These are perilous times. Man’s schemes have broken down and the world is in chaos. Human wisdom has come up against a blank wall, beyond which man cannot see. The people are saying to their erstwhile leaders, “Cry”; and the leaders call back, “What shall we cry?” We have left God out of our scheme of things. We have dabbled in this monkey business till conditions have made monkeys out of our wisest men. But there is balm, there is healing, there is a physician. Preach the word.
We want to convert sinners and edify saints, but there is danger that we put the main emphasis on the wrong things. We may become so busy as herdboys that we forget to feed the sheep. We may become so absorbed in keeping the young folks interested that we forget to fill them with the word of God. We may become so engaged in building fine meeting houses, that we forget to build fine Christian characters.
It is a fine thing for a church to have a house suited to its needs, but a house is not one of the essentials. The early Christians owned no meetinghouses, but they made the gospel ring throughout the land. It is a sin for brethren to burden themselves with a church-house debt that requires all their energies and resources to meet. Some churches have so burdened themselves with debt that they have ceased any worthwhile effort to preach the word. It is feared that pride contributed much to their present humiliation. Some of these monuments to pride or mistaken zeal will never be paid out, and the church will be discouraged and weakened, and all because they forgot that their main mission was to convert sinners and edify saints. In trying to “put things over” they have gone under. PREACH THE WORD.
Do not worry about science. It has its legitimate field, and in its field it has done wonderful things. We reap its benefits and are glad. The average preacher knows little about science, and the average scientist knows less about the Bible. The claim that science and the Bible do not agree should disturb no one. What is called “science” is not static. Each generation brings new light; most of the old theories have been exploded by scientists themselves. Yet each generation of scientists boldly announces that science has disproved the Bible. But it can as easily be proved that science has disproved itself. With all their dogmatism about the Bible and science, there are few theories that real scientists are willing to take their stand upon and say: “Here is ultimate truth; no future discoveries will contradict this.” So long as they cannot afford to affirm that they have arrived at ultimate truth, how can they with honor say that science disproves the Bible? Besides, if the Bible fully agreed with the scientific theories of one age, it would not agree with the theories of the next age. The Bible is unchangeable and cannot keep up agreement with that which constantly changes. Some of the foremost scientists recognize the limitations of science and are firm believers in the Bible. PREACH THE WORD. No known truth contradicts the Bible.