THE CHRIST OF EVERY ROAD.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20958, 22 February 1930, Page 27

THE CHRIST OF EVERY ROAD.

Written for tire Otago Daily Times

By the Rev. d. Gardner Miller. I have spent some profitable hours in reading an advance copy of Dr E. Stanley Jones’s latest booh, “The Christ of Every Road.” Many of my readers will remember Dr Jones's previous works, “The Christ of the Indian Road” and “ Christ at the Round Table.”

Apart from the .fact that these two books had phenomenal sales and were reckoned among the “ best sellers,” they did more to stimulate missionary interest than any other publications during the last decade.

For some months past this latest book has been, eagerly anticipated, for it was well known that the famous missionary was busily engaged in writing a book on “ Pentecost.” The title, “ The Christ of Every Road” is a happy and apposite one, for “ Pentecost ” was the great spiritual experience and occasion that sent the disciples along “every road” with their new and tremendous experience of the, Risen Christ.

Those who look for a profound and exhaustive treatment of Pentecost will be disappointed 'in this book. It is not written with an eye glued to a theological microscope, but is a popular (but not trivial) summing up of a great revelation, Dr Jones believes that Pentecost is,the natural condition of a Church that will take its Lord seriously. Written with an easy flow that charms the ear (for the true reader hoars rather than sees) you find the author, again • and again, saying things that you yourself longed to say, but never knew how. Pew will disagree with his spiritual insight of Pentecost as an event (even though his divisionJ are a trifle artificial), and I cannot imagine anyone missing the note of urgency and application to our own day. To the hoy and girl In the senior Sunday school, as to the oldest saint, this boot will be both a challenge and an inspiration. The? book moved me deeply and drove me to my knees., I, have more than once said in this column that we are on the eve of A GREAT SPIRITUAL QUICKENING. 1 was thus more than interested to read that Dr Jones is conscious that the world-ground for a spiritual awakening is being prepared on «. great scale. He sees this awakening in four factors —(a) the scientific attitude toward life, (b) the trend towards experience, (c) the undertone of deep spiritual craving, and that (d) religion is now becoming Christocentric. As he develops Ws argument one feels that here is a man with a peculiarly sensitive spirit who has probed beneath'the surface of things. With him, it is either Christ or secular civilisation, and in his own mind there is no doubt of Christ’s ultimate victory.

Now, It is the very spirit of expectancy that is the surest, forerunner of revival. When we do not expect anything, nothing happens. On the other hand, when we are like tie. followers of Jesus who met together at Pentecost, ready for anything, then the surprising thing will be, not that we shall turn the world upside down but that the world should remain unmoved. “ Miracles -3an happen and we. are invited to make them happen.” . If Pentecost was the means whereby the Church was not only renewed and filled but sent out fearlessly to challenge every wrong, in the name of Christ, then surely, if the present day church fulfils the conditions then we should , experience another Pentecost 1 In other words, is Pentecost abnormal or natural! I am very much inclined to believe that the warm, impulsive . and conquering spirit that emanated from Pentecost should be the natural condition of the Church in every age and under every condition. Pentecost simply means linking ourselves to the Divine- Power which is continually at our disposal. “The early Christians knew that they could call on all the Power there was, against all the wrong there was, in whatever realm it was.” Then; > •- WHAT HAPPENED AT PENTECOST? Dr Jobes is emphatic that at Pentecost “ Religion penetrated to the. inmost depth of personal need and then rebounded to universality. It gave inner freedom and a world view.” From this standpoint he then states some extraordinary results arising from circumstances very ordinary, as they appear to us.

Here is a brief summary of them: At Pentecost religion was liberated and thrown open to women; all languages, culture and races were made the medium of the Divine; religion was loosed from all specially sacred rites or ceremonies; Pentecost presented resources from without to man ;, it was not merely a quickening and developing of resources from within.

One has only to ponder over these statements to realise how wretchedly artificial a.great deal of our religion is., We need the'wind of God to blow upon us, and sweep away many of our selferected barriers. “The Christ of Every Boad ” will do immense service to the Church of God by humiliating many of us, - Most, of us are too like the woman of whom the author speaks, who/never found the power of God inkier life until she changed her prayer from asking God to help her in her work to asking Him to pick her up and use her for His work. When she did that, everything was changed. So it would be for us too, if we put it to the test—that is, to put God first in our lives. It just means this, that the Church to-day could realise another Pentecost—and the Church means just you and me—if we would cultivate inward fellowship with God and abandon ourselves to his purposes. Most of us have no spiritual power because we are not abandoned. “ It is not that we do not love Him, but that we do.uot love Him completely. We give to Him, but do not give up to Him.”

“A wire attached to a load can be used to pull it only to the degree of its own strength, but that same wire attached to a dynamo transmits power not to the degree of its own strength but according to the weight of the 'electricity within it. No wonder they turned the world upside down, for the power that had made the world was remaking it through them. Pentecost is power, 1 ’

This book, at, a price within the means of everyone, will open doors to imprisoned souls and maybe liberate the Church from her gilded fetters.