I have always loved to think of Jesus Christ and to commend him as
Master because he accepted all who came--whether for comfort, for help,
or for service. When a man sets to work on the road that leads to
heaven here, he will be tasting the sweetness of the believing that
involves everlasting life. In our Labrador work we form no church. Our
fellow-workers pray and worship in every denomination as the bias of
their mind and temperament leads them to find peace and comfort and
strength best. Yet we are a definite body associated together for
certain purposes. These we believe are translations into action of our
interpretation of our debt to God and to our neighbor. In that sense are
we not a true ecclesia?
Will it horrify my readers if I confess I have accepted doctors for our
hospitals, nurses for our districts, and workers of every type, and yet
have never known which way they prefer to worship? Nor have I ever
played the censor on their right to help us by defining what they ought
to believe before I allowed them to set to work. Before a member joins
the permanent staff we must know he is in absolute sympathy with our aim
to glorify God and serve our brother, and that he or she is willing to
give their best for that object. But that is all. I am fearless to
confess that I would enroll for a colleague in the clinics, which hold
in their hands the lives of my friends, a man who is _facile princeps_
in the art of surgery rather than a second-rate surgeon who can
subscribe to the very same intellectual tenets as I do myself.
Our claim to be capable servants of our Master and reincarnations of his
life is judged in our little world by the good work we do; if as
surgeons or nurses, by our skill; if as storekeepers and labor
employers, by the clean deals we give. If we are second-rate in our work
all our talking won't persuade men of our fitness for our position.
_Securus judicat orbis terrarum_--and to my mind God seeks first men
diligent in business, fervent in spirit, _serving_ the Lord.
All the sects have only the same work for the same Master to accomplish;
it is through being fellow-workers and not identical thinkers that love
for all who love Christ must come. This is unity. The _camaraderie_ of a
fighting force is not disturbed by the feeling that one is of the
cavalry, another of the infantry, a third of the artillery; or even, as
has often been shown in warfare, whether they are of different races,
climes, or temperaments. There is nothing like common work to beget
intelligent love for your fellow.
How did Christ admit his members? By their profession of faith? I think
not. By their readiness to work? Yes. Those were workers he chose, every
one of them. Did he wait until they could say they believed, even that
he was God's Son, before he sent them out to work? Not at all. He said
if you are willing to go out and work you will get faith by working and
seeing others work.
In this way most men get faith now. The empirical method is the very
best way to get it firmly rooted. _Experientia docet._ "Now we believe,
not because of what you say, but because we have seen for ourselves."
Did not Judas work with Jesus? Yet it is absurd to contend that Jesus
was "unequally yoked with unbelievers" on that account. At the end of
Christ's life only Peter seemed even to guess who he was, and his
protestations were not even the asset he thought they were. For a few
minutes after he had openly, to Christ's face and before witnesses,
asserted his faith, Christ called him "Satan" and told him to get behind
him. When he was in trouble they every one ran away. They would never
have done that from a handful of soldiers if they had honestly believed
he was the very Son of God.
To sum up, What has the Church meant to me? It has meant the agency
through which I received such spiritual sight as I have. It has meant
the body through which has come to me strength in weakness many times,
comfort in trial, help in time of need. Through the Church of God, which
Phillips Brooks said is "the kingdom of good hearts united in love,"
have come the talents to use in the work to which my life is given. When
I want more help it is to this wide Church I go to look for it, and I
have never looked in vain. As a man loves the members of his family, so
I love the Church of God. For resources it stands to me as a permanent
war office stands to an army in the field. Fine uniforms and titles are
of little moment as compared with wisdom and efficiency for supplying
men and sinews for war. We fully value the great leaders in our home
country, and we also love our "Bobs" or our "Wellington" _because_ when
called on _they are willing to march in the front rank themselves_.
As a peripatetic worker myself during open water in my little hospital
ship, and in winter with dogs and sleigh, I recognize that it is but
transient help which I can give alone. So I love the little hospitals,
which speak of permanence. When a call for help comes for me, often
enough my place is vacant. But the cheery haven of refuge is _always_
there.
The grip of fellowship the visible churches give us on our homeland
visits is a real factor in our work. It makes them real sharers in it.
And I thank God for the real Church of God. I realize as never before
how essential _that_ is. Besides all this, she stands as a great
reminder of God to the world. "Lest we forget. Lest we forget."
My last is purely a private confession, and it is this: If it were only
through association, I love also that organization within God's Church
of which I am myself a humble member. It is _because_ I love it I am
willing to write exactly as I feel. For I love it enough to wish with
all my heart and soul and strength that God might be able to use it to a
fuller capacity, as with open eyes and unprejudiced heart and with
wisdom developing by experience it becomes willing to see that IT also
must have its scrap heap, or its museum for honorable antiquities, on
which to lay aside the weights that are impeding it in the race, which
are crippling its usefulness, and which are bound eventually to destroy
it if it blindly continues to cling to them.
The qualification for life eternal is to have done well. The final test
is to be ethical, not theological. I expect to find more roads leading
into the Golden City than many seem even to wish for. After the school
day of life I look for an ecclesia, a mighty host, called out for more
perfect service. My ideal church is characterized solely by the very
simplest interpretation of the old, old story, and each member deserves
the name of the "friend of all the world."