{CH SURVIVE?
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church flocks are scattered. But we rejoice
with those victorious soldiers of the cross
who know no compromise with evil, and
who will not be disobedient to the heavenly
vision. They are the true heroes of today;
they are the ones who are fighting the
oreatest battles for the liberation of the
{forces of good and the triumph over evil. 1f
peace should return to the earth,—and we
pray that it may,—then these will be the
unsung victors, who without sword or
shield, have fought and won.
We are cheered as we hear reports of
these noble men and women, soldiers of
Jesus Christ, who are finding new values
and new relationships with the Master; and
finding these, they press forward through
the maze and tangle of a world gone mad
with blood-lust, through the ever-increasing
darkness of the new paganism which 1s
blacking out the light of Christ’s righteous-
ness from the earth. Yes, they move for-
ward, crying “Victory!” in the name of
Him who has overcome the world. It is
that powerful name which today keeps His
church from being crushed out. He de-
fends it from the blows which continue to
rain upon it, beating it, scourging it, spit-
ting upon it, reviling it, crucifying it.
Many high churchmen today look for-
ward to a new day for the church after the
present conflict ceases, when the bells of
peace have once more pealed forth, when
the sound of the cannon, the rattle of
machine-gun fire, the swish and blasting of
bombs, the roar and cry of the war birds
overhead have all been lulled into silence.
OCTOBER, 1942
Dr. Kraemer, considered
by many as an outstand-
ing leader in spiritual
affairs in Holland, says:
“One cannot think of
anything more disastrous
than that the church
should emerge from this
present period without
having been changed.”
Another church leader
in Germany stated in a
sermon: ‘By the force
of external conditions,
and by spiritual neces-
sity, the church is forced
to become truly the
church in the New Testa-
ment sense; that is, a
church which does not
enjoy the favor of the
mighty and the great,
but which 1s rich in
spiritual goods and lives
by the strength of sacri-
ficial and brotherly
love.” — “Over ~~ There
Wath the Churches of
Christ,” Bulletin No.
25, July 1, 1941.
The New Testament church had no
earthly support. It had no fine temples in
which to worship. It was directed by twelve
men who had received no degrees from the
colleges and universities of the land. They
were twelve men who for the most part had
been picked up along the seashore of
Galilee, taken from their boats and
fishing nets and trained for the ministry.
But there was power in that early church,
a power which was stronger than the
sword, mightier than the headsman’s
ax, invulnerable to the faggot and the
dungeon, and impervious to the oaths and
revilings of men. Nothing could stop the
flood of witnessing which was watered by
the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Pente-
costal torrents. In a brief century it
swept over the then-known world and
even found its way into the household of
the Casars. High and low, rich and poor,
free and bond, succumbed to the mighty
influence of Christianity. There was no
secular arm to aid it, there were no men of
wealth to erect its temples of marble and
cold. The humility of the One who had
established the church and who had laid
down the broad principles of its conduct
and service was the secret of its power.
So, with a backward look at the former
victories of the church through the past
ages, we stand unmoved in the face of the
formidable array of evil against it today.
If in the British Isles they can sing the
song, ‘‘There’ll always be an Ingland,”
so the Christian can sing, ‘‘There’ll
always be Christianity,” and he should be
able to sing it with an even greater degree
of confidence.
Christianity 1s more than a sect of
people worshiping in temples. It is more
than a denomination, or a creed, or a set
of rules, or a prayer book. It is Christ.
As Dr. Philip Schaff so aptly puts it:
“The question of Christ is the question
of Christianity, which is the foundation of
His life in the world; it is the question of
the church, which rests upon Him as the
tmmovable rock; 1t 1s the question of his-
tory, which revolves around Him as the
sun of the moral universe; it 1s the ques-
tion of every man who instinctively yearns
after Him as the object of his noblest and
purest aspirations; it 1s a question of per-
sonal salvation, which can only be obtained
through Jesus. The whole fabric of Chris-
tranity stands or falls with vts diwine-human
Founder; and if 1t can never perish, it is
because Christ lives, the same yesterday,
today, and forever.”—“The Person of
Christ,” p. 7.
Herbert Agar, in his article, ‘““ World or
Nothing,” says of the revolution now tak-
ing place in the world: “It is a revolution
which says there is no law of God or man
which holds in this brave new world.”
—“Reader’s Digest,” September, 1941.
The bishops of Norway have been try-
ing to hold their churches steady amidst
the troubles which are rocking that peace-
loving country. One statement recently
made may be of some value to us here:
“When the government tolerates vio-
lence and injustice and brings pressure to
bear upon the souls of men, then the
church 1s the guardian of the conscience.
That is why the bishops of the church have
called the attention of the ministers to
certain official declarations which the
church considers as being in conflict with
the law of God and which give the im-
pression that, instead of a situation of
occupation in which law is respected in so
far as it does not conflict with the situa-
tion of occupation, we have in our country
a revolutionary situation. . .
“The church cannot keep silence where
the commandment of God is broken and
sin reigns. . . . On the basis of our man-
date we exhort all those in places of au-
thority to make an end of all that goes
against the holy will of God, which is
justice, truth, liberty of conscience, and
goodness, and to build on the law of God.”
—“War Conditions in the Continental
Churches,” Bulletin No. 6.
It 1s quite interesting to note the em-
phasis which at this time, is being placed
upon the importance of obedience to law.
It appears that the law of God 1s once
more coming into prominence, and no
doubt 1t will play a very large part in the
drama which 1s about to unfold in the
postwar readjustment of religious life.
When God came down upon Mt. Sinal
and spoke those ten words amidst flames
of fire and the roll of thunder, the people
all shouted, ‘All that the Lord hath
spoken we will do.”” Then God wrote
those same commandments upon tables of
stone and gave them to Moses His servant,
who deposited them inside the ark
which had been made especially for that
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