Part 15 (1/2)

The Church

Forces That Win.

G.o.d's world is full of winning forces. The great ball of fire around which our earth revolves is the greatest winning force in the life of the earth.

It is constantly winning the earth to itself with a power unseen but tremendous, beyond anybody's power to calculate. The swing of the earth away from the sun is being continually overcome. By an immense drawing power it steadily holds the earth where it can pour down its wealth of warmth and light and life into it.

It woos the moisture up from river and lake and sea, until its gravity partner in the centre of the earth woos it back again in refres.h.i.+ng rain and sheltering snow. It wins out of the earth's warm heart bounteous harvests of grains and fruits, the wealth of forests which affects the earth's life so radically, the flowers with their beauty and fragrance, and the soft carpeting of green to ease the journey for our feet. All the life and beauty of the earth is due to the winning power of the sun.

G.o.d Himself is the greatest winning force in all our world. Everywhere men feel the upward drawing toward Him. They may protest against church organizations and creeds, against teachings and long-settled practices and habits of thought, as they do so much, but there is always everywhere a longing in the human heart for G.o.d. It is the answer to the longing of His heart for us.

And man is a great winning force. Everywhere men are attracted to each other. There is a winning power within each of us that draws certain others irresistibly to us. And there are winning forces in life that each one of us is powerfully affected by. The old home of earlier days has a marvellous power of attraction for most men. The old fireside, the familiar rooms, the subtle aroma that seems inseparable from the very bricks and boards--who has not felt the tremendous drawing power of these?

What a strange power of attraction a man's mother-tongue has for him. How the heart will give a quick leap, in a foreign land, when, amid a confusing jargon of strange sounds, all unexpectedly some one speaks the dear old familiar words. The person speaking may not be specially congenial or attractive to us, but that sound his tongue gives draws us to him.

The Divine Law of Leaders.h.i.+p.

Now I want to talk with you a bit about the forces at hand for winning our old world back to our Father's heart and home. G.o.d means us to use all the attractive powers we have in this great world-wooing and world-winning task. The world is to be won back, not driven. Men drive men, when they can. But G.o.d woos and wins. Man's coming back must be by his own glad, sweet consent. G.o.d won't have it any other way.

There are certain strangely winsome forces at our command for winning man.

They are mighty in their drawing power. But there are counter-currents that divert and hinder their influence. We need to be familiar with these winning forces, and with the counter-currents, too.

There are seven great forces at our command for this blessed service of soul-winning and world-winning. They are not peculiar to foreign-mission service, for the foreign service itself is not essentially different from other service, except in the greatness of its need. They are the forces for use in all our winning work.

Two of these are distinctly human forces. The first is an organization, the Church. And then that of which the Church is made up, men and women; I mean the power of personality, developed and consecrated personality.

There are two divine forces that work through the human--Jesus and the Holy Spirit. I have put these second in order, because they work through the human. The leaders.h.i.+p is in human hands. The initiative of all action is with us. Of course, if you go a bit deeper in, the initiative is with G.o.d who moves upon our hearts to make us act. But on the distinctly human level the beginning of service rests in human hands, and these two mighty, almighty, divine forces work through us.

The divine law of leaders.h.i.+p and of cooperation in leaders.h.i.+p has not always been clearly understood. And there has been bad delay often because of the lack of understanding. Our Lord Jesus in the days of His humanity surrendered Himself to the leaders.h.i.+p of the Holy Spirit in His great mission to men. The Spirit worked through Jesus. After Jesus' Ascension the order was reversed. The Spirit yielded Himself to the control of the glorified Son of G.o.d. Jesus worked through the Spirit. It was Jesus who sent down the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost for the special mission begun that day.

And now, with the greatest awe coming into our hearts at the thought, be it said that these two work through our human leaders.h.i.+p. The leaders.h.i.+p in service among men is human leaders.h.i.+p. The wondrous Spirit of G.o.d works through our leaders.h.i.+p to reveal Jesus to men in all His winsomeness and power.

There can be no power at all in our human action and leaders.h.i.+p except as the Spirit leads and controls us, and is allowed to. And, on the other side, we must not forget, though it has sometimes been forgotten, that G.o.d's working waits upon human action and leaders.h.i.+p. Memory quickly brings up the fact, so often repeated in the history of the Church, that when men have failed to respond to G.o.d's call His work has fallen behind.

Whenever a new chapter of earnest service has been begun it has always been through a new leaders.h.i.+p. Some man has listened to G.o.d, and let Him have the free use of himself in reaching out to other men.

G.o.d needs men. He needs you and me. We are the wire for the transmission of His current of power. The wire is useless without the current. And the current must have the wire along which to travel to its place of service.

The divine power is through human action and human leaders.h.i.+p. The power is all divine. And the means through which it works is all human. Jesus and the Holy Spirit work through the Church and through each one of us who is willing.

Then there are three spirit forces, or influences, of mighty power in human hands; namely, prayer, and money, and sacrifice.

G.o.d's Messenger.

To-night we want to talk about the first of the two human forces--the Church.