turned aside or stopped by the biting or buzzing of a few insects. If even
they can't be brushed aside, let them buzz and bite, but don't let the
great passion of a life be affected by them. Indeed, they will be clean
forgot, even while they are remembered, by the man who has been caught and
swept by the fire of his Master's passion for a world.
<u>A Minority Movement.</u>
Yet, be it keenly marked, these great strides have been made by a
minority, who have followed the strong leaders. The whole Church is not
yet awake. Many protest strenuously against being waked up. The
alarm-clocks bother them. Sometimes one is inclined to think that the
foreign boards are peculiarly placed between a refrigerator and a furnace.
Missionaries come back home fresh from the front fairly aflame with the
fervor of their enthusiasm. Their convictions of what could be done, and
should be done, are apt to be spoken out with great positiveness. They
seem to some to suggest in an uncomfortable way the thought of a glowing
furnace. And many in the home churches seem able to listen with such
indifference as to suggest to these returned men and women the chilling
air of an ice-box. In between the two sits the Church board engaging in
the difficult task of trying to equalize the temperature. But that's
merely a detail in passing.
The great fact to mark is that never has the missionary movement bulked so
large. And never have such broad statesmanlike plans, such aggressiveness
of spirit, coupled with deep devotion, marked the Church in its great
life-mission.
One morning at a popular summer resort on the Long Island Sound coast
thousands of bathers were enjoying the surf-bathing. The life-saving crew
were stationed for duty, on the lookout for any accident. A gentleman
standing by one of the crew asked him how he could tell if help were
needed. There were thousands of bathers, and a perfect babel of noises.
The weather-beaten man, bronzed and toughened and trained to keenness in
his work by years of service, said, "I can always hear a cry of distress,
no matter how great the noise and confusion. There never yet has been a
cry of need I haven't heard."
For a long time the confusion of noises bothered the Church ears. But now
the cry of distress from over the wide seas is being heard again
distinctly, and is being responded to splendidly. The very earnestness of
response and effort is a forerunner of sure victory.
<u>A Great World-chorus.</u>
I recall vividly a scene in Albert Hall in London nearly fifteen years
ago. A remarkable gathering from all parts of the world had come together
to celebrate the jubilee of the Young Men's Christian Association. About
two thousand men had come from the ends of the earth. It was a
world-gathering. There were sturdy Englishmen, cosmopolitan Americans,
canny Scots, quick-witted Irishmen, sweet-voiced, fervid-spirited
Welshmen, and courtly, suave Frenchmen.
Fair-haired, blue-eyed Scandinavians mingled with olive-skinned,
black-eyed sons of Italy. The steady-going Hollander and the intense
German mingled their deep gutturals with the songs of praise and the
discussions. A few turbaned heads, inscrutably quiet almond-eyes, and
others of energetic step and speech brought to mind the Great Orient,
India and China and Japan. Men won up out of the savagery of Africa sat
with Islanders from the Pacific.
They came from many communions and represented many creeds, and spoke as
many tongues as the Jerusalem crowds on the day of Pentecost. But they
were drawn together not by their attractive diversity, but because of
their oneness. The drawing-power of Jesus was the magnet that drew them.
It was the music of His Name that made all their tongues and languages
blend and chord in sweet harmony.
This night I speak of they had gathered in the great oval-shaped Albert
Hall opposite Hyde Park. With the Londoners, probably, fully ten thousand
persons were present. And I think I shall never forget the vast volume of
sound, as, led by a chorus of Scandinavian students, they all united in
singing, "All hail the power of Jesus' Name."
They didn't sing it to our American tune of "Coronation," but to the old
English "Miles Lane." That tune, you remember, repeats over four times the
words, "Crown Him," in the last line, gradually increasing in volume, and
the fourth time touched with a bit of quieting awe.
I can close my eyes now, and see that great world-gathering and hear again
the sweet rhythmic thunder of their singing:
"And crown Him,
<i>Crown Him</i>,
CROWN HIM,
<i>Crown Him</i>, Lord of all."
No one can tell to another the thrill and thrall of such a sight and
sound. It was all unconsciously a bit of prophecy acted out, faint but
distinct, of the great day of victory that is coming.
<u>The Oratorio of Victory.</u>
Have you ever noticed the Oratorio of Revelation? Lovers of music should
study the book of the Revelation of Saint John, for its mighty choruses.
It is striking just now to notice the double key-note of that closing
climactic book of this old Bible. It is this: Satan chained, and Christ
crowned. But note for a moment the oratorio sounding its music through
these pages.
It opens with a <i>solo</i> in the first chapter.[14] John begins writing with
steady pen until he seems to get a glimpse of Jesus. Then his pen drops
the story, and he begins singing:
"Unto Him that loveth us,
And loosed us from our sin by His own blood;
And hath made us a kingdom,
Priests unto His God and Father;
To Him the glory and the dominion
Forever and ever."
In chapter four[15] comes a <i>quartette</i>. The four living creatures round
about the throne take up the refrain of John's solo. And, as they sing,
their song is caught up by a <i>sextuple quartette</i>, twenty-four
white-robed, crowned men before the throne.[16]
In chapter five the <i>Angel Chorus</i> swings in.[17] They are grouped round
about the quartette, and the twenty-four elders. John begins to count
them. Then his figures give out. His knowledge of mathematics is too
limited. There were ten thousand times ten thousand, and unnumbered
thousands of thousands. As far as his eye could reach, to left and right,
before and behind, was one vast sea of angel faces.
And John listened enraptured and awed, as their wondrous volume of rhythm
rang and thundered out. Sweet sopranos and mellow contraltos; ringing
tenors and deep basses; first one, then the other, back and forth
responding to each other, then all together; marvellous music it must have
been.
Then the refrain of their song is caught up by the <i>Creation Chorus</i>.[1]
Every living creature in heaven and on the earth and under the earth, as
though unable to resist the contagious sweep, catch up the music and add
their own to it. We don't commonly associate music with the animal
creation, nor with nature. It has been said that all the sounds of nature
are keyed in the minor, as though some suffering had affected them. We
talk of the sighing of the wind, the moaning of the sea-waves, and the
mourning of the doves. Though the singing-birds must be excepted. They
seem to have caught and kept some of the upper strains.
But evidently something has occurred to strike a new key-note. For now
they take up the refrain of the joyous song of the others, and increase
the mighty song by their own.
In chapter seven the music has ceased or softened down and is taken up
afresh by the <i>Martyr Chorus</i>.[18] Again John's figures give out. He
declares that nobody could count the multitudes that make up this chorus.
It is a polyglot chorus. They sing in many different languages, but all
blend into full rhythm. It's a scarred chorus, too. These have been
through great tribulation. Their scars tell the mute story of the
fierceness of the fight, and the steadiness of their faith.
Through their singing runs a distinct strain of the minor. Its strangely
sweet cadence, learned in many an hour of pain, runs as an under-chording
through the song of triumph that now fills their hearts and mouths. And as
they sing, the angel chorus and the quartette drop to their knees, and
swell the wondrous refrain.
In chapter fourteen comes the music of the <i>Chorus of Pure Ones</i>.[19] They
are gathered close about the person of Jesus. They sing to the
accompaniment of a great company of harpers. They sing with a peculiar
clearness in their tones. Theirs is a new song. Purity always makes a
music of its own, unapproachable for sweetness and clearness.
The <i>Victors' Chorus</i> rings out its song in chapter fifteen.[20] These
have been in the thickest of the fighting. The smoke of the battle has
tanned their faces. They have struggled with the enemy at close range, hip
and thigh, nip and tuck, close parry and hard thrust. And they have come
off victors. The ring of triumph resounds in their voices, as to the sound
of their own harps, harps of God, they add their tribute of song to all
the others.
And at the last comes the great <i>Hallelujah Chorus</i>, in chapter
nineteen.[21] In response to the precentor's call, they all join their
voices in one vast melody. The Quartette, the Sextuples, the Angels, the
Creation, the Martyrs, the Pure-Ones, the Victors--all sing their song
together.
