Irrelevant And Immaterial

While I was jotting down notes from all over there was this article in the Christian Century called “Notes from an Irrelevant Clergyman.” It was written by Warren Carr, who is said to have “a Baptist church in the South.” What gets Mr. Carr is that in the midst of a big and very sensitive race situation, after Mr. Carr has spoken strongly and clearly on the subject, the committees for his city are all set up and they don’t know how to use him. The current attitude of the layman is seemingly: “Stand aside now. We have a real job to do.”

About two months ago friends of mine were entertaining me in their lovely home and fell to talking about the PTA; from that they launched out on the school board, and there it seemed that someone had concocted a program on the problem of pornography. The word was now moving around town that this program was underwritten by some “shadow” organization, and all kinds of people were getting agitated. The wife of my friend was getting a list of people to telephone for protest, and when she suggested calling the outstanding preacher of the community her husband said, and I quote exactly, “Don’t get the preachers in. They will just confuse things.”

At long last I am working my way through Will Herberg’s Four Existentialist Theologians; the four theologians whom he describes and quotes are Maritain, Berdyaev, Buber, and Tillich. Herberg points out that three of these four men are not clergymen but laymen. Only Tillich is a clergyman, and he is primarily a professional philosopher.

All this sounds a little hard on the clergy. Maybe we have been looking at ourselves in the wrong light or expecting our successes in the wrong direction. We are supposed to sow seeds, not reap crops; if there be any guidance of the Spirit, then we should be operating on the front and the new and the living end. After us and not by us are things to be done.

EUTYCHUS II

The New Format: Yes And No

Congratulations on the fine issue (Aug. 2) with which you began your new format.

Looney Valley and Cedar Valley Lutheran Churches

Houston and La Moille, Minn.

In my opinion the “delightful new format” applies to the cover only!

White Plains, N. Y.

Your new format is an exceptionally hand-some publication.

Bergenfield, N. J.

Please. If necessary sacrifice some of that lonely white space, but give us bigger print. This is awful.

Yucaipa, Calif.

May I commend you on the new cover and format?… I think that you have used your type and white space to great advantage.

Executive Director

Division of Christian Publications

Board of Education and Publication

American Baptist Convention

Valley Forge, Pa.

I do not not like your new format. The type, beginning on page 29 of your August 2 issue, is difficult to read.… I feel that throughout the magazine you are putting too much on a page.…

Chester, Pa.

I want to congratulate you on the new format. It is a very fine one and most inviting in its setup.

Stevenson, Md.

Congratulations on your new format! This is easily the greatest improvement since the addition of those monthly sermons.

Highland Baptist

Huntington, W. Va.

Congratulations to you (and to ourselves) on the new dress in which C. T. appears!

My copy came yesterday. I like it (with a minor reservation here or there).

Vice-Pres.-At-Large

World Vision

Pasadena, Calif.

I sincerely hope the new form is just a temporary lapse. It is impossible to read it easily and comfortably.

Morgans Baptist Church

Moneta, Va.

Your new format is excellent. While redesigning is a catastrophe for some periodicals, it was a distinct gain for you.

Art Director

Board of Education and Publication

General Conference Mennonite Church

Newton, Kan.

Do not like your new format. The old one was far superior and cannot understand what you ever thought was wrong with it.

Warrenville, Ill.

I withdraw criticism of the format.… This number 23 issue looks good and I do not have an old one so I don’t know what I was fussing about in the first place. At any rate, this looks good but not better than what you have had for years.

Warrenville, Ill.

We are gratified over the concern ofCHRISTIANITY TODAYreaders for the magazine’s typographical well-being. To those few readers who have objected to the type’s being “smaller” we merely say this: The Baskerville type we now employ has as wide a character as did our old Fairfield. The height of the character matches that used in The New York Times. Baskerville is authoritatively regarded for superior legibility, and its legibility inCHRISTIANITY TODAYis enhanced by additional leading (space between lines).—ED.

Texas And The Angels

Your August 2 editorial “Christian Vocational Calling” reminded me of the time I applied for a summer job with a paper company which had the policy of subjecting every applicant to a psychological examination. Halfway through my inkblot test I could tell I was upsetting my examiner because I was seeing cherubim, the tables of the Law, and other religious symbols where I probably should have alleged to see more earthily Freudian objects. But I did not realize how far apart our worlds were until he delved into my employment history. I had been on the staff of a Colorado church before being invited to another position in Texas—all of which was before going back to school, as I would again that fall.

The psychologist asked me, “Why did you leave the church in Colorado?”

I made the mistake of saying, “Because I was called down to Texas.”

At this point he leaned over the table and said in that stage whisper used to distract lunatics while the net is encircling them, “Called? Called? Like angel voices perhaps?”

“No,” I replied. “Called—like by long-distance telephone call from a preacher I knew.”

That ended the interview. I never went back to see if I got the job.

Silver Spring, Md.

The dissatisfaction with psychological tests in predictive screening of religious candidates must not be seen as a unique problem. All psychological evaluations are limited in their efficacy and particularly so in predicting success or failure in such a complicated decision as vocational outcome. As with all new procedures, we often hope for more than they can realistically produce. This leaves us open to frustration and denial of the realistic validity of the procedure.…

You quote ironic statements which regard religious personalities as “deviant.” Experience reveals that one will receive help from your consultant in proportion to his understanding of your need. Dr. M. K. Bowers suggests that such collaborative evaluations can only be profitable if the psychotherapist understands and is sympathetic to the religious values of the person and the specific evaluative needs of the institution (Psychotherapy of Religious Personnel in Research Plans in Religion etc.; Rel. Educ. Assn., 1962).…

You note that no one should stand between the called and the Caller. We heartily agree. Nonetheless, my own professional experience and that of my Christian colleagues who also see religious candidates and personnel underscore the difficulty we mortals often have in perceiving the Divine Call. Personal needs and misconceptions

can frequently be attributed to God. If we can help in discovering such spurious calls we may not only obviate misplaced effort but oftentimes turn one toward an actual spiritual fulfillment in an appropriate area.

The selection of Christian vocation deserves our highest attention. But the use of our best human skills should be seen as augmenting rather than interfering with our human decisions. The role of the psychotherapist/evaluator should be one of consultant to individuals and institutions. The ultimate decision must be with the spiritual agencies who must use our contributions as part of the total picture.

Department of Psychiatry

University of Cincinnati

Cincinnati, Ohio

Taxation And The Church

Thank you for an excellent editorial, “What of Religious Tax Exemptions?” (Aug. 2 issue). You have presented the problem of tax exemption for religious organizations in a very fair and comprehensible way.

I can see no difference between a direct form of support for churches through subsidies and an indirect form through tax deductions, either institutional or personal. I submit that many if not most churches draw their lives from the state through these “subsidies” in the form of tax deductions.

As a church member (American Baptist), I value my membership. At the same time, I view dependence upon “outside” support, which includes tax exemptions in my interpretation, as a weakening factor in the life of the church. If the Church is to have strength and respect, it must be completely self-supporting.

Seattle, Wash.

What of the government that engages in tax-exempt enterprises of every description, in unfair competition with private enterprise, forcing its citizens not only to face such unequal competition, but to make up the deficit incurred by government when those business enterprises operate in the red? It seems to me that the government should abide by the same rules that apply to the churches, in so far as moral and legal conduct is concerned.… Furthermore, if only such funds of the church as are spent upon worship and strictly religious education facilities are to be tax-exempt, then the millions spent every year by the World Council and the National Council of Churches in lobbying in Washington in attempting to influence government policies, both foreign and domestic, activities entirely beyond and unrelated to the real mission of the Church, should be taxed to the hilt.

Harlington, Tex.

My Sunday school teacher was a Philadelphia lawyer. He told us that churches were not taxed because it cost less to police a city of churches.… Today crime is on the increase and church attendance is on the decrease. Many churches are closed Sunday evening. In one city a righteous family is driving thirteen miles past churches that are closed to one that is putting on a good evening service. I believe the names of these closed churches should be given to the tax collector. They are not earning an exemption.

Newfield, N. J.

Peter, Caesar, And The Sword

The Rev. William C. Lowe (Eutychus, Aug. 2 issue) raises the question: “But can anyone imagine Jesus Christ taking a gun to defend himself or his disciples?” I find that liberal as well as conservative Bible teachers often fail to exegete the words of our Lord correctly when he said: “Put up thy sword into the sheath: the cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?” These words were uttered to Peter the Elder of the Church, but never to Caesar the head of the Roman government. God has never sanctioned nor blessed the defense of the Church by the sword whether by the Muenster Anabaptists in 1535, or, by General Thomas Harrison of the “Fifth Monarchy Party” in England in 1661. During the Second World War and the Korean War millions of Christians were praying for the success of our fighting men, including General Harrison.

Faith Community Church

Palmdale, Calif.

Strategy

Though I found Colin C. Campbell’s “Christian Responsibility to Contemporary Literature” (Aug. 2 issue) stimulating … I question certain presuppositions.… Christian responsibility, he asserts, compels us to approach contemporary, secular literary works with an attitude of what we can give to them by “confronting serious works of literary art—reading them, pondering them, debating them with friends, writing about them.” By these methods could a new channel form to carry the leaven of “Christian concepts” into modern literature. One crucial presupposition appears to be operative here. It is the seeming inevitability that current literature “must come under the leavening touch of Christianity,” that “every sort of human activity must feel the impact of Christian concepts” in the future, and that a literature “may well” emerge “fully responsive to the leaven” of Christian ideas. By what authority can we say that Christian concepts will make such an impact.… How consistent is Mr. Campbell’s optimism with orthodoxy’s view of man? Also, by advocating the steady, gradual penetration of elements of “primitive Christianity” as an important vital task, is he being consistent with orthodoxy’s view of salvation? For it is not a gradual process by which man comes to understand his relationship to God, but rather through a more decisive experience.… Thus, such a gradual leavening of secular literature, unless conceived as an improvement of the overall environment, would be less crucial than the improvement of contemporary creative Christian literature. And our responsibility to secular literature would be significantly lessened; not so our responsibility to its writers and avid readers.

Kalamazoo, Mich.

Right Man, Wrong Council

Re “The Receiving End” (News, July 19 issue): The Rev. Daniel Corrigan you identify with the Home Department of the National Council of Churches is, in fact, … the Director of the Home Department of the National Council of the Episcopal Church.

Saint John’s

Cohoes, N. Y.

Nicodemus Today

Re the number of born-again Christians in churches (Editorial, July 19 issue): I made a private survey recently on this very point and thought you might be interested in it. I have been pastor here twenty-one years and so know the congregation well. Here are the results:

Consecrated, active, spiritual 13%

Good interest 27%

Casual interest 31%

Complete backsliders 29%

My observation would lead me to believe that this is about what the situation is in the old-line Protestant churches in this area.

New York State

Your informant, whoever he was, was either irresponsible, not knowing whereof he spoke, or prejudiced against our fellowship.… One of our basic doctrines of our conference churches is that a person must be born again, or “twice-born” as your editorial puts it, before becoming a member of the church. To have indicated that our local churches have but 66 per cent twice-born members has done us grievous harm to our ministry. Letters have come to me since your editorial which question our status.

Gen. Secy.

Baptist General Conference

Chicago, Ill.

Your summary on the number of born-again people in the churches seemed super-abounding in exaggerated optimism.

Skyway Bible Church

Seattle, Wash.

Education: Religion Issue

Thank you very much for your July 5 issue.… It has been helpful in giving to me new insights into the U. S. Supreme Court members’ decision.

I do not agree with their decision entirely for the following reasons …: Protestants in America have now lost some of their religious freedom and liberty because of this prohibition on the free exercise of religion.… This decision goes far beyond the spirit and the intention of the founding fathers … and the framers of the U. S. Constitution.

Westminster Presbyterian Church

Charleston, W. Va.

While reading the June issue of The Atlantic, I was impressed with the implications for Christian education in the article “Higher Education in the 21st Century.”

Could the use of television and programmed learning possibly be the answer to the parochial school problem? Could it possibly point a way for survival for the Christian college?

If a state university could provide quality courses in the sciences and in all forms of laboratory demonstrations and in foreign languages via television, the parochial school could concentrate on the social sciences, humanities, and religious studies.

The same type of service provided to Christian colleges in certain academic areas would narrow the load of the church-related school. A Christian university could take the lead in providing the quality material for television tapes in areas of special Christian concern which are too costly and specialized to warrant unnecessary duplication by smaller schools.

Certainly this idea is not new, but I am unaware of any popular statement of it. Has any foundation been alerted to this potential need? Would not a serious study of this approach possibly pay immeasurable dividends in the next generation?

Immanuel Lutheran

Eugene, Ore.

Living Waters

A prime source of Christian failure today is the lack of Bible reading. Perhaps never before have so many books been in circulation about the Bible and religious aspects of life. But Jesus said, “They have forsaken me”—the fountain of living waters, and have hewed them out cisterns—broken cisterns that just can’t hold water at all.

How can our schools of theology be influenced once again by German thinkers and their cry for “demythologizing” when we have seen what the same sort of thing did for German civilization in 1915 under the title of “Higher Criticism”?

Christianity cannot survive where the Bible itself is not read, for here is where we find the deepest Truth, the surest Way, and the most victorious Life. The strange thing about the Bible is that, unlike other books, the more one reads it the more exciting it gets and the newer it seems. Faith is born or reborn or deepened, tears come to the eyes as the Father speaks—oh! so personally—to his listening son or daughter, and the heart expands to bursting with the entrance of the Holy Spirit as he bears witness to the most heroic, magnetic figure of history—our closest friend and divine Saviour. No amount of books about the Bible (much less those far removed from it) works such miracles in and for the reader. It’s not a few unrelated verses a day that pay such dividends. There’s not a book in the world meant to be read that way, though, of course, the Bible survives better than most under the treatment. Excitement comes when a chapter or more is read in each of the many sections, with continuous reading in each, day by day; then it is the threads begin to shimmer and life takes on another dimension.

So where do we start putting the pieces of our crumbling Christian world together? Perhaps by dusting off the Rock it has to stand on and choosing the foundation stones very carefully, holding them up to the light of truth. We see immediately that American civilization obviously can not be one of these, nor any other national or ethnic society extant. America is not 100 per cent Christian nor is the church—all or any of them. We have become too tainted by the world, and the world has been barely tinged by us. Is it not time for the redeemed of the Lord to say so? Not those who think they’re perfect but those who know they’re nothing, or worse, except as they are saved by the grace of the Lord.

Rye, N.Y.

Not As A Preacher

I want to thank you and your staff personally for an outstanding performance. It is impossible for me to speak as a “preacher,” but for years I have been studying all these various mixed-up confusions of philosophy and theology—only to find myself torn between my personal experience and what “men were saying.”

At long last, a saintly minister-friend of mine directed me to you, and what a Godsend. I cannot thank you enough for the help that I am constantly receiving from [your] pages. For the life of me, I do not understand how you could be any more fair and honest in your appraisals. Accustomed to the validation theory and practice, I, for one, find your “treatment” intelligent, comprehensive, penetrating, and conducive to the real, living, and whole Christianity, which the Spirit of God through Jesus Christ seeks to reveal.

Cheers! to the Editor and his staff. CHRISTIANITY TODAY is “must reading” for any university student—secular or sacred—who purports to be “transformed by the renewing of his mind.” Its scholarship is exciting as it proceeds to hit those nails right on their heads.

South Pasadena, Calif.

Defenders of the cultural and spiritual superiority of the American over the Communist way of life are sometimes hard put. Moscow, world capital of Communism, has as many corner bookstores as there are bars per block in New York City. And they’re crowded. One of the joys of the American booklover abroad is the countless bookstores, little and big. found in almost every European city. If cultural-spiritual superiority is gauged by what enters the mind rather than what enters the mouth, the defenders of American superiority had better look elsewhere for evidence.

The fault surely does not lie with the writers and publishers. Even in the restricted religious area, there is again promise of a lush, rich harvest of books. As do all harvests, the book harvest will bring both wheat and tares, and as always there is danger in attempting to separate them in advance. Despite the hazard, CHRISTIANITY TODAY again presents its selection of what it seems from here will be the best to come from the religious press this fall. We thank the publishers for their cooperation, without which no forecast could be made; and we hope our serious readers—ministers, librarians, college and seminary professors, and lay subscribers—will find this a helpful and selective prediction of new books to come.

The paperback revolution continues. Gone are the days when books were hard to come by, or too expensive. No longer need the poor city lad or the boy down on the farm read and reread the same books from the little family bookcase. The flood of classic texts, out-of-print standard religious and theological works, and even first printings in inexpensive paperbacks continues to come full tide. Readers may watch for them in the listings which appear in our Book Review section throughout the year.

NEW TESTAMENT: Westminster Press will publish Tradition and Interpretation in Matthew by G. Bornkamm, G. Barth, and H. J. Held; The All-Sufficient Christ, a study in Paul’s letter to the Colossians by W. Barclay; Teaching and Preaching the New Testament by A. M. Hunter; and The Kingdom of God in the Teaching of Jesus by N. Perrin. John Knox Press will also publish a book titled The Kingdom of God in the Teaching of Jesus, this one by G. Lundstrom. From Holt, Rinehart and Winston will come Palestinian Judaism in the Time of Jesus Christ by J. Bonsirven; Baptism: Conscience and Clue for the Church by W. Carr; and Acquittal by Resurrection by M. Barth and V. Fletcher. Judson Press promises Theology in the New Testament by R. E. Knudsen; Sheed & Ward, The Harmony of the Gospels by R. Knox; Harper & Row, The Humor of Christ by E. Trueblood; Warner Press, Jesus Christ, A Study in the Gospels by A. Eikamp; Fortress Press, The Day of His Coming: Our Time in the New Testament by G. Gloege; University Books. The Lost Years of Jesus by C. F. Potter; Abingdon Press, The Circle and the Cross by G. W. C. Thomas. Wm. B. Eerdmans promises An Introduction to New Testament Textual Criticism by J. H. Greenlee and An Introduction to the New Testament by E. Harrison.

OLD TESTAMENT AND ARCHAEOLOGY: From Eerdmans. Israel and the Nations by F. F. Bruce and The Book of Isaiah (Vol. I) by E. J. Young; from Harper & Row, Concise History of Israel by M. A. Beek and The Old Testament and Christian Faith edited by B. W. Anderson; from Doubleday, The Background of the Old Testament by E. Kellner and Hebrew Myths: The Book of Genesis by R. Graves and R. Patai; from McGraw-Hill. Collected Old Testament Studies by G. Von Rad; from Zondervan, The Marked Chain-Reference Bible by J. G. Lawson; from Cambridge University Press, Thirty-Six Psalms by the late F. Kendon and Olduvai Gorge 1951–1961 (Vol. 1) by L. S. B. Leakey; from Coward-McCann, Temples, Tombs, and Hieroglyphs by B. Mertz; from G. P. Putnam’s. In the Beginnings: Ancient and Contemporary Primitive Religions and Civilizations Around the World by H. R. Hays; from Thomas Nelson & Sons, The Prophets (Vol. IV) by E. Kraeling; and from Abingdon. Secrets from the Caves by T. L. Coss.

BIBLICAL STUDIES: Prophets in Perspective by B. D. Napier, Abingdon; Cambridge History of the Bible: The West from the Reformation to the Present Day by S. L. Greenslade, Cambridge; Three Crucial Decades: Studies in the Book of Acts by F.V. Filson, Knox; The Voice of the Prophets by R. Norden, Concordia; Christmas As It Really Was by H. W. van der Vaart Smit and Gospel Truth by P. Benoit, Helicon Press; The Biblical Doctrine of Virginity by L. Legrand, Sliced & Ward; Christian Priesthood by H. Balmforth, Seabury Press; The New Bible Survey by L. L. Eason, Zondervan; Count It All Joy: Themes from the Book of James by W. Stringfellow, Them He Glorified: A Systematic Study of the Doctrine of Glorification by B. Ramm, Origins of the Synoptic Gospels by the late N. B. Stonehouse, and Interpreting the Bible by A. B. Mickelsen, all from Eerdmans; Mary, the Mother of Jesus by A. T. Robertson and Satan: His Personality, Power and Overthrow by E. M. Bounds, Baker Book House.

LITURGY: Again the offerings are few: Worship in Scripture and Tradition edited by M. H. Shepherd, Jr., Oxford University Press; Liturgy Is Mission edited by F. Cellier and English Spirituality by M. Thornton, both from Seabury; and The Eucharist and You by A. Pardue, Morehouse-Barlow.

MISSIONS: Two books from Abingdon: Criterion for the Church by J. R. Nelson and The Renewal of the Ministry by T. J. Mullen; two from Zondervan: Soul-Winning Evangelism by J. E. Conant and Evangelism of the Early Church by C. E. Autrey; two from Harper & Row: Reshaping the Christian Life by R. Raines and Young Life by E. Cailliet; The Four Major Cults by A. Hoekema, from Eerdmans; Missionary Opportunity Today edited by L. T. Lyall, from Inter-Varsity Press; and That Hearing They Shall Perceive by C. D. Kean, from Seabury.

THEOLOGY: Nelson will publish Hans Kung’s Justification: The Doctrine of Karl Barth with a Catholic Reflection; Eerdmans will print G. C. Berkouwer’s The Work of Jesus Christ; the University of Chicago Press, P. Tillich’s Systematic Theology (Vol. Ill); Zondervan. J. O. Buswell’s Systematic Theology (Vol. II, Soteriology and Eschatology); and Sheed & Ward, A Theology of History by Hans Urs von Balthasar, The Christian Commitment by K. Rahner, and Christ: Sacrament of the Encounter with God by E. Schillebeeckx. Fortress will press Word and Faith by G. Ebeling; Macmillan, A. C. Pegis’ At the Origins of the Thomistic Notion of Man; Henry Regnery Company, An Opportunity for Faith by W. Busenbender; and the Presbyterian & Reformed Publishing Company, The Five Points of Calvinism, Defined, Defended, Documented by D. N. Steele and C. C. Thomas. From McGraw-Hill will come Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae (Vols. I, II, XIII); and from Channel Press, K. Barth’s God In Action.

ECUMENICS: Swiss Roman Catholic and active ecumenist H. Kung has sent two books to the press, The Council in Action: Theological Reflection on the Second Vatican Council, Sheed & Ward, and Structures of the Church, Nelson. Eerdmans will publish M. E. Marty’s Church Unity and Church Mission; Zondervan, The Dynamics of Christian Unity edited and compiled by W. S. Mooneyham; Seabury, Ministers of Christ by W. Lowrie; Macmillan, Twelve Council Fathers by W. M. Abbott. Helicon Press will publish The Rise of Protestant Monasticism by F. Biot (this should be interesting), Unity: A History and Some Reflections by M. Villain, and The Unity of the Churches of God by P. Sherwood. From Oxford will come Councils and Synods (Part 2, Vols. I and II) by F. M. Powicke and C. R. Cheney.

PASTORAL THEOLOGY: That One Good Sermon by A. N. Sayres, United Church Press; The Pastor and His Work by H. C. Kent, Sr., Moody Press; Servant of God’s Servants: The Work of the Christian Minister by P. Miller, Herald Press; Constructive Aspects of Anxiety by S. Hiltner and K. Menninger and Filing Your Sermon Ideas by P. L. Clem, Abingdon; The Pastoral Care of the Mentally Ill by N. Autton, Apostle and Bishop by A. G. Hebert, and John Wesley and the Christian Ministry by A. B. Lawson, all from Seabury; Preaching Values from the Papyri by H. H. Hobbs, Baker; The Layman’s Role Today by F. K. Wentz, Doubleday; The Anarchy of Feeling: Man’s Struggle for Freedom and Maturity by A. Schneiders, Sheed & Ward; and a reprint of that old classic The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature by W. James, University Books. From Knox will come a study of the biblical view of the ministry, The Minister in the Reformed Tradition by H. G. Goodykoontz.

BIBLE COMMENTARIES AND DICTIONARIES: Eight productions from Eerdmans: The Wesleyan Bible Commentary (6 vols.), The Epistle of Paul to the Romans by F. F. Bruce, The Epistle of Paul to the Ephesians by F. Foulkes, God’s Covenants by D. G. Barnhouse, Calvin’s Hebrews and I and II Peter translated by W. B. Johnston, Christ and the Church: An Exposition of Ephesians by Dale Moody, Commentary on the Gospel of John by J. R. Mantey and G. A. Turner, and the first volume of a very significant publishmg venture, Gerhard Kittel’s Theological Dictionary of the New Testament translated from the German by G. W. Bromiley. Cambridge will publish The Gospel According to Matthew (Vol. I of the “Cambridge Bible Commentary”) by A. W. Argyle, The Setting of the Sermon on the Mount by W. D. Davies, and The Historical Tradition of the Fourth Gospel by C. H. Dodd. From Presbyterian & Reformed will come An Interpretive Outline of Romans by D. N. Steele and C. C. Thomas; from Nelson, Nelson’s Bible Commentary (based on RSV); and from Knox, Exodus by A. D. Napier, Leviticus, Numbers by J. L. Mays, John by F. V. Filson, I Thessalonians Through Philemon by H. Rolston (all part of the “Layman’s Bible Commentary”). Harper & Row will publish The Pastoral Epistles by J. N. D. Kelly (part of Harper’s “New Testament Commentary”).

ETHICS AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS: The offerings in this field clearly reflect the concerns and problems of our times: The Wall Between Church and State edited by D. H. Oaks, University of Chicago; Religion and the Schools: The Great Controversy by P. Blanshard, Beacon Press; Justice and the Supreme Court by R. J. Tresolini, J. B. Lippincott; Church and State by J. M. Kik, Thomas Nelson; Christian Social Ethics by C. F. H. Henry, The Vocabulary of Communism by L. DeKoster, and Slavery, Segregation, and Scripture by J. O. Buswell, all from Eerdmans; New Estimates of Fertility and Population in the United States by A. Coale and M. Zelnik, Princeton University Press; The Christian and Capital Punishment by J. H. Yoder, Faith and Life Press; The Popes and World Government by E. Guerry, Helicon; The Church Reclaims the City by P. Moore, Jr., Seabury; and Ethics in a Christian Context by P. L. Lehmann, Harper & Row.

ART AND ARCHITECTURE: Putnam’s will publish Larousse Encyclopedia of Byzantine and Medieval Art edited by R. Huyghe and Great Drawings of the Masters by J. E. Schuler and R. Hansler. From Doubleday will come The Coming of Christ by the editors of Look magazine; from Harper & Row, Landscapes of the Bible by G. Eichholz and 6,000 Years of the Bible by G. S. Wegener. Christ and Architecture for Reformation Churches by D. J. Bruggink and C. H. Droppers will be issued by Eerdmans; Meetinghouse and Church in Early New England by E. W. Sinnott, McGraw-Hill; Drama and Imagery in British Churches by M. D. Anderson and Monastic Architecture in France by J. Evans, Cambridge.

RELIGIOUS EDUCATION: Churches and the Campus by J. G. Chamberlin and Christian Education and Evangelism by D. G. Stewart, Westminster; Lutheran Elementary Schools in Action by V. Krause, Concordia; American Education—A National Failure: The Problem of Our Schools and What We Can Learn from England by H. F. Rickover, E. P. Dutton & Company; and Christian Education in the Home by A. M. Erb, Herald Press.

CHURCH HISTORY: Westminster will publish The Layman in Christian History (the first history of its kind) by S. C. Neill. From Knox will come Presbyterians in the South, Vol. I: 1607–1861 by E. T. Thompson; and from the Johns Hopkins Press, Amish Society by J. A. Hostetler.

SERMONS: Great Sermons on the Birth of Christ compiled by W. M. Smith, W. A. Wilde Company; The Miracles of Golgotha by H. Boese, Preaching from Hosea by E. F. Vallowe, Preaching and Teaching from Ephesians by F. Howard, Sermons on Christian Commitments by M. W. Downey, all from Baker. Zondervan will issue The Voice of the Cross by M. L. Loane and Expository Sermons on Revelation (Vol. II) by W. A. Criswell; and Eerdmans, A Relevant Salvation by R. E. O. White and Mastering Life With the Master by W. H. Hager. Life Can Begin Again: Sermons on the Sermon on the Mount by H. Thielicke will come from Fortress, and Concordia Pulpit 1964 (various authors), from Concordia.

DEVOTIONAL: At Wit’s End by J. Finegan and The Meaning of Gifts by P. Tournier, Knox; John Doe, Disciple edited by C. Marshall, McGraw-Hill; Wings of the Spirit by W. Fridy, Abingdon; When Jesus Came by H. H. Brown, Eerdmans; Daily Gospel by P. B. Smith, Zondervan; The Night and Nothing by G. Webbe, Seabury; and Dimensions of Prayer by D. V. Steere, Harper & Row.

