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Has Christianity Failed in…

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Has Christianity Failed in its Mission ? By T, E. ENTWISTLE (Evangelist.) (Concluded from last week.) The words of Dean Farrar, with respect to the influence of Christianity on the world in the early days, are worth reecalling. He says: "The effects of the work of Christ were, even to the unbeliever. indisputable and historical. It expelled cruelty, it curbed passion, it branded suicide; it punished and repressed an execrable infanticide; it drove the shameless impurities of heathendom into a congenial darkness. There was hardly a class whose wrongs it did not remedy. It rescued the gladiator; it freed the slave; it protected the captive; it nursed the sick it sheltered the orphan; it elevated the woman; it shrouded with a halo of sacred purity the tender years of the child. In every region of life its ameliorating influence was felt. It changed pity from a vice into a virtue; it elevated poverty from a ourse into a beatitude; it ennobled labour from a vulgarity into a dignity and a duty; it sanctified marriage into almost a sacrament; it proclaimed the brotherhood of the roce. And in all lands, where it has moulded the character 4 the true believer; it has created hearts so pure. and lives so peaceful, and homes so sweet, as to compel one to admit its heavenly origin. We must beware of measuring the success or failure of Christianity by worldly standards. Let us reflect, for a few moments, with Ben- jamin Scott, on the state of the contending parties and systems at Rome, in martial con- flict during the occupation of the catacombs: I would have you notice," he says, 'if you have not done before, the irresistible, the stu- pendous power of pure Christianity; and not-I icing that, ask yourselves if it be not of Divine origin? On the one side were arrayed all the powers of the world-the Roman emperors, whose will dictated law to the earth; a powerful army; all the wealth of Rome; all the learning of the,, Augustan period; all the philosophy and sci- ence 'falsely so called'; a priesthood. whose influence extended to the bounds of the Roman Empire, and whose power perhaps e-xceeded even that of the emperor himself; all the rulers; the great majority of the people and the pres- tige of high antiquity in favour of a religion c which was admirably adapted to corrupt hu- man hearts. On the other hand we find a few (compara- tively) poor, illiterate, despised outcasts, hid- ing in dens and caves of The earth.' without arms, or refusing to use them, decimated by persecutions repeated again and again, oppos- ing not their enemies with carnal weapons, but blessing and praying for them; and yet we find one emperor after another declaring that they were oi-, in other words invincible. Again and again edicts went forth to ex- terminate them from the earth, and inscriptions were set up to celebrate and perpetuate the supposed success of the persecutions. Here are two which have been preserved by anti- quarian writers Diocletian. Caesar, Augustus, having ad- opted Galerius in the East; the superstition of the Christians being everywhere destroyed, and the true worship of the gods propagated," "Again: Diocletian. Jonus and Maxtinian, Hercules, Caesar, Augustus. The Roman Em- pire having been enlarged throughout the East and the West, and the name of the Christians, who were overthrowing the Roman Republic, blotted out." "Never in the world's history was there found a more striking instance of the short- sightedness of man, and the irresistible working of the Providence of God. Within ten years of the reign of Diocletian, the superstition ev- erywhere destroyed and the 'name blotted out became the prevailing, the established religion of the Roman Empire. The seed cast into the ground, imbued from the first with Divine life, and water continually by the Di- vine blessing, sprang all at once into observa- tion asserting its power, and overturning the decaying system which impeded for a time its upward progress. ), Christianity, like Rome. lias had both the Gaul and Hannibal at her gates but as the "Eternal City," in the latter case, calmly of- fered for sale. and sold. at an undepreciated price the very ground on which the Carttha- gianian had fixed his camp, with equal coolness may Christianity imitate her example. The future is assured. As the glory of the Resur- rection followed Get lis am a ne and the Cross, so the followers of the Lamb, through crushed to earth, shall rise again. rough all the long dark night of years The people's cry ascended The earth was wet with blood and tears Ere their meek suffering ended. The few shall not for ever sway. The many toil in sorrow The bars of Hell are strong to-day, Rut Christ shall reign to-morrow." But', some object "If Christianity is from God. why does it not cast down this, that, and the other stronghold of Satan. destroying it oil the spot ? And we may answer: God does not work so, my friends, either in moral or the physical world. The earthquake and the tornado are not His usual but His extraordinary agencies. Why he does not work so is not for us to determine we can watch, however, and trace His working in Nature, and we shall find it agree with His dealings in Providence. God is in no haste (if I may use the expression). His time is not limited like man's, who, if he have aught to do, must do it with all his might, for the night cometh when no man can work." But it is not so with God; eternity is before Him, and He works, to our senses, deliberately, but surely and irresistibly. Consider one or two illustrations of His method of workin,o:- "Insignificant insects are diligently piling at- om upon