John tries to tell what it was like. His mind went quickly back to earlier
days in his home city, Jerusalem, when thousands of pilgrims crowded the
temple areas and narrow streets, and spread out over the hills. The
unceasing sound of their voices in speech and in their pilgrim songs of
praise comes back to him. He says it was like that.
But that isn't satisfactory. It is so much more. He thinks of how the
ocean-waves keep pounding, with cannon-roar, on the rocky beach of his
Patmos prison isle. So he said it was like that. But still more is needed
to give an idea of the vast volume of sound. And he remembers how
sometimes the thunders crashed and boomed and roared above him as he lay
in his solitude on that lonely bit of sea-girt land. It was like that. It
was like all of these together.
And what is it they are singing? Well, there's a variety in the wording of
their song, as well as in their voices. But through all runs a refrain
that brings back to me the great London chorus. It is this--
"And crown Him!
<i>Crown Him!!</i>
CROWN HIM!!!
Yes, <i>Crown Him</i>
Lord of all."
It is the rehearsal of the great Oratorio of Victory that we are all to
join in singing.
The Church
Forces that Win.
The Divine Law of Leadership.
God's Messenger.
Reaching Out for a World.
"Keep Step."
"Find My World, And Win It Back."
The Church
<u>Forces That Win.</u>
God's world is full of winning forces. The great ball of fire around which
our earth revolves is the greatest winning force in the life of the earth.
It is constantly winning the earth to itself with a power unseen but
tremendous, beyond anybody's power to calculate. The swing of the earth
away from the sun is being continually overcome. By an immense drawing
power it steadily holds the earth where it can pour down its wealth of
warmth and light and life into it.
It woos the moisture up from river and lake and sea, until its gravity
partner in the centre of the earth woos it back again in refreshing rain
and sheltering snow. It wins out of the earth's warm heart bounteous
harvests of grains and fruits, the wealth of forests which affects the
earth's life so radically, the flowers with their beauty and fragrance,
and the soft carpeting of green to ease the journey for our feet. All the
life and beauty of the earth is due to the winning power of the sun.
God Himself is the greatest winning force in all our world. Everywhere men
feel the upward drawing toward Him. They may protest against church
organizations and creeds, against teachings and long-settled practices and
habits of thought, as they do so much, but there is always everywhere a
longing in the human heart for God. It is the answer to the longing of His
heart for us.
And man is a great winning force. Everywhere men are attracted to each
other. There is a winning power within each of us that draws certain
others irresistibly to us. And there are winning forces in life that each
one of us is powerfully affected by. The old home of earlier days has a
marvellous power of attraction for most men. The old fireside, the
familiar rooms, the subtle aroma that seems inseparable from the very
bricks and boards--who has not felt the tremendous drawing power of these?
What a strange power of attraction a man's mother-tongue has for him. How
the heart will give a quick leap, in a foreign land, when, amid a
confusing jargon of strange sounds, all unexpectedly some one speaks the
dear old familiar words. The person speaking may not be specially
congenial or attractive to us, but that sound his tongue gives draws us to
him.
<u>The Divine Law of Leadership.</u>
Now I want to talk with you a bit about the forces at hand for winning our
old world back to our Father's heart and home. God means us to use all the
attractive powers we have in this great world-wooing and world-winning
task. The world is to be <i>won</i> back, not driven. Men drive men, when they
can. But God woos and wins. Man's coming back must be by his own glad,
sweet consent. God won't have it any other way.
There are certain strangely winsome forces at our command for winning man.
They are mighty in their drawing power. But there are counter-currents
that divert and hinder their influence. We need to be familiar with these
winning forces, and with the counter-currents, too.
There are seven great forces at our command for this blessed service of
soul-winning and world-winning. They are not peculiar to foreign-mission
service, for the foreign service itself is not essentially different from
other service, except in the greatness of its need. They are the forces
for use in all our winning work.
Two of these are distinctly human forces. The first is an organization,
the Church. And then that of which the Church is made up, men and women; I
mean the power of personality, developed and consecrated personality.