APOLOGETICS, PHILOSOPHY, AND SCIENCE: Towards a Theological Understanding of History by E. C. Rust, Oxford; The Failure of Theology in Modern Literature by J. Killinger, Abingdon; Faith and Philosophy: Philosophical Studies in Religion and Ethics edited by A. Plantinga, Eerdmans; The New Evangelicalism by R. H. Nash, Zondervan; The Middle Ages and Philosophy by A. Pegis, Regnery; Reason in Religion by N. F. S. Ferre, Nelson; The System and the Gospel by K. Hamilton, Macmillan; Science, God and You by E. Wolthuis, Baker; The Case For Calvinism by C. Van Til and What is Religion? By D. H. Freeman, Presbyterian & Reformed; Christendom Revisited: A Kierkegaardian View of the Church Today by J. A. Gates and Language and Faith: Studies in Sign, Symbol, and Meaning by J. Hutchison, Westminster; The Meaning of History by H. Marrou, Helicon; Faust Revisited by M. Fishwick, Seabury; and Jacques Maritain: The Man and His Achievement edited by J. W. Evans, Sheed & Ward. JAMES DAANE

A sermon I heard over ten years ago has meant more to me than any other during the twenty-three years since I was a teen-ager.

As I recall it began with a story about a man who was so weighed down with problems that he was completely beside himself. One day while reading in the Psalms the burdened man came across these words: “By my God I have leaped over a wall.…” Comforted in heart, he got on his feet and “with God’s help” found his way over his own particular mountain of difficulty.

I myself was at that time deeply concerned over numerous problems. In quiet prayer after that sermon, “By God’s Help,” immense burdens in my life were rolled away; I experienced a new confidence which even now is renewed regularly just by the reminder of this text.

This particular sermon impressed me so much that I urged the minister to develop it as a magazine article so that it could reach thousands of other people, too. As far as I know, he has never done this. The same is true of other ministers whom I encouraged to prepare their messages for wider distribution in print.

There were some who listened, however, like the man whom I also helped a bit to put his experiences and sermons into articles. For three or four years I lost track of him. Then one day as he was passing through our town he gave me a call. Imagine my amazement to hear that he was writing regularly and that year had supplemented his income with $1,500 from articles!

A few others to whom I spoke have also come through.

One has authored three books; another has written for various Sunday school publishers. But these cases are the exception and, it seems to me, far too few.

I am a layman and for seventeen years have been in the advertising and public relations business in Chicago, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia. During this time I have attended a number of churches regularly, have heard a hundred or more ministers, and have listened to probably two thousand sermons. Some have been excellent, some good, some might have been better. But together these sermons add up to a powerful communication for good, as the world would view it, and for Christ and eternity, as the Christian would describe it, that is seldom matched by the work of any other profession.

But why—why have so few of these sermons gone into print? In my opinion there is something terribly wrong about this. These wonderful messages, over which a hundred ministers have toiled and prayed and wept, have been shared with small groups of people and no doubt have accomplished great good. But why have these sermons not been turned into articles to extend their usefulness even further?

Why Hide The Light?

A minister has the world’s most important message. Why, then, should he hide it under a bushel, or why should he be satisfied with giving this unique message only to the faithful parishioners and a few of their friends?

Lawyers, doctors, advertising men, and teachers who feel they have something to say publish in national magazines all the time. Why don’t ministers of the Gospel do so more often? Why have ministers today limited their service so one-sidedly to the “spoken word”? Whatever happened to the “written word”?

God spoke to men in days of old, and later to men through his Son. Was he satisfied to let it go at that? Suppose we did not have the written Word of God. Look back over the march of church history. Alongside the “spoken words” proclaimed from fiery pulpits are the songs of hymnwriters and the “written words” of theologians, evangelists, and pastors. Check them off yourself—John Wycliffe, Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Knox, John Wesley, Jonathan Edwards, Dwight L. Moody—to name but a few. Pulpit masters of a former day, they yet are known even to us because of their printed material. Centuries after their voices sounded from the pulpit their work continues to bear fruit, largely because of “written words.”

Some Helpful Suggestions

In the early days of America, the Christian minister was often a scholar and writer of distinction as well as a pulpit master; today such examples are far too few. Likewise were men of God among the giants of early American literature. How many are there today? I suggest we could do something about this situation if we wanted to. It would not be easy; it would require, in fact, rigid discipline of mind and time. But if a few ministers would accept the challenge, the viewpoints of evangelical Christianity might be more frequently and fairly represented in the nation’s press over the next decade. How can this be accomplished? One major forward step would be to convert ministers’ sermon materials into articles.

From my own extensive experience as a free-lance writer I have learned a great deal about editorial requirements. What I suggest, therefore, grows from this experience.

We ought to remember that creative writing involves at least five steps. After (1) gathering, (2) assimilating, and (3) formulating the material for an article comes the actual (4) writing and (5) revising.

Suppose, then, you as a minister decide to turn your sermon notes or manuscript into an article of 1,500 or 1,800 words. What would you do? First of all, you definitely would not type out your thirty-minute sermon from text to benediction, for this would produce 3,000 to 4,000 words. Very few publications today use such complete sermons; in fact, not many use even condensed sermons. So it is obvious that this is not the answer.

Look again at the five steps mentioned above. Then consider the first one: gathering of material. Books, magazines, interviews, and personal experience are just some of a writer’s sources of information. And the time spent in research and gathering material can easily be two or three times the amount used in actually writing an article. As a minister you are at a real advantage here; with perhaps 500 or more sets of sermon notes or manuscripts already in hand, you have most of your research behind you, stored in easily accessible form.

The next step then is assimilating. This means to absorb, to meditate upon, to think about these materials until you are able to construct mentally, or in a brief written outline, exactly what your article will say. This phase which takes place before you write is the creative aspect, in contrast to what follows later. Let your projected article percolate. Sleep on it. Mull it over in your mind. When it begins to take shape and your materials fall into place with a definite article in mind, you have moved through to the third stage.

This third stage, formulating, embraces a premise or theme; the right opening (it’s hard to beat an anecdote here); points 1, 2, and 3 to establish your premise or theme; and the conclusion. This final thrust must be fast, strong—perhaps a clincher type of idea that aptly summarizes what you have said.

Not until now are you ready for the functional aspect of your project, the actual writing. Beginners often start by sitting down at a desk with pencil and paper; they try to write an article without first going through the preparatory steps of gathering, assimilating, and formulating. Trying to do this is as ridiculous as a woman’s hoping to be delivered of a baby without going through the required period of pregnancy.

The last step, revising, is just as important as the others. Some journalism teachers say that good writing is not written but rewritten. And indeed, most manuscripts need to be revised at least two or three times.

These suggestions are merely skeleton guidelines. I hope they challenge you, however, to pursue the subject further. Read up on this business of writing. Books on such topics as news and feature writings, interviewing, and story telling all contain helpful ideas for developing your sermon materials into marketable articles. Why shouldn’t you sell to national Christian publications, church-related magazines, and some day, perhaps, even to some of the leading secular periodicals? It has been done before, but not often enough. With work and persistence you can do something about it.

PREACHER IN THE RED¹For each report by a minister of the Gospel of an embarrassing moment in his life, Christianity Today will pay $5 (upon publication). To be acceptable, anecdotes must narrate factually a personal experience, and must be previously unpublished. Contributions should not exceed 250 words, should be typed double-spaced, and bear the writer’s name and address. Upon acceptance, such contributions become the property of Christianity Today. Address letters to: Preacher in the Red, Christianity Today, 1014 Washington Building, Washington 5, D. C.

DURABLE TROUSERS

Several of us, members of the Methodist Home for the Aged in Charlotte, N. C., were awaiting the call for breakfast, with the usual comparison of timepieces. Brother Keever, a retired Methodist preacher, pulled out his watch and remarked: “There’s a watch I bought fifty-two years ago”; slapping his watch pocket in his trousers he added, “I’ve carried it in that pocket ever since.” Whereupon another brother remarked. “That’s a wonderful pair of pants you have, Brother Keever.”—The Rev. PARK W. FISHER, Methodist Home, Charlotte, N. C.

A member of the clergy in one of the leading denominations commented that his church does not need publicity. If he considers it his church rather than that of the Lord Jesus Christ, perhaps the remark was appropriate.

But one could not sell that bill of fare to an automobile manufacturer or a dealer in electrical appliances. Such men know the value of publicity and good public relations.

Another clergyman was making a call on a local automobile dealer. “How’s business?” the good pastor asked. “Oh, fine,” the dealer replied. “How’s your business?” “Wonderful,” said the pastor. “I’m sold on my product.”

That’s the kind of conviction on the part of all Christians, whether clergymen or laymen, that it takes to communicate the Gospel of Christ.

The fact that a newspaper is considered the “secular press” makes little difference other than the standards of journalism for which it stands.

What Interests The News Desk

For lack of space I cannot begin to print all the religious news that comes to my desk. The newspaper which I serve as church editor is a secular one. But those who claim that the press is interested only in controversy are not entirely right.

It has been said that a picture is worth a thousand words. On the same premise, a good “walking sermon” communicates more of Christianity than some vague, rambling dissertation on a topic that one can read about in a periodical.

In other words, it is the preacher’s duty to preach Christ crucified, and the layman’s duty to do likewise. Both must then live up to their calling.

After I wrote up an interview with Smoky Burgess, the Pittsburgh Pirates’ heavy-hitting catcher and a born-again Christian, the mail brought replies. Among them was one from a reader who had backslidden and drifted away from church. He resolved to return to church.

Another story I did involved a jury foreman I met at a dinner meeting of the National Association of Evangelicals. While serving as foreman for a jury deciding a morals case, he had gotten permission from the jurors to read the Bible and pray for the couple involved. After the case was over, bitterness between the families was replaced by the love of Jesus Christ. The couple was soon married and was given a shower by members of the jury, who followed up and kept in touch with them. Not only did the veteran judge commend the foreman for work he had never before seen from the bench, but after the story appeared, the foreman within a few weeks had the opportunity to testify for his Lord on several hundred occasions.

The Use Of Mass Media

There are many such instances of real, newsworthy personalities and Christianity in action. But the church editor must be informed of them.

Both the Holy Spirit and the work of Christians are indispensable in helping the communications media to be informed of such news.

