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WHAT HAS THE CHURCH
MEANTTOME? IT HAS
MEANT THE AGENCY
THROUGH WHICH I RE-
CEIVED SUCH SPIRIT-
UAL SIGHT AS I HAVE • IT
HAS MEANT THE BODY
THROUGH WHICH HAS
COME TO ME STRENGTH
IN WEAKNESS MANY
TIMES, COMFORT IN TRIAL
HELP IN TIME OF NEEe!

s0^

'^'

LOO

fin

WHAT THE CHURCH
MEANS TO \iE

VVMAT THi iUi •<*. H
MEANS l<> Ml',

\ {*' R *. N Ik t = , s }■ r. :^ :■ 1 1) s A .N i ) A
'< J ,^ri,iH^i4f,u L.ibT,vlc> MkHitoj, Mi*rim

TIIK PILGRIM* ^|fF^'^

li '

7*"=?

WHAT THE CHURCH
MEANS TO ME

A FRANK CONFESSION AND A
FRIENDLY ESTIMATE BY AN INSIDER

BY 11

WILFRED T. GRENFELL, M.D. (Oxon.)

Superintendent Labrador Medical Mittion | f

THE PILGRIM PRESS

BOSTON NEW TOBK CmCAGO

** iiJiMI%iHi

THE • PLIMPTON • PRESS

[ W D'O]
NORWOOD • KASS • O • S • A

WHAT THE CHURCH
MEANS TO ME

I«

WHAT THE CHURCH

MEANS TO ME

1 HE Church to me means all who,
consciously or unconsciously, are for-
warding God's kingdom on earth. In
the broad definition of the Master it
means "all those who are not against
us." The way in which men associate
for worship, or in which they consider
it most remunerative to invest their
efforts to forward the kingdom, gives
them no right to arrogate to themselves
the title of God's Church. Any body
of men sajnng, "We are the Church,"
seems to me ridiculous.

If they try to exclude at the same
time those who approach their Maker,
or who are endeavoring to do faithfully
the things Christ would approve, only
in some other way, then they become
offensive also. I am firmly convinced
the world is coming to this view, and I

[7]

WHAT THE CHURCH

am glad it is already beginning to ex-
press it. Through "the Church" the
salvation of the world must come. I
have no use whatever for the critip
whose heart is set on her destruction
or who muckrakes it for a revenue. 3y
this I mean the Church Invisible, known
only to God's Holy Spirit.

Standards which Christ would
Condemn

The* "offense" of the visible churches
that tells most against them today in
the minds of educated men is not world-
liness or unfaithfulness; it is their inabil-
ity to shake off their untenable position
as judges of others. The "Church" in
Jesus' day judged him unfit to live.
Upon Luther, Wesley, and many of the
best servants of the human race the
churches to which they belonged passed
similar sentences. Even the sugges-
tion of the "holding-up-of -skirts," of
this " I-am-holier-than-thou " attitude,
because I think differently, is repel-
lent and has not yet met the fate that
certainly awaits it, before there cah be

[81

MEANS TO ME

a reign of universal peace. Science
has taught us that doubt, quite as much
as faith, leads to the apprehension of
truth. There are countless men, skilled
in the exact sciences and in scholarship,
possessed of wealth and rank, »vho find
it impossible to define their position in
words, yet whose humility and charity
make us love them, whose deeds are
just such as those which have come down
the ages as Jesus* own selection for the
most convincing evidence of his Sonship
of God. We all know today men of
inferior attainments and lives who not
only know themselves to be infallible,
but hiven't the grace to kave even
such men alone, and who have inter-
preted their call to the "ministry" as
simply a mandate to set every one else
intellectually right. I know that that
which is hidden from the wise can be
revealed to babes, and that our tal-
ents — namely, social position, wealth,
and brains — merely enlarge in God's
sight our capacity for service, and there-
fore our responsibility. But I know also
that the prizes of our high calling can
be purchased only by our fidelity in

[9]

WHAT THE CHURCH

following, and that involves other than
intellectual processes.

Toe Case of the Working Man

As for the working man, to my mind
if he doesn't join j isible church today
it is simply because tie doesn't see any
good in it. The teachings of the
Church's Master still appeal to him.
but the churches to him don't stand
for them. He has seen the visible
churches, organized to perpetuate
Christ's teaching, striving for centuries
only after privilege, patronage, and
political power. Was ever such a topsy-
turvyism? Instead of being a bridge
over the great gulf between werJth and
poverty, the Church still savors to him
too much of the "be content where you
are" sentinent. To him she is insin-
i^re, and consequently his pew is empty.
He doesn't want an insurance agency
only for the next world; he vants a
kingdom of righteousness, joy, and
peace, first in this world, where Christ
intended it to be, as well as in the next.
Church authority can no longer com-
pel his interest; she cannot compete as
110]

MEANS TO ME

a popular entertainer; only the proof
of her unselfish love in matters of
everyday life can save her from becom-
ing a useless hulk, stranded on the beach
of time. Rainsford. Stelzle, and others
have shown that the downtown churches
need not close if the message is given in
Christ's own undeniable way which
the people can't misunderstand.

Though I do see the various churches
just beginning to rouse themselves —
no longer wholly absorbed in making
eve^ one say "shibboleth" with an
h, still just as in politics the party
machine becomes God, crushing truth
and nghteousness before it, so the church
machine is only too often a Jugger-
naut's car. destroying all faith in God
and man. The machine has usurped
the pedestal of Christ, as in Rome and
Russia, and nearer home, if Judge
Ijndsey of Denver is to be believed.
For there the very clergy of 145 out of
150 churches refused to come out boldly
against dives and brothels that were
defiling the girls and boys of the city
of Denver, because they dared not
endanger the interests of their machine.
Ul]

WHAT THE CHURCH

Vox populi was right. They were
presumably afraid to take up the cross,
which real fighting the devil involves
as much today as it did in Judea cen-
turies ago. Many, outside all churches,
support hospitals, orphanages, soup
kitchens, relief funds, and so forth.
Big corporations and even heathen
armies on the war path support
Y. M. C. A. work, because that is a
demonstratively valuable working fac-
tor. The church which is afraid of
offending rich members cannot have a
faith in God which is worth anything.

Thank God for all the illustrations
of her direct watchful vitality that she
does show. As, for instance, when the
Christian Endeavorers fought the ques-
tion of prize-fight moving-picture shows
and won out — or when a Parkhurst
fought bravely for a clean police force.
Even if the world today does not vex
itself so much as formerly about pre-
destination, original sin, the "actual
presence," or even the correct mental
attitude to insure heaven hereafter, the
churches may surely count it as a prod-
uct of their work that the people do
[12]

MEANS TO ME

trust God more simply for the past and
future, and are more in earnest about
securing justice for the downtrodden
and the square deal in the present.
In this they need as much as ever the
Church's leading.

What Makes the Church
Attractive

That which attracts to a church
today is not higher criticism, elaborate
ritual, hair-splitting creeds, but fear-
less fