THE CHURCH’S RECORD

Evening Star, Issue 19298, 10 July 1926, Page 19

THE CHURCH’S RECORD

The self-laudation with which political parties and commercial organisations are accustomed to advance their fortunes is noli congenial to the temper or calling of the Christian Society. Its disposition must ever bo to think less of the things it has done than of those it has failed to do; and the ideal which it holds within its heart must to the end disquiet it with the sense of unfulfilment. Nevertheless, those who believe themselves to bo indebted lor their best inheritance to the historical church are not to bo blamed when, they protest against the misrepresentations and unjust charges which so often deceive the thoughtless and the ignorant, and when they resent and repute ate the language of contemptuous depreciation which is freely used by tlie foes of society to which they belong. Even as the patriot has a right to exult in the high traditions of his race, so the loyal churchman has cause to cherish an honorable pride in the work that has been done and the ministries that have been fulfilled by the children of the faith in every age and in every land. Certainly those who have themselves had any part, even the humblest, in the service of the poor, the ignorant and sorrowful, within our crowded cities know that it is a mere libel to assert that the members and pastors of the church have been as a nilo insensible to the needs of their follow-creatures, or that there lias been any lack of those who have willingly taken part in a service which is always disheartening and sometimes destructive to bojie itself; who in their labors hare freely given of their substance, their time, their youth, and their strength. The Seer of old beheld in his vision witn adoring wonder, that great Company whom no man could number who had come out of the great tribulation and had washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. How much more glorious were the sight that would present itself to our eyos could the secret things of history bo revealed and Hie records of the servants of Christ made plain! Tlie accumulated treasures laid up with God by the unknown hosts who in simplicity of spirit have toiled for Christ among their' follow-men would be seen to shine as the lustre of the universe; and the continuous stream of their ageenduring sacrifice would appear as the river of the water of life, clear as crystal, proceedings out of the throne ol God and of the Lamb.—J. H. Leckic.