It would not hurt ministers one bit if they majored in journalism in undergraduate school, or at least worked on their college papers. Many laymen in churches do a better communications job than do professional public relations firms.

Church-related colleges are woefully lacking in turning out journalism graduates whose principal training has been the broad background of the liberal arts college coupled with some fundamental but realistic courses in newspapering.

If the Apostle Paul had had the communications facilities available to Billy Graham today, he would have utilized them. Newspapers are one of these.

As the Church today sends out its product into the firing line, it should be sending both newspapermen and people about whom newspapermen can write with a witness of the Gospel.

Advocates of Christianity face a pecular problem today in addressing modern men. It involves finding avenues into a public mentality that is at the same time both more informed and less informed.

The condition is no mere paradox. It seems to me to be the main present-day hurdle for the Church.

Christianity is up against a wall compounded of intellectual wealth and poverty, of prodigious information and huge superficiality, both characteristics existing side-by-side and both demanding consideration if the Church’s word is to get through intelligibly. Sometimes, it seems to me, we don’t pay sufficient heed to either.

We live in an environment that is far more versed in natural data than ever before but which is conversely lacking in religious cultivation. I am referring here not to the often cited imbalance in material and spiritual development, but simply to an imbalance in kinds of general knowledge.

Most Americans have taken in a varied curriculum, but little adult catechism. They’re keen on the encyclopedia, but not on theology. If, in these circumstances, the Christian voice is to ring clear, it needs to speak in terms that are currently distinct to make plain those that are not.

The inner light must be conveyed in the context of the outer glare. This means not that the outer glare is bad, but simply that it exists. Much of it is good. In any case, it is the atmosphere in which we live and in which the Church must function, either coping with it or failing to do so.

The Lore And Lingo Of Our Times

Our society is full of knowledge about many things. It is schooled, sophisticated, critical, sharp. It has grown up in the arts, sciences, and letters, at least on our sector of the planet. It is loaded with the latest psychological, technical, sociological, and assorted other kinds of facts.

In such a climate, if the Church is to be heard and understood it must take this educational polish into account. It must be just as literate, just as astute, just as inquisitive and fertile-minded—or better still, more so.

It must know the aptitudes and use the lore and lingo of the times, whether this be through the public press or through any other channels directed to the mass of men.

This is not to suggest that the church should buy the world’s evaluation of its own knowledge. Far from it. But the Church must itself possess that knowledge, must take cognizance of it and reflect it, in order to express the truth through it and about it.

The neglected religious subject matter must be presented via the orb of the modern mind if it is to reach that mind. In short, the Church must be studiously alert, claiming the world’s learning as the media of its own. I think it is doing so to an increasing extent.

On the other hand, however, the Church also needs a candid, unassuming simplicity.

In the midst of our factual abundance, there is a large gap in religious acquirements. Our culture has taken its Master’s in man but neglected the ABC’s of his meaning. Our day is proficient but not profound. It is laden with mass learning, but it is massively unknowing about Christianity.

We in newspaper work encounter this situation continually. Even the most common religious references need parenthetical explanations. This is not the case in other fields. We don’t have to explain Hiroshima. We do have to explain Pentecost. We don’t have to define NATO, but we do the Trinity. We obviously don’t have to amplify such ordinary terms as diplomatic recognition, astronaut, geneology, and taxes, but we do have to explain such ordinary Christian terms as intercommunion, presbyter, apostolic succession, and stewardship. Readers know Aristotle and Einstein, but not Augustine and Hosea.

Perhaps this intellectual disparity has always been so, to a large extent. But it seems to me to be particularly acute today.

Great numbers of people just are not familiar with religious concepts or traditions. Their notions of Christian doctrine are often shallow caricatures, or plain fallacies. Most of them are without a mature grounding in the Bible. They look casually on the Church’s liturgy as mere form. And perhaps most troublesome of all, they simply do not understand the Church’s vocabulary. The customary terms fail to strike a clear image. Sometimes they even undergo rank distortion.

Almost everyone grasps vividly words like radiation, psychotherapy, telemetry, electrocardiograph, inflation, unilateral action; but people are bemused and uncomprehending in the face of religious terms such as atonement, grace, revelation, justification by faith, mystical body—or even sin and redemption.

I am talking here not about seasoned Christians but about the average run of people encountered at work or in other non-church settings—the general populace, to whom the press speaks and to whom the Church is supposed to speak. They are educated; they have traveled and have read about a vast range of things; but they are impressively naive about Christianity, its resources and its insights.

Thus the Church confronts a curious people.

Generally they are highly informed and intellectually advanced.

But about religion, they’re rather simple and crass.

For A Smart Simplicity

Somehow, the Church needs to lay hold on these two factors in communicating its message. It needs to be both smart and rudimentary, both more subtle and more explicit. Perhaps we should make a greater effort to translate religious wisdom into the kind of intelligence the world speaks and comprehends.

Many church spokesmen do it. C. S. Lewis is a prime example. Billy Graham, Samuel Miller, Reuel Howe, Roman Catholic Bishop John Wright, to name a few—these also do it, each in his own style. But many others do not.

Each age has its special framework and thought forms. In the contemporary setting the old phrases and images, precious as they are to the initiated, may not tell the story clearly to the finely tutored yet wondering stranger outside the gates. And it is his hearing we seek.

To obtain it, the Church must teach in his terms, in his culturally advanced idiom, while at the same time recognizing, without condescension, his religious drawbacks. This means an awareness of both the world’s brilliance and its ignorance. It means knowing, and also explaining. Perhaps it means taking a tip from Jesus who, when he was sending out the disciples, admonished them to be “wise as serpents and innocent as doves.”

Headlines are for churches with the real heart of Christianity. The church which is transforming individual lives, the community, and the image of the church itself through the preaching and application of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the one most likely to break into print with the best kind of news.

Here is what I mean. In our city, the mayor walked off in the middle of a political panel show when he discovered it was being sponsored by a beer company. Although it meant taking a chance politically, the walkout retained for the mayor the respect of the junior boys in his Sunday school class.

Believe me, everybody talks about the religious convictions of the mayor because of this and other incidents in which he has taken his stand unequivocably with the cause of Christ.

A couple of years ago a group of agnostic parents brought suit to eliminate Bible reading and other religious practices from the schools in our country. Into the fray as a friend of the court stepped an attorney representing church leaders defending the school board’s policies. He took on the job voluntarily, with considerable cost to himself, because of his faith.

After the state Supreme Court upheld the school board and the “friends of the court,” a network television news department wanted to do a feature story on this attorney. He turned down the offer because he did not want it to appear that he had taken the case for any reason other than his religious conviction.

One of our area’s beauty queens became a television star and hit the headlines with a series of marriages and divorces replete with sensational charges. But the last time she made the news it was the result of the work of a faithful pastor and church. To the surprise of thousands of readers, she is leading a changed life because of an encounter with the saving grace of Jesus Christ. She is teaching a Bible class for women in jail and is praying for the last millionaire husband, who accused her of attempting to poison him.

Another beauty, with a different story, has impressed readers around the world where she has traveled not so much because she is a musically talented college queen, but because she is a proud and active member of a highly respected religious group.

These individual lives, reflecting the transforming and strengthening power of Jesus Christ, have put local churches in the news in a way that is meaningful and relevant to readers.

I think, too, of the pastor and several laymen who in the face of ridicule from the left conducted a Christian anti-Communism school here which resulted in the inclusion by state law of a course on the evils of Communism in our high schools; the state senator who because of Christian conviction stood up and defended the state school superintendent when a rightist group was pushing a local crowd toward unfounded condemnation of him; the minister who is even now battling the way evolution is taught in high schools here because he feels it infringes on the religious beliefs (in the Genesis creation account) of his son.

All of these events have put the churches on the front pages of the newspapers.

At least two churches in our city have captured the public eye through the press by their efforts to meet the problem of segregation and discrimination on the basis of Christ’s equal salvation for all those who trust in him.

Other local churches have made headlines in their efforts to shape the denominational image by opposing trends away from biblically grounded truth in some seminaries, denominational literature, or projects involving their organizational leaders.

Doing the job of a church so well that they are the fastest growing in the area, or in the country, or in the denomination; or so well that they lead the nation or the denomination in gifts to missions or in the number of young people entering full-time Christian service—this has paid off with attention in the press for several congregations.

And when churches have done things together, they have broken into print because they have been able to attract the attention of so many of our citizens—who turn out by the thousands for the Orange Bowl Easter Sunrise Pageant, or a Billy Graham Crusade.

It is not the church which sets out to seek publicity that makes the best news; the one which sets out to do the best job as a church is most likely to get the “good news” into the paper.

At religious journalists’ conferences held in various parts of the nation, it is possible sometimes to see spread on the tables as many as several hundred religious papers and magazines. These displays often are adequate cross sections of what is being published by the Protestant or Catholic bodies (such exhibits of Jewish publications are rare). The sight is at the same time appalling, inspiring, and disturbing.

It is appalling because of the technical drabness and amateurishness of many of the publications. So much of the writing is slovenly and cliché-ridden, and so much of the editing results in routine and lifeless journalism.

It is inspiring, on the other hand, because of the editorial courage and vigor of more and more of these publications, by comparison with those of a quarter of a century ago, even though those presenting forceful and brave ideas still are in the minority.

What is disturbing is the generally enthusiastic approval of the publications by these people at the long tables, who often are would-be or actual writers for them or editors. They look approvingly at these scores of often colorful periodicals pouring from church school editorial offices, denominational publishing houses, special boards, and independent publishers. The reactions of these semi-professional readers as well as those of the regular subscribers, as revealed by reader studies, lead me to raise here what I think is an important question. It is:

What do readers in general expect of their religious papers and magazines?

Not much, evidently, or they would be less satisfied than they are with the press of this country’s religious bodies.

Is the reaction contentment or merely indifference?

It is, of course, both. No researcher has discovered yet to what degree it is either, but it would seem clear that the small circulations achieved by most religious publications indicate either unawareness or neglect of them.

