This article may not follow an ordered line of thought or pattern, but what we have written has been suggested to us by what the Episcopal Bishop of Aberdeen and Orkney, Rev. Dr. E. F. Easson, recently said, that while there was a great longing in many hearts today for the things provided by religion, people tended to by-pass the Church in their search. He added that it seemed to them that the Church was out of touch with the needs of the world. He made further statements much to the same point. But it is at times difficult to know exactly what some present-day ecclesiastics really mean by what they say.
The true Church is the Christian Church which holds to the Bible as the Word of God from Genesis to Revelation, from whence is preached the whole counsel of God and the gospel of Christ and Him crucified for lost, sinful and hell-deserving men, and wherein the sacraments are administered according to the teaching of the New Testament; and it is the Church which teaches that the Lord will have His people to live holily, etc. The many who may have a true, spiritual longing in their hearts for the things provided in the true and full gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, may be by-passing some Churches because they have learned that there is no true gospel there.
On the other hand, we are well aware of the deplorable fact that where there are Churches holding forth the Word of life and the one Saviour for lost sinners, that the majority of the people in our land today are by-passing such Churches. The chief longing today in the hearts of the most is for pleasure, sport, drama, gambling, dancing and so on. Bishop Easson mentioned that outside the Church there existed such as Alcoholics Anonymous, the Samaritans and the Marriage Guidance Councils and that this meant that to some extent the Church’s mission must be failing.
Christ Jesus and the Apostles concerned themselves with preaching and teaching the Word of God primarily—law, gospel
and the practice which is according to godliness. And the Church which is faithful to the divine Head follows also in the steps of Paul, and speaks to all men, who have ears to hear, of righteousness, temperance and judgment to come. Do the people today, young or old, married or single, come to hear sound teaching from the Word of God for their spiritual, moral and social good and benefit? In the most of cases, verily no! The fact is that there permeates the ‘world’ in Britain today the judgment of utter spiritual indifference to divine things.
The modern Church of today in our land is in point of fact very much in touch with the ‘world’ that is, the world of earthy-minded people, and is catering for them with great application to the end of pleasing the ‘world.’ Preaching is suited to please and satisfy the minds and outlook of unconverted men and women. Vain and worldly activities are organised within the realm of such Churches, such as dances, concerts, drama, Burns’ nights, etc. The sacraments are given, not in all cases, but generally with the minimum of requirements as to Christian belief and conduct. Comfortable church buildings, in most communities, are provided for public worship and other meetings; and ministers are inducted to congregations who, whatever their views, are prepared to visit and give some kind of pastoral care to all classes of people and families. The Church in the wide sense and Nationally is in very many aspects of its activities in touch with the ‘world’ and not cut off from the world by an attitude of aloofness to men and women, young and old, around it.
Yet, for all this, maybe about 12 per cent. out of over 50 million of a population in Britain ever enter any place of worship regularly.
And of course this indifference, practical heathenism and drift away from the professed Christian Church affects also, as we have already indicated, the Church which is faithful to the Word of God and to her divine Head, the Lord Jesus Christ and His gospel and moral claims. Many, young and old, who were brought up under the influence of truly Christian parents and the pure gospel from their childhood, after coming of age have abandoned all attendance upon the public worship of God and interest in religion; and this is specially true of multitudes who have gone to work and reside in the large cities of our land and in other smaller communities away from their homes. If examined as to their conduct, some might affect to find fault with the Church in some particular, but it is really to cover over their irreligious life; and others, as we know, answer that they have nothing against the Church itself, but offer various and empty
excuses for living without the Word and worship of God in private and public. And then there are those who have become positively antagonistic to sound doctrine and Biblical teaching and are wise in their own conceits and have come to scorn and ignore the faith of god-fearing fathers and mothers.
And so the answer to the widespread irreligion in our Nation today is not that even the modern Churches are out of touch with the world; but partly that the professing Christian Church generally, in our land, has for many years now failed to hold to and proclaim the whole counsel of God and the gospel of the crucified Saviour, to meet the needs of a sinful, guilty, dark and hopeless world. And on the other hand, the masses of the people in all sections of society are in a backsliding condition to an extent not fully realised even by the most knowledgeable and discerning of God’s people. We, like Capernaum, have been exalted to heaven by reason of great and inestimable gospel and spiritual privileges afforded us by God. But recent generations have undervalued and despised these privileges for themselves and their children and their children’s children; and we are largely today an impenitent and unbelieving people, given over to evil, vanity and gross and abominable sins. And thus we do not like to retain God in our knowledge.
It is not revival we need as a people, as some evangelicals repeatedly declare in these days. Revival implies spiritual life already there, but at a low ebb. What our Nation needs is a time of awakening from spiritual death by the mighty power of the Holy Spirit operating by means of the Word of God and the gospel as on the day of Pentecost. That day was not a day of revival, but of awakening, when sinners dead in trespasses and sins, were convinced of their sins and brought to repentance toward God and to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, unto their tasting of the forgiveness of sins. Then there was added to the true Christian Church such as were saved.
In all these observations, we are not unmindful of the fact that God’s believing people in our midst do need a revival in their souls’ experience by the fresh and abundant anointing of the Spirit of grace and power from time to time; that their light shall so shine before men that men shall behold their good works and glorify their Father which is in heaven. Thus, exercised Christians are continually concerned about this, and their prayer frequently is: “Wilt thou not revive us again: that thy people may rejoice in thee?” (Ps. lxxxv: v.6). And for the Nation generally, their prayer is: “Turn us again, O God, and cause Thy face to shine; and we shall be saved” (Ps. lxxx: v.3).