There are two divine forces that work through the human--Jesus and the
Holy Spirit. I have put these second in order, because they work through
the human. The leadership is in human hands. The initiative of all action
is with us. Of course, if you go a bit deeper in, the initiative is with
God who moves upon our hearts to make us act. But on the distinctly human
level the beginning of service rests in human hands, and these two
mighty, almighty, divine forces work through us.
The divine law of leadership and of cooperation in leadership has not
always been clearly understood. And there has been bad delay often because
of the lack of understanding. Our Lord Jesus in the days of His humanity
surrendered Himself to the leadership of the Holy Spirit in His great
mission to men. The Spirit worked through Jesus. After Jesus' Ascension
the order was reversed. The Spirit yielded Himself to the control of the
glorified Son of God. Jesus worked through the Spirit. It was Jesus who
sent down the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost for the special mission
begun that day.
And now, with the greatest awe coming into our hearts at the thought, be
it said that these two work through our human leadership. The leadership
in service among men is human leadership. The wondrous Spirit of God works
through our leadership to reveal Jesus to men in all His winsomeness and
power.
There can be no power at all in our human action and leadership except as
the Spirit leads and controls us, and is allowed to. And, on the other
side, we must not forget, though it has sometimes been forgotten, that
God's working waits upon human action and leadership. Memory quickly
brings up the fact, so often repeated in the history of the Church, that
when men have failed to respond to God's call His work has fallen behind.
Whenever a new chapter of earnest service has been begun it has always
been through a new leadership. Some man has listened to God, and let Him
have the free use of himself in reaching out to other men.
God needs men. He needs you and me. We are the wire for the transmission
of His current of power. The wire is useless without the current. And the
current must have the wire along which to travel to its place of service.
The divine power is through human action and human leadership. The power
is all divine. And the means through which it works is all human. Jesus
and the Holy Spirit work through the Church and through each one of us who
is willing.
Then there are three spirit forces, or influences, of mighty power in
human hands; namely, prayer, and money, and sacrifice.
<u>God's Messenger.</u>
To-night we want to talk about the first of the two human forces--the
Church.
We ought to remind ourselves of just what that word "Church" means in this
connection. It has many meanings. There are at least two that we should
note here in thinking of it as a great winning force. In its broadest
meaning, the word is commonly used for the whole group of church
organizations taken together, the Roman Catholic and the Greek Orthodox,
the Protestant, and the few primitive societies that still retain their
old original organization. In the deeper, less used meaning, it stands
for the body of those men and women everywhere who are trusting Jesus
Christ, and are allied with Him in the purpose of their hearts.
These two meanings, of course, should be the same. All who trust Jesus
should be in the church organizations. And all who are in the
organizations should be there because of their relation to Jesus. Whatever
the facts regarding that may be, the mission of each is the same. And it
is with that mission that we are concerned just now.
Jesus planned that His Church should be a great man-winning and
world-winning organization. <i>The</i> mission of the Church is to take Jesus
to all men. It is God's messenger of His truth to all. In that it is the
direct lineal descendant and heir of the Hebrew nation.
That nation was chosen to be a messenger or missionary nation. That was
the one purpose of its special creation as a nation. It was not to be as
the other nations, in the characteristics that commonly mark strong
nations. It was to be a <i>teacher</i>-nation, receiving its message of truth
direct from God, embodying that message in its own life, personally and
nationally, and giving it out clearly and fully and winsomely to all the
nations of the earth. And, in spite of its failures and breaks, that
mission was accomplished to a remarkable extent.
The Church is its heir. It was born in the Jewish nation. It became the
heir to its world-wide messenger mission. The great commission given by
Jesus as He was leaving is the Church's commission for its great
life-work. It was spoken to the group of Jewish men who were the nucleus
of that body called the Church, that came into being on the day of
Pentecost. That ringing, "Go ye into all the world and preach my gospel to
the whole creation," is the Master's command to the Church which He
brought into being. That is the Church's marching order by which its life
is to be controlled and its faithfulness judged.