atom; ages pass away, and their work is gradually rising to the top of the waters, lifting up itself a coral reef above the foaming waves sea. birds alight on it and seaweed is flung upon it, and contribute to the formation of a soil; volcanic action, deep seated beneath, is heaving gradually the surface into hill and -cla,te. A bird drops a seed here, a wave casts up another there. The peaceful palm, the useful bread-fruit, and the grateful orange spring up, and a forest diversiifes the scene. "But thousands of years have passed away since the animalcules began their task. "Look again A drifted canoe is borne out of its accustomed' course: the island is peopled the inhabitants are naked, savage. idolatrous, q t v a-l e i d ol atrous, bloodthirsty. Another thousand years wing their flight. in "Again the scene changes: a strange sail is in sign?; a boat puts off-civilized men a,re landing; they make overtures of peace and of reciprocal barter. The inhabitants clothe themselves, and erect convenient dwellings; a written language is boing constructed; a print- ing press is set up; the Book of Truth is prin- ted read, acted upon. They have "caat their idols to the moles and to the bats; they have thrown down their blood-stained altars; they have converted their "swords into plough- shares, and thajf spears into pruning hooks," God's Purpose is complete." The word has reached the utmost isles; God's Spirit moves upon the deep., Already, from the dust of death, Man, in his Maker's image, stands; Once more he draws immortal breath, And stretches forth to heaven his hands." But it has taken, perhaps, six thousand years to bring it about! Let us beware of judging the work of God by a cross section. Let us, at least in vision, endeavour to catch a glimpse of the work as a whole, complete in Christ, summing up all things in heaven and on earth, at the last. 'Tis weary watching wave by wave, And yet the tide heaves onward; We climb, like corals, grave by grave, Yet beat a pathway sunward. We're beaten back in many a fray, Yet newer strength we borrow; And w here our vanguard rests to-day, Our rear shall rest to-morrow. The ultimate triumph of the Gospel is as- sured sooner or later the kingdoms of this world shall be subdued and absor bed by the Kingdom of our God and His Christ. And WE may hasten the day of this glorious con- summation. If the nations of the earth do not as yet recognise the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man; if they do not participate as yet. as nations in the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, it is largely because the Church has failed in leadership. Instead of manifesting the manifold wisdom of God to the world, and thereby LEADING the world out of darkness into light, the Church has all too often been found ready to FOLLOW in the train of worldly wisdom and vain deceit. But, thank God! there are those of our tribe and people who do look up to the One God, and cry "Abba Father," and who recognise nei- ther Greek, nor Jew, circumcision nor uncir- cumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free," as going greater than the common bonds of humanity, and who are striving unto the end that Christ shall be everything, and in all of us. We are living in strange times. The history of the early days seems likely to repeat itself, when. in the land known throughout the world as being per-eminently the land of liberty, there comes forth from the prison cell the L ov4e cry, with regard to the Master's message, Love your Enemies" Words, tdte words 1 Mere useless, wasted breath— Though anguish wring them from angelic soul. Though heaven itself their vivid truth unrolK, Though they bring life in place of dreadful death, Though essence they of all the Saviour saith; Though writ by sages deep, in ancient scrolls; Though every age their priceless worth extols; And history's lore their warning echoeth— Yet fall they vain and void on defeaned ears, Not deafened with the crash of bursting shells, But deaf with jealousies, ignoble fears, And fierce, self-righteous vengeance, that com- pels Blood to be washed with blood, tears drowned in tears And hell's work defied in deeper hells." Has Christianity failed in its mission? No! a thousand times no But we Christians have! And we are daily confronted with the dreadful results. A faithful Church, a praying Church, a living Church would have LED the world in ways of pleasantness and paths of peace. What is the remedy for the failure? The attitude of the Apostle to the Gentiles "Forgetting the things that are behind, and stretching forward to the things that are be- fore, I press on to the goal for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.' "Our hearts brood over the past," says Gerald Massey, and in these days we are con- strained to say with sadness, "Our hearts brood over the present." Let us turn from these and become "dreamers of dreams," ye, even though men may taunt us, for we may reply to them: Dreamers of dreams, we take the taunt with gladness, Knowing that God. beyond the years you see, Hath wrought those dreams, that count with you for madness, Into the substance of the life to be." Our hearts brood o'er the past; our eyes With smiling futures glisten; Lo! now its dawn bursts up the sky; Lean out your souls and listen: The earth rolls freedom's radiant way, And ripens with our sorrow; And 'tis the martyrdom to-day Brings victory to-morrow. Then, youth, flame earnest, still aspire With energies immortal: To many a haven of desire Your yearning opes a portal; And though age increases by the'' way, And hearts break in the furrow, We sow the golden grain to-day, The harvest comes to-morrow.

INewport (Mon.) LLP.

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