Readers of religious publications often are like members of congregations that do not demand higher-quality sermons from their preachers, that do not push their pulpit men to better and better work. Just as the pastor, under such conditions, is likely to repeat himself and produce only thin ideas, neglecting both intense study and thought, so the editor whose readers are too easily pleased soon drops into a routine that makes each issue much like the ones that went before. And if the earlier ones were feeble, the result is easy to guess.

An editor who is without numerous watchful readers ready to insist that he live up to his responsibilities and potentialities is in a bad way. He may receive many letters praising him, but if he examines them closely they probably are all from persons of more or less the same viewpoints—his own. If they are not that kind of readers they are of the type that wants the religious press to be mainly a medium of entertainment—sober entertainment, of course, but in any case not disturbing, not upsetting. They want personal items, jokes, and pictures of church buildings being dedicated but no nasty editorials about racial integration in education or the paradox of Jesus’ ideals in a war economy. This editor lives in an illusion, supremely happy in his dreamland, rarely prodded into an innovation of any sort.

The other editor, whose readers are merely indifferent, is as badly off as his colleague of the worshiping readers, but for different reasons. He goes to meetings of his companions in editing and hears of the strong impact certain publications are making. Other journalists, it seems, have no room for all the exciting letters they get. But he receives few of any kind. Other editors cite results from editorials or articles suggesting action. Nothing much ever seems to happen to him, however. He is frustrated. He studies his latest issue to find the cause of the neglect.

Perhaps these editors, the deluded and the neglected alike, could change their conditions if they re-examined (or perhaps examined for the first time?) their responsibilities. They might look at them with a group of alert laymen, so as to keep themselves down to earth as well as to expose those laymen to some new ideas.

Duties Of The Religious Press

These editors and laymen might begin such a session by examining the responsibilities of the secular press, thus putting the religious publications in perspective. Those responsibilities of the secular press generally are thought to be these:

1. To inform the people, so that they can make decisions, in a democracy, based on full knowledge of events.

2. To provide opinions and other means of influencing the people, so as to guide them through a world of complex facts, with the intent not of telling them what to think but of developing their ability to think.

3. To entertain, in the broader sense, rather than merely to amuse them.

4. To assist the economic system by printing advertising.

Only two of these—to inform and to influence—seem to me to be necessary and appropriate for the religious press. If the religious press does not carry out these functions it is betraying its sponsors, who established it to carry out their own objectives, the most important of which is to propagate the faith.

I suppose there is no harm in the religious press’s fulfilling the entertainment function, but this certainly should be distinctly subordinate to the other two. As for the advertising function, I see it only as a necessity for survival and not at all as a commitment by any religious body to support of an economic order that rests so heavily on advertising as does ours. I can see a service function in the press of religious bodies carrying advertising, but the line between service and dependence must be sharply drawn.

Clearly, then, the responsibilities of the religious press are as great and also as complex as those of the secular press, and as I see them they are greater. For they include at least these seven:

1. To serve God. I hesitate to use that expression, not only because it is such a well-frayed cliché but also because it is so obvious—and also so sweeping and perhaps meaningless unless it is spelled out. Let us accept it as the charter and agree that to take up the responsibilities that come after it is the way whereby this paramount responsibility is implemented.

2. To inform. This means that the religious press is obligated to provide facts. It means that a publication must do what it can to help the layman as well as the professional churchman become informed about his own group’s news as well as about the events occurring in the larger world of religion. It leads to all sorts of problems of format, editing, financing, and distribution, but it is inescapable.

3. To educate. This responsibility is not the same as that of informing and certainly not the same as that of influencing, although education does influence. An informed person is not necessarily an educated one. He may have only isolated facts. He may be well informed in some areas but not religion. Education implies systematic accumulation and retention of knowledge, development of thinking power, adustment to any situation in life, and the ability to use the resources of information.

4. To interpret. In fulfilling this responsibility the press explains the meaning of religious events and shows the significance of secular events from the viewpoint of a particular religion. The massive failure, in my opinion, of the grass-roots church to shed religious light on world events may come in part from the shortcomings of editors who do not or cannot take this responsibility seriously. It also means the explanation of church policies to members, a responsibility more successfully carried out than the other by far.

5. To persuade. This, the evangelical function, is one of the best-fulfilled responsibilities in the list. It is the opinion-making function and comes naturally to most religious journalists. It is the focal point for being influential.

6. To reconcile. For most of the history of religious journalism in this country, that has hardly been accepted as the press’s function except in certain personal situations, such as splitting marriages. In fact, too frequently the opposite has been done. Scan the back issues and you see that many religious publications have done much condemning of other religions—even of other denominations—than their own. Although this has not ceased there is now less of it, partly because religion has a common enemy in certain anti-religious political theories and partly because more editors have come to realize that direct attacks on other faiths harm all faiths, in the long run.

7. To develop loyalty. One of the most common responsibilities and one of those most eagerly discharged by the religious press, this one hardly needs explaining. Religious journalists, if anything, are in my view far too serious and zealous in this endeavor; they pursue the aim so enthusiastically that you see them reach the point of printing articles and pictures about the all-Methodist football teams or the largest numbers of some one faith in the national Congress. By making such distinctions in the religious affiliations, if not devotion, of our representatives and senators, the editor seems to say that it is more important to have nineteen members of a certain denomination in our government than it is to know that some of those same churchmen are among the worst obstructionists to social progress. Yet the latter observation rarely is made. Realizing responsibilities 2 and 4 might be useful here.

What is likely to come of such self-examination? The editor may see wherein he perhaps is remiss. If he has the freedom and the journalistic ability to do so, he will see to it that his publication lives up to more of these responsibilities than it now does. This action, let him be warned, is likely to anger some of his contented readers and even cost him some circulation. But he will have more attentive, discriminating readers than ever before. If it is indifference that has plagued him, this largely will come to an end, for there will be a cutting edge to his work that it may have lacked before.

But he must have support, the support of those who control the publication—the boards, the bishops, or whatever other bosses are about—and, in the long run, of the readers.

In the United States alone there are, combining the figures of all faiths, about 1,700 religious publications. One scarcely sees any of these on the newsstands, for various reasons having to do mainly with economics and the public. One specific reason is that the public does not ask for religious papers and magazines at newsstands or, when they are put on stands, buy them in sufficient numbers to be profitable to the distributors.

This situation is much like that of the chicken and the egg. Church publishers have coddled the subscription plan for so long that many readers do not need to buy religious publications on newsstands. Consequently, a paper that tries to reach the unchurched in places where publications are on public sale—corner newsstands, drug stores, supermarkets—is certain to experience a loss, with only a few notable exceptions.

Yet, if the religious publications were dynamic enough to live up to their responsibilities fully—that is, if they were not belaboring readers with so much denominational nationalism and so much yea-saying that echoes the viewpoints only of the dominant groups in the church—there might be more editorial impact than is now evident.

Which kind of Protestant journal is it that keeps readers awake, that provokes thought on religious issues of the day and on the application of Christian ideals to the world’s problems? Is it the bland denominational house organ that is merely a monthly bulletin board and a poster on which to set forth the pet prejudices of certain church leaders? Hardly. Is it the all-pleasing non-denominational publication that must—so it thinks—stay safely on non-controversial subjects like smoking and dancing? Not it, either.

It is the slowly growing number of publications that do not fear to speak out. It is such periodicals, in the Protestant world, as The Christian Advocate, Christian Century, Christianity and Crisis, The Churchman, Crusader, The Episcopalian, Eternity, The Lutheran, Motive, The Register-Leader, United Church Herald, The Witness, and, let no modest editor cut it out, Christianity Today. This is a list of only some that are typical of several dozen in all theological areas.

These publications, by living up to many of their responsibilities, are having an impact on the secular as well as the religious world today. Many more of the remaining hundreds could do the same.

I once heard of a minister who after a term in the United States chaplaincy threw away his library. Fortunately, not many ministers would follow this example. Those who proclaim the Word of God recognize the absolute necessity of books and find it hard even to conceive of a vital Christianity that lacks the stimulus of Christian writing.

Christians are not only “people of the Book,” but people of books, in general. Babylonian libraries shaped the ancestors of Abraham, Egyptian papyri educated Moses, Greek classics and Hebrew commentaries honed the mind of Paul. In time the Book of books became the center of a whole field of literature. As the Gospel confronted the world, the church fathers set forth their faith and defended it against attack through what came to be deathless writings, like Justin Martyr’s Apology, Athanasius’ Defense Against the Arians, and Anselm’s Cur Deus Homo. When the Goths were knocking at the gates of Rome, Augustine envisioned the spires of The City of God rising from the rubble of the dying empire and in his multitudinous literary works laid the foundations of Christian thought for succeeding centuries.

The Sharing Of Knowledge

The Middle Ages treasured up this heritage in crypts and cloisters until the Renaissance and Reformation showered it upon the world. Printing presses multiplied copies of the old volumes and made new ideas common property. Such unrestricted sharing of knowledge might have had its dangers then, even as now. Yet history cannot be reversed, and many of us, even if we could, would not exchange the hazards of our enlightened Space Age for the terrors of the intellectually benighted Middle Ages. The only antidote for the deadliness of a little learning is the fullness of truth that makes men free. To share in the communication of that truth is the privilege of Christian publishing today.

The Hard Facts Of Sales

There is a gratifying response. Once I thought of “Christian books” as almost synonymous with fictionalized tracts, neither written nor printed on a very professional level. By the time I attended seminary I was aware of a vast body of evangelical writing—most of it out of print, and, if one were fortunate, occasionally available from used-books stores. It was a red-letter day when we students located another volume of Calvin, Hengstenberg, or Meyer. Things are different now; many of the classic Christian works are once again in print.

