\nlook on all church organizations in the same way, and that the tradition\nof a long past suggests to me the inefficiency of a dotage, quite as\nmuch as the stimulating aroma of potency which, as in the case of some\nwines, can only be acquired by the lapse of time. Some will say that\nthis Modernism has no sense of obligation, no sense of veneration, makes\nno allowance for the idiosyncrasies of others. Well, that may be so. I\nmay plead, on the contrary, that what we call the ancient Church was the\nyouthful Church. The Church of the twentieth century is the ancient,\ngrown-up Church.\n\n\nTHE BUILDING ITSELF, PRO AND CON\n\nExperience has convinced me that bricks and mortar and sectarian loyalty\nhave more often been hindrances than helps to that expression of faith\nin him which Jesus looks for in our lives. I admit I have not lived long\nenough in one place fully to appreciate the possibilities for stimulus\nand help this tying up into bundles can afford. On the other hand, I\nfeel so certain that buildings set aside for public worship are\nessential in every place, that where none exists I feel wretched, and I\nhave shares in quite a number all along our Labrador coast.\n\nI love to wander through an ancient edifice in which generations of men\nhave come and worshiped and found help and comfort. I like looking at\nthe Viking ship, but I don't want to cross the Atlantic in it.\nPersonally, I like to hear, to see, and to understand. The dim religious\nlight and sonorous sounds do not waken me to a keener sense of the call\nof God to be up and doing. They just make me sleepy. Besides being\ndifficult as a rule to hear, there is too much around to distract my\nattention. I don't think Westminster Abbey helps me personally to attend\nto the service. On the contrary, I think it makes me think of the\nbuilding. I used somehow to imagine that service in the open air was\nnecessarily associated with cant. Now I like it far the best. Not merely\nbecause it is more sanitary--till some one learns how to ventilate a\nbuilding decently--but because it absolutely forces you to feel\ninsignificant, and anxious that the great Creator should condescend to\ncare about a mosquito like you. Moreover, I have often noticed out in\nthe open a unity between those of different sects that was perfectly\ndelightful. Meanwhile I am not unmindful that in many, if not in all, a\ndeep inborn spiritual craving, no child of philosophy, is a powerful\nfactor in helping men Godward. Also that many find their only help in\nauthority and the faith of others. All these the Church has to provide\nfor. It is no easy task to be prophet and conservative custodian at the\nsame time.\n\n\nTHE NEW AND BETTER SPIRIT\n\nOne great trouble with tying one's self to any one church, from my\nperipatetic point of view, has always been the fact that so many other\nchurches say, \"If you are not one of us, you are against us.\" It is\nalmost too personal to illustrate this from my own somewhat sad\nexperience in my early days, but every worker in wide fields must have\nfelt it. Jesus had specially to rebuke his own disciples for forbidding\n_any_ man from casting out devils. For whatever his opinions, he must\nbe on our side.\n\nThank God there is a new spirit entering the churches, a larger spirit!\nOnly those can survive eventually who cultivate it. A spirit that wants\nto use every effort to raise humanity, and seeks a return for its\noutstretched hand, solely in the fact that it thereby grasps more of\nthose of \"his brethren.\"\n\n\nTHE ONLY RIGHT WAY TO GROW\n\nThis is the way for a church to grow. The more it exercises its muscles\nin pulling men out of their pits, the more dexterous, powerful, and\naltogether desirable it will be, because the world will need it, and it\nwill no longer appeal only to those who prefer its form of worship or\nhave a bias towards its particular church polity. The law of demand and\nsupply should be recognized as applying equally to the church as to\nother agencies. The desire to be needed, to find work, and not merely to\nbe a big party product can alone develop communions able to remove the\nstigma of being either parasites or fads.\n\nIf a church is really anxious to fulfil its functions as set down in the\nonly book of instructions for each of them; if it wants to call forth\nlatent energy, as a Washington from his homestead, or a Lincoln from his\nfarm, it must cease to lay stress on orthodoxy and get to work where the\nworld really needs it. A surgeon may be ever so correct in his knowledge\nof operative surgery, but he must find a practise or he is useless. It\nis not so much for holding services, as for rendering services, that the\nworld is looking to the Church today.\n\n\nHUMAN NEED THE TRUE OBJECTIVE\n\nToday the Church should not only have a message for the strong and well.\nIn Christ's day it had a message for the sick and suffering also. I\nadmit that the medical profession has neglected too much the influence\nthat mind has over matter. It therefore frequently endeavors to treat a\nhuman being as if he was nothing but a conglomeration of material\ncells. But the Church, it seems to me, is making an infinitely more\nserious mistake in entirely abandoning the valuable aid it can give the\nphysician when he has found that no organic cause accounts for the\nsymptoms of his patient. What is known in America as the Emmanuel\nMovement has my entire sympathy. It is an honest effort of sane men to\nbring to the aid of physical sufferers demonstratively valuable\nspiritual influences.\n\n\nTHE MINISTER ONLY A SERVANT\n\nThe priest or minister is the navigating lieutenant of the Church ship.\nHe is the tactician of the army. He is the specialist whose experience\nis invaluable. He is not called to be one whit holier than I am, but\nbeing on a lofty pedestal he will possibly be more closely watched. His,\nindeed, is a pitiable condition if he has not the spirit of his Master.\nHis creed may seem infallible, his faith most orthodox, but for my part\nI would rather not be so sure of what I did believe, and pray with \"the\nman after God's own heart,\" \"Teach me to _do_ the thing which pleases\nthee.\" This is a sure step on the road to the answer of, \"Lord, I\nbelieve, help thou mine unbelief.\" I am convinced there would be no lack\nof worthy candidates for the ministry if only the churches would lay\nmore stress on the infinite privilege of human service it opens up.\nThere are more medical students than are needed.\n\n\nTHE FUTILITY OF THE INTELLECTUAL TEST\n\nIs it then a necessity, or an advisable thing, that before a man can\nbecome a worker with the Church he must pass an intellectual test? Is it\nimperative for him to find exactly what he does not believe? That makes\nit almost impossible for him to get back afterwards. The effect on the\nunfortunate heathen of warring messengers, all calling for different\nfaith tests for membership in Christ's Church, has always seemed to me\nlittle short of disastrous. The theory of Christianity wouldn't convince\nthe heathen of the Congo that religion is desirable, or make a Russian\nJew wish to adopt Russian Christianity. The same applies to the Turkish\nviews of Austrian Christianity, or the attitude of the Indian of South\nAmerica towards Christian Spain. As for me, I am satisfied in my own\nwork, and I think my Master was, with the faith that makes a man anxious\nand willing to come and help me, ever believing that he that is not\nagainst us is on our side.\n\nJoshua, a servant of God if ever there was one, is often quoted as\nsaying, \"Decide,\" \"Choose.\" We must remember that what he said was,\n\"Choose whom you will _serve_,\" not what your final belief is going to\nbe. Christ never sought for admirers, but for followers. The most\nvoluble protestants of their faith in Jesus as God's Son were devils.\nThey knew it, but benefited little by it. Thank God, Jesus never made\nthe opposite of confessing our belief in him before men to be the\nnon-apprehension of his divinity, but always the denying and being\nashamed of his service and becoming a stumbling block. Though I know\nwhat a wonderful thing it is, as a source of power, to be able to\nconfess our faith in Jesus as the Son of God, and what infinite peace it\naffords to have that confirmed by experience.\n\nThe shrewd judgment of Wall Street would not lend a man ten cents\nbecause he had been accepted as a member of a church on confession of\nfaith. Often enough members of the same church wouldn't either, although\nthey probably both would to a doer, like Livingstone. So let us abandon\nthe creed-judging of others. Jesus accepted the following of the\nadulterers, publicans, and the harlots, and the man who has honest\ndoubts may be a Christ follower or a Christian, who ever says the\ncontrary.\n\n\nBANDED TOGETHER FOR MANLY SERVICE\n\nI have always loved to think of Jesus Christ and to commend him as\nMaster because he accepted all who came--whether for comfort, for help,\nor for service. When a man sets to work on the road that leads to\nheaven here, he will be tasting the sweetness of the believing that\ninvolves everlasting life. In our Labrador work we form no church. Our\nfellow-workers pray and worship in every denomination as the bias of\ntheir mind and temperament leads them to find peace and comfort and\nstrength best. Yet we are a definite body associated together for\ncertain purposes. These we believe are translations into action of our\ninterpretation of our debt to God and to our neighbor. In that sense are\nwe not a true ecclesia?\n\nWill it horrify my readers if I confess I have accepted doctors for our\nhospitals, nurses for our districts, and workers of every type, and yet\nhave never known which way they prefer to worship? Nor have I ever\nplayed the censor on their right to help us by defining what they ought\nto believe before I allowed them to set to work. Before a member joins\nthe permanent staff we must know he is in absolute sympathy with our aim\nto glorify God and serve our brother, and that he or she is willing to\ngive their best for that object. But that is all. I am fearless to\nconfess that I would enroll for a colleague in the clinics, which hold\nin their hands the lives of my friends, a man who is _facile princeps_\nin the art of surgery rather than a second-rate surgeon who can\nsubscribe to the very same intellectual tenets as I do myself.\n\nOur claim to be capable servants of our Master and reincarnations of his\nlife is judged in our little world by the good work we do; if as\nsurgeons or nurses, by our skill; if as storekeepers and labor\nemployers, by the clean deals we give. If we are second-rate in our work\nall our talking won't persuade men of our fitness for our position.\n_Securus judicat orbis terrarum_--and to my mind God seeks first men\ndiligent in business, fervent in spirit, _serving_ the Lord.\n\nAll the sects have only the same work for the same Master to accomplish;\nit is through being fellow-workers and not identical thinkers that love\nfor all who love Christ must come. This is unity. The _camaraderie_ of a\nfighting force is not disturbed by the feeling that one is of the\ncavalry, another of the infantry, a third of the artillery; or even, as\nhas often been shown in warfare, whether they are of different races,\nclimes, or temperaments. There is nothing like common work to beget\nintelligent love for your fellow.\n\nHow did Christ admit his members? By their profession of faith? I think\nnot. By their readiness to work? Yes. Those were workers he chose, every\none of them. Did he wait until they could say they believed, even that\nhe was God's Son, before he sent them out to work? Not at all. He said\nif you are willing to go out and work you will get faith by working and\nseeing others work.\n\nIn this way most men get faith now. The empirical method is the very\nbest way to get it firmly rooted. _Experientia docet._ \"Now we believe,\nnot because of what you say, but because we have seen for ourselves.\"\nDid not Judas work with Jesus? Yet it is absurd to contend that Jesus\nwas \"unequally yoked with unbelievers\" on that account. At the end of\nChrist's life only Peter seemed even to guess who he was, and his\nprotestations were not even the asset he thought they were. For a few\nminutes after he had openly, to Christ's face and before witnesses,\nasserted his faith, Christ called him \"Satan\" and told him to get behind\nhim. When he was in trouble they every one ran away. They would never\nhave done that from a handful of soldiers if they had honestly believed\nhe was the very Son of God.\n\nTo sum up, What has the Church meant to me? It has meant the agency\nthrough which I received such spiritual sight as I have. It has meant\nthe body through which has come to me strength in weakness many times,\ncomfort in trial, help in time of need. Through the Church of God, which\nPhillips Brooks said is \"the kingdom of good hearts united in love,\"\nhave come the talents to use in the work to which my life is given. When\nI want more help it is to this wide Church I go to look for it, and I\nhave never looked in vain. As a man loves the members of his family, so\nI love the Church of God. For resources it stands to me as a permanent\nwar office stands to an army in the field. Fine uniforms and titles are\nof little moment as compared with wisdom and efficiency for supplying\nmen and sinews for war. We fully value the great leaders in our home\ncountry, and we also love our \"Bobs\" or our \"Wellington\" _because_ when\ncalled on _they are willing to march in the front rank themselves_.\n\nAs a peripatetic worker myself during open water in my little hospital\nship, and in winter with dogs and sleigh, I recognize that it is but\ntransient help which I can give alone. So I love the little hospitals,\nwhich speak of permanence. When a call for help comes for me, often\nenough my place is vacant. But the cheery haven of refuge is _always_\nthere.\n\nThe grip of fellowship the visible churches give us on our homeland\nvisits is a real factor in our work. It makes them real sharers in it.\nAnd I thank God for the real Church of God. I realize as never before\nhow essential _that_ is. Besides all this, she stands as a great\nreminder of God to the world. \"Lest we forget. Lest we forget.\"\n\nMy last is purely a private confession, and it is this: If it were only\nthrough association, I love also that organization within God's Church\nof which I am myself a humble member. It is _because_ I love it I am\nwilling to write exactly as I feel. For I love it enough to wish with\nall my heart and soul and strength that God might be able to use it to a\nfuller capacity, as with open eyes and unprejudiced heart and with\nwisdom developing by experience it becomes willing to see that IT also\nmust have its scrap heap, or its museum for honorable antiquities, on\nwhich to lay aside the weights that are impeding it in the race, which\nare crippling its usefulness, and which are bound eventually to destroy\nit if it blindly continues to cling to them.\n\nThe qualification for life eternal is to have done well. The final test\nis to be ethical, not theological. I expect to find more roads leading\ninto the Golden City than many seem even to wish for. After the school\nday of life I look for an ecclesia, a mighty host, called out for more\nperfect service. My ideal church is characterized solely by the very\nsimplest interpretation of the old, old story, and each member deserves\nthe name of the \"friend of all the world.\"","title":"What the Church Means to Me: A Frank Confession and a Friendly Estimate by an Insider","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":5417}