A TEXTBOOK ON CHRISTIAN LIVING

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 154, 26 March 1938, Page 6 (Supplement)

A TEXTBOOK ON CHRISTIAN LIVING

“Sins of the Saints,” by G. D. Rosen-: that (London: Centenary Press). The title is misleading. This is no intimate exposure of the private life of St. Augustine or St. Francis of Assisi. It is a practical textbook dedicated “to those who, like the author, find it difficult to be good.” The word “saints,” Dr. Rosenthal explains in his preface, is used “in the sense in which St. Paul uses it, as a description of ordinary Christian folk who are making an honest effort in their daily lives to obey the teaching of Jesus Christ, and to imitate his example.” The familiar version of Hebrews 12:1 is “. . . let us lay aside ... the sin which doth so easily beset us. ;•.” Dr. Rosenthal prefers the Revised Version, marginal rendering, which gives “. . . the sin which is admired of many”; in other words, the popular and respectable sin. “Let us lay aside,” he says, “not only the notorious sins which all respectable people acknojvledge to be wrong, but the popular sins, the applauded sins, the sins which the world regards as virtues.” Dr. Rosenthal,' with the. wide sympathy and understanding resulting , from long experience as a parish priest, then writes of the failings of religious people, “sin which is admired of many,” but which is more destructive of Christian character than downright Vice. He deals with the controversial spirit, bad temper, unwillingness to forgive, tittle-tattle, depression and self-satisfaction, love of money, moral cowardice and others. He is always helpful—his experience enables him to be so.

A curious thing about Dr. Rosenthal’s literary style is that it reveals the man behind the pen. His personality does not obtrude upon the reader, yet one is left with a definite sense that this man has succeeded in practising what he preaches. There is a rare combination of meekness and power, a desirable but rare Christian attribute. The book will make pleasant and profitable reading to anyone of idealistic tendencies, irrespective of denomination, for the problems discussed are moral not doctrinal. Dr. Rosenthal contends that a Christian standard of morality, rather than mere respectability, is the impetus needed by the church to-day. In his closing chapters he has a fine passage on apathy in this connection. The church’s chief problem is the problem of Its unemployed, of the vast number of its tuembers who are content to be ministered unto, who come to church as they would go to the theatre, to take no other part in the performance than that of criticism or applause. That is why the church makes so. little progress. It is a luxury liner instead of a Ashing smack, and its officers and crew have to spend most of their time in seeing that the passengers enjoy themselves, or in looking after them when they are seasick, or in preventing them from falling overboard. or in rescuing them when they do. Altogether, a good textbook on a difficult accpmplislißieiit’EiChristiau liy-