Nevertheless, those of us who seek to serve God in the publishing business do not reprint as many of such books as we would like. While reviewers were enthusiastic when we brought The Saints’ Everlasting Rest and Selections from Early Christian Writers back into print, public response was not as encouraging as one might have hoped. Since publishing is not only a profession but also a business, the hard facts of total sales cannot be overlooked.

There are countless good books, of course, that cannot be reprinted under present conditions. An example is M’Clintock and Strong’s Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature. Although the seventeen million words of these twelve volumes are not to be found anywhere else, the market to absorb the costs of such a massive republishing venture is not apparent. While it grapples with the slowly but steadily rising costs of labor and materials, the publishing industry nonetheless talks hopefully of a breakthrough that will make such projects possible. Meanwhile, we use what opportunities the situation offers.

Of necessity publishing is a partnership between those of us who “make something public” and the public. Readers of CHRISTIANITY TODAY probably know and value the importance of Christian books. But to advance and grow, Christian publishing needs the active support of good books by many more people. Christians need to read without necessarily accepting all reviewers’ verdicts. Christians might profitably engage in more book browsing, personally sampling the wealth of spiritual treasure now available as never before. They might well emulate the pastor of a small rural church whose wife worked to supplement his meager income; when we discussed a new Bible commentary, he said, “I’m going to buy it on faith.”

Better Books Are Needed

All the media of communication seem tinged by the rising tide of lust and violence. To protest this trend is not enough, for when one evil spirit is driven out, seven worse demons take its place. Christian laymen and leaders may achieve more effective results by promoting better radio programs, better television, better newsstand literature, and better books.

I have been surprised at the influence of a casual recommendation of a book. It was through just such word-of-mouth recommendations that I first became acquainted with the writings of C. S. Lewis and J. B. Phillips. Likewise the enthusiasm for particular books which I have voiced in sermons and Bible study groups has brought inquiries and even sales. By speaking a word in season, ministers can do much to inform and train their laymen in profitable reading.

Some churches promote the purchase of good books by budgeting an annual fund for both the minister’s library and the church library. And those who buy gifts for friends, for Sunday school classes, or for church-connected awards should not overlook Christian books.

At the present time we seem to be formulating a new type of missionary literature. Few missionary books of the past compare, for example, with Elisabeth Elliott’s The Savage My Kinsman or Sara Perkins’ Red China Prisoner. Each of these books tells its own exciting story; each is a genuine contribution to a specific area of contemporary concern. Authors of the new missions literature are both daring and intensely dedicated; they are devoted not to exporting American culture under a religious guise but to imparting the reality of the living Christ.

It is good to see such books, and others like them in other fields, succeed. Impressive, too, is the current enthusiasm for new translations of the Scriptures, for new aids to Bible study, for new applications of Christian faith to daily living. Similarly gratifying is the long-established and continuing appeal of classics like Daily Light on the Daily Path, Egermeier’s Bible Story Book, The Children’s Bible, The Child’s Story Bible, and The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life, as well as of the old, tried, and true translations of the Bible.

Seeking New Scribes

Another invaluable partner of the publisher is the author. For each generation the Word of God must be interpreted afresh so that Jesus Christ may be Lord of all. The search for new authors, new manuscripts, and new ideas is a constant one among publishers. For the most part, all manuscripts and queries receive sympathetic consideration. While a publisher is interested primarily in the content of a book, to estimate its possibilities he also likes to know something about the author’s identity, background, qualifications for writing a book of this type, and so on. A personal interview is not necessary to “sell” oneself or one’s work to a publisher. If an author cannot communicate the essential facts by letter to the editor, the likelihood of his communicating any more successfully with readers through the printed word is rather slim. No matter how a manuscript is presented, it must be examined before its usability can be determined. Manuscripts submitted only in carbon are difficult to read and present a psychological deterrent to acceptance.

Many queries come to a publisher’s desk. Sometimes they say little more than this in effect: “I have written a book entitled ——. Enclosed is a list of the chapter headings and a recommendation by the Reverend ——. May I submit the entire manuscript?” Such queries are not very useful. Neither are brief, cryptic outlines. On the other hand, valuable time is often saved for both author and editor when the writer introduces himself, outlines as clearly as possible what he proposes to write about, and submits two or three well-prepared chapters. Guided by such material, an editor can determine with some precision whether he should take the time to examine the entire manuscript.

Of the thousands of new books to be published this year, many will have Christian themes. Let us hope that the issuance of some of these will inaugurate as felicitous a chain of events as Fleming H. Revell’s publication many years ago of the first book by a lanky young Britisher named G. Campbell Morgan.

Books, said John Milton in Areopagitica, his magnificent seventeenth-century defense of the freedom of the press, “preserve as in a vial the purest efficacy and extraction of that living intellect that bred them.… revolutions of ages do not oft recover the loss of a rejected truth, for the want of which whole nations fare the worse.”

Readers, writers, and publishers can be a triple alliance in making known and preserving what is best in Christian thought for the benefit and blessing of all mankind.

To the two thousand Americans who attended the Lutheran World Federation Congress last month, Finland presented some intriguing paradoxes. Only 3 per cent of Helsinki’s population go to church on an average Sunday, yet the closing meeting of the congress drew 20,000 to the city’s Olympic Stadium. One-quarter of the seats in the Finnish Parliament are held by Communists, but nothing annoys a Finn more than the suggestion that his automobile’s international registration letters “SF” mean “Soviet Finland.” During the past decade there has been a steep rise in the number of people leaving the national church, yet a poll taken among reserve officers in 1961 disclosed that more than 92 per cent believed in the forgiveness of sins through Jesus Christ.

In an area slightly smaller than Montana, the Finns carried out post-war an incredible program of resettlement of 460,000 fellow-countrymen forced out of those territories ceded to the U. S. S. R. Indeed, the Finnish church can be understood only against the background of Finnish political history, and of that elusive (in definition) national characteristic known as sisu—delicately translated by one finicky foreigner as “intestinal fortitude.” “Humiliated violated, wounded and bleeding through … centuries of conflict,” says one writer graphically, “Finland arose time and again from red snows and passed through the healing saunas of time.” Not surprisingly, this has contributed to Finnish Christianity’s biblical basis, a steadfast and sure anchor in turbulent times.

In the course of the past century the Church of Finland has experienced revival movements, and these have prompted close, investigation of the essence of Lutheran Christianity and of the doctrine of justification by faith. It was this very doctrine which the 1963 LWF Congress set itself to spell out in modern terms. “Good theology will talk in understandable language,” Bishop Hanns Lilje told his colleagues.

What is still a burning issue was raised in 1925 by the aged Finnish Archbishop Gustaf Johansson. Asked to select the Finnish delegates for the World Conference of Life and Work in Stockholm, Johansson not only refused to accede but caused a sensation by writing an essay against the conference. With markedly eschatological views himself, the archbishop made trenchant criticism of the Swedish Nathan Soderblom, leader of the ecumenists, as one who denied Christ’s physical resurrection. Johansson rejected the ecumenical movement as trying only to improve human well-being, as not looking toward Christ’s second coming, and as affording a platform for unitarians. Continually in studying Finnish church history one comes across words still universally relevant. Sessions of the Finnish Parliament and law courts are preceded and concluded by a religious service, and it is common for preachers to discuss questions of domestic politics in the light of the New Testament ethic. The state arranges for religious education to be given, and pays the salaries of the theological faculty at Helsinki.

The old Finnish Pietist movement is still a force in the land, though it is difficult to calculate its precise numerical strength. The annual summer meeting held under its auspices may bring together 20,000 people from all over the country. In parishes where pastor and a majority of the congregation are members of the movement, it is not unusual for ten hours a week to be given to special devotional services, apart from the official diets of worship. Yet while the participants hold that the Christian life is one of estrangement from earthly entanglements, they have not lost a deep sense of responsibility toward their neighbor and toward the nation. (Many of them fell in Finland’s recent struggles with Russia.) Pietism has remained within the framework of the Church of Finland.

While in Helsinki, some of us arranged to go on a specially organized bus tour to Leningrad, about 250 miles away. The more zealous of our number, with an eye on the unique evangelistic opportunity, took various forms of Christian literature with them. In the course of a three-hour wait at the frontier and an examination of the U. S. S. R.’s regulations which require travelers to declare all printed matter, a nice point of conscience was mooted: does the biblical injunction of submission to every ordinance of man apply to a godless regime?

A three-day stay in Leningrad provoked mixed reactions. Our guide, an engaging youth who was a member of the Young Communist League, spoke his piece well. A local cathedral was full of worshipers on Sunday morning, but the high proportion of elderly women underscored the success of Communism since the Revolution. Part of the 124th Article of the U. S. S. R.’s Constitution says: “Freedom of religious worship and freedom of anti-religious propaganda is recognized for all citizens.” Though the wording is significant, it does give a specious impression of equal rights between those who believe and those who do not. But Mr. Khrushchev has said: “The Communist way of education demands that the conscience be free from religious prejudices and superstitions which even now prevent some Soviet citizens from making full use of their constructive energies.”

Some of us while in Russia used our constructive energies in ways of which we may not speak. Though we never discussed religion with him directly, our guide had tears in his eyes when he waved us goodbye. Out of the blue at that moment I remembered the closing words with which a writer had tried to express the unspoken plea of Christless millions:

We long for the Desire of every Nation,

And oh, we die so fast!

The Texture Of Preaching

Let’s think of something other than the text and other than the technique. By the texture of the sermon we mean the indefinable yet unmistakable “feel” of it in the moment and event of its contact with those to whom it is directed. Here is climate, spirit, quality. Here is a combination of mood and manner. Here is the distillation of traits and tempers, of broodings and blessings, belonging to the inmost soul of the preacher.

When Paul had his last meeting with the “elders” of the Ephesian church, he said, “Take heed unto … yourselves, and to all the flock” (Acts 20:28). When he wrote his next-to-last message to Timothy, his plea was, “Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine” (1 Timothy 4:16). Concern for the flock and concern for the faith! But note that in both instances something came first: “yourselves” … “thyself.”

An authentic sermon is, above all, God in projection. It is also, secondarily but importantly, the preacher in projection. There is a species of ministerial failure that can never be redeemed by all the homiletical artistry in the world. It is the preacher himself going unwashed, unhumbled, unsanctified to his task. Richard Baxter, I have no doubt, had this peril in mind when he wrote picturesquely and warningly to his fellows in the high calling: “Many a tailor goes in rags, that maketh costly clothes for others; and many a cook scarcely licks his fingers, when he hath dressed for others the most costly dishes.” The text? Appropriate enough. The technique? Skillful enough. But the texture? Flawed.

With what choice threads is an authentic texture woven?

One of them, surely, is serenity. Who has not felt that back of the turbulence and vastness of great music are the long hours of quiet brooding through which the composer has passed. It is not otherwise with preaching. Back of our most impassioned utterances, if they be more than “sounding brass,” must be many a calm interlude in which the soul of the preacher is hushed into an awful stillness before the Lord.

Men who are all frenzy in the parish and mostly fizz in the pulpit need an Elijah experience of being set aside and of learning to hear “the still small voice.” Even in a day when “Whirl is king,” it is possible to find an answer to our prayer:

Take from our souls the strain and stress,

And let our ordered lives confess

The beauty of Thy peace.

Or think of humility. Subtle as it is splendid, there is no replacement for it in the fabric of preaching.

“I can think,” says Paul Scherer, “of no more insidious or deadly foe than self-esteem, the habit so many people have of being ‘starched before they are washed.’ Yet I would hazard the guess that this is peculiarly the sin par excellence of the clergy.” They sting, these words, because they come not from an outsider but from one of ourselves.

To be sure, humility has its distortions: a preoccupation with self-effacement that masks a pious egotism, or a disguised self-pity (perhaps anxiety) that, in order to escape responsibility and hard work, engages in a habitual downgrading of one’s own talents, or possibilities, or future.

On the other hand, if humility has its distortions, it has also its demonstrations. A Bible teacher I loved held a series of meetings in a church wherein was a lady I had long known. Meeting her, not long after the series was finished, I asked her about my friend’s ministry. Her answer I shall always remember: “That man can put more of Christ into his ministry, and less of himself, than any man I ever heard.” There you have it: a sermon texture that was “cloth of gold.”

Another component is sensitivity. In many ways our work is repetitious. It therefore, and easily, breeds both monotony and callousness. Sunday after Sunday, text after text, sermon after sermon: so the cycle runs.

The late Roy Smith, when a pastor, was ready to commence a funeral service. The deceased was the only son of a couple he knew very well. The young mother, in the quiet of the family room, said, “Roy, you do this kind of thing all the time, but remember that he was all we had!” I heard Dr. Smith say that suddenly fresh fountains of sympathy and awareness were opened within him. His “service” was somehow different that day.

God—let me be aware.

Stab my soul fiercely with others’ pain,

Let me walk seeing horror and stain.

Finally, there’s that thread in the sermonic texture which we shall call urgency. “He preached as if he was deein’ to save me,” said the old Scottish lady who was wooed to Christ under the importunate preaching of Robert Murray McCheyne. Paul had it in his preaching: “We beseech you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God” (2 Cor. 5:20). Against the door of many a preacher’s heart must be laid at least one shaming charge: that too little goes on within it which bums with this intensely beseeching quality.

Frederic W. H. Myers, recalling the influence upon his life of Josephine Butler, once said, “She introduced me to Christianity as by an inner door: not to its encumbering forms but to its heart of flame.”

It was Myers who later projected himself, poetically, into the preaching soul of St. Paul. The Apostle, seeing the pageantry and pettiness, the folly and frenzy, of Christless souls, is made to cry:

Then with a rush the intolerable craving

Shivers through me like a trumpet-call—

Oh, to save these! to perish for their saving,

Die for their life, be offered for them all!

A man who is at home in the stillness of God, who has an engagement with Christ so absorbing as to shatter conceit, who is not ashamed to own a soul with bleeding edges, who knows the ache of longing that the whole world might be brought to the feet of Christ—that man, whatever his text or outline, will fashion a sermon in which the tones are less important than the overtones and the glory of the Wordless flames round the words.

It’s the texture of preaching.

PAUL S. REES

Unto him who loves us, … to him be the doxology and the dominion … (Rev. 1:5b, 6b; read vv. 1–20).

This passage, great in the King James, yields more riches through exegesis of the best Greek text. Our new translation: unto him who loves us, and redeemed us from our sins with his blood, and made us a kingdom of priests to his God and Father, to him be the praise and the power (the kingdom and the dominion), for ever and ever. Amen.

I. Christ’s Love for Us Continuing, ever present. In this book the scrolls unfold and the trumpet peals, but a soft voice says: “Trust my love.” The same yesterday, today, and forever, His love is everlasting. He has promised that he will never desert us, and that nothing shall ever separate us from his love. Day by day he bids us keep ourselves in the love of God.

II. Redemptive. He bore our sins in his own body on the tree. He was wounded for our transgressions. His punishment brought us peace, for by his stripes we are healed. Since he met for us all the exactions of the Law, in him we are justified, forgiven, adopted as God’s children. Through this redemption the grace of God brought us out of thralldom to sin and Satan into the glorious liberty of God’s children. As we stand beneath the redemptive Cross, our grateful hearts murmur: “God is like that!”

III. Contagious, love that creates a like community. Love created the apostolic band, and then the community of the Resurrection. Love brings us into fellowship with the Father and the Son. Here love is signalized as making us a kingdom of priests who reflect the King’s qualities. As priests of the Most High we intercede for one another. Beneath God our Father, beside our Elder Brother, we gather together in warm fellowship as the redeemed family of God.

IV. Victorious. In love God goes forth conquering and to conquer. In mercy he confronts us and makes us his own. He lifts our hearts in paeans of praise to his Father. The Lord even bends our stubborn and rebellious wills to his mastery. As long as Satan can misrepresent God, portraying Him as a hateful despot armed for our destruction, he arouses our opposition. But when the Spirit shows us God coming in Christ to reconcile the world to himself, the doors of men’s souls should lift up in their first knightly act to receive the King of Glory.

God shines in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of his glory in the face of Christ. When we are frustrated and about to give up in failure, God opens our hearts to receive the love he commends in the blood of Christ. This love constrains our love. His redeeming grace evokes our gratitude. His fellowship frees our spirits to glorify Christ, and to seek his dominion over the earth.

We preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; but unto them who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God (1 Cor. 1:23, 24; read vv. 18–31).

Paul believed that the main business of Christly men was Gospel preaching. When the firebrand of Tarsus preached Christ there was no time for meddling with current controversies. Whole cities depended on him for the preaching of redemption. For that reason he lived largely in the imperative. Let our own spirits possess a like urgency!

I. The Gospel Proclaimed. The transmission of the Gospel rested in the hands of men of good will. With high passion those men pleaded powerfully for the souls of others and shook civilization to its foundations. When men so awake to their responsibilities as Christians the momentum of Christianity will sweep over the enemies of the Gospel like a tidal wave.

II. The Gospel Antecedent: a divine sacrifice. God called for the sacrifice of Christ on Calvary, so that now we see the devilish nature of sin, and our own guilt before God. We likewise see in the Cross the means by which life is restored. This was done in Christ, who by his own blood dissolved sin and brought man back to his waiting God. But at what a cost and with what a payment!

III. The Gospel Message we preach is a divine testimony. All that God has to say to men he says in his Son, who discloses it all in love, a love greater than the mind of man can comprehend. This love will hold until the graves give up their dead and time shall be no more. There I must realize that I am not my own; I am bought with a price. In the Cross I gain forgiveness of sins; in the Resurrection the guarantee of power to live His life.

IV. The Gospel Objective. When obeyed, the Gospel results in human redemption from sin. Hence we preach Christ crucified. Today Christianity is a completed system of truth, a revelation given once for all. On earth there is no authority to change this Gospel. We conclude that he is wise who simply determines to abide by the law of life thus divinely given. With Paul let this ever be our triumphant testimony: “We preach Christ crucified!”—From Christ Is All (Cincinnati: The Standard Press, 1962).

Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures? (Luke 24:32).

Every Christian ought to be happy in the Lord. Many believers, alas, are not. Even after Easter we talk about “the lost radiance of the Christian church.” Fortunately, as believers in the Crucified and Risen Lord we can recapture such radiance where we lost it, in our assurance of the Living Christ as he appears after the Resurrection. Today as on the first Easter Christian radiance comes through.

I. Fellowship with the Living Christ. Those two hearts began to burn as soon as the pilgrims fell in step with the Lord. So it should be every day with us who believe. In private devotions, at the family altar, and along the dusty way, why not commune with Him? Alas, some of us read nothing daily but a Bible verse in a devotional manual, with a prayer by someone else.

II. Understanding the Scriptures. The two disciples had long known God’s Book, but at last they learned to enjoy what they may have merely endured. Before the burning heart comes the opening of the eyes to behold Christ where formerly one saw something else. So it seems that in the hour of worship the opening of the Book should lead to the burning heart.

III. Enlisting for Christian Service. Radiance comes through “the illumination of obedience.” If those two had kept their discovery a secret, the fire would have died down in their hearts, the glow would have faded from their faces. After beholding the Risen Lord we ought ever to be “abounding” in his work. Hence the Resurrection Chapter leads up to an appeal for giving.

IV. Abiding in Christian Hope. On Easter morning those two felt disconsolate because they had lost their hope. They had begun to look backward and feel sorry for themselves. On the other hand, the Gospel of Easter bids us look up and rejoice. Because of this hope, “never again in the history of the Church has the life of worship revealed such power, such depth, such fruitfulness as in those early times.”

Does anyone here long for such radiance? If so, you may have it now, as well as more and more in days to come, if daily you enter into loving fellowship with the Risen Lord.