The scene of the Church's birth gives a vivid picture of its
world-mission. It was born in a world-gathering. It was a world-church in
its make-up at its birth. Men from all parts of the world became united in
one body by the Spirit's touch that great Church birthday. Its birth-gift,
the power of speaking many tongues, reveals at once the wide sweep of its
service.
It was the Master's plan that His Church should speak all the languages of
the earth then and now and always, as well as the language of heaven, the
language of love. So every man would learn of Jesus in his native speech.
The language of the cradle and of love-making and of the fireside, the
language that most quickly kindles the fires in a man's heart, that was
the language to be used in carrying Jesus to every man. That was Jesus'
plan. The Church was rarely equipped with winning power for a
world-service on its birthday in the gift of tongues.
Of course, this is not the only mission of the Church. That is to say,
there are other purposes necessarily included in this. Taking the Gospel
of Jesus to all men means more than merely taking it and telling it. The
teaching and training and developing of those won to Jesus is an
inseparable part of the Church mission. The great service of worship has
always been recognized as a vital part of the Church life. Sometimes
indeed these have been thought of, and still are thought of, as its only
mission. But they grow distinctly out of the chief mission and are
distinctly contributory and secondary to it. Indeed, they come into being
only through the faithful doing of the chief task. Men were won. Then they
met for worship and for training.
<u>Reaching Out For a World.</u>
The Church of those first years thoroughly understood what its great
mission was to be. The first chapters of the Book of Acts vividly describe
the ideal Church as planned by the Master, and as understood by those who
felt His own personal touch upon themselves. Everybody went. They went to
everybody. They went everywhere. There is pretty clear evidence that they
actually went everywhere that men could go. They held their lives, and
even their property, subject to the one great gripping purpose.
The greatest leader of the first century of the Church, Paul, who
contributed most to its literature and exerted the greatest influence
upon its life, was above all else a missionary leader. He went practically
everywhere. He didn't go hastily, but by carefully thought-out plans. He
won men to Christ, organized them into church societies, taught them, and
sent them out to win others.
He worked in and out of the world's great city centres of his time.
Ephesus, the Asiatic centre, Corinth, the centre of Greek influence, and,
Rome, the centre of the world's governing power, were the scenes of his
longest and most thorough campaigns. His choice of the centres was a
master's strategic choice. For these centres sent their influence out to
the ends of the earth. Paul's body might be in Ephesus or Corinth or Rome,
but his thought and heart were on the world these cities reached by
constant streams of influence.
And to these churches which he had won out of the raw stuff of heathenism
he taught the same world-wide message. They became filled with this same
world-wide spirit. The Thessalonian and Corinth Churches made their
winning power felt throughout Greece and wherever Greek culture had gone,
that is to say, everywhere.[22] The Church in Rome sent out the message of
Jesus from its golden centre of all Roman roads, out to the farthest
reaches of those far-reaching roads.[23]
It is striking, though not surprising, that the days of the Church's
missionary activity have been the days of its greatest purity and vigor.
When the vision of the Master's face on Olivet, and the ringing sound of
His "Go ye" have been lost, the Church has written pages that would gladly
be blotted out.
The Church <i>has</i> been a winning force beyond any power of calculation or
words of description. All that has been done has been done through its
activity and leadership. It is to-day a tremendous winning force, reaching
its warm hands out to the very ends of the earth, and drawing men to
Jesus. With our earnest prayer it will exert a yet mightier influence in
taking Jesus to all men and in winning men everywhere to Jesus.
<u>"Keep Step."</u>
The Church is organized Christendom. It stands for the power of
organization in God's service. All the vast power of the men and women
whose hearts have been renewed by the Holy Spirit can be brought to bear
at a given point with tremendous force through the Church. That was and is
the Master's plan.
Organization is rhythmic action, a crowd of men working by agreement as
one man. Never was the world so impressed with the almost magical power of
organization as to-day. Never has organization been brought up to so high
a pitch of efficiency. The unparalleled progress of the world in our day
is due to the marvellous skill that has been developed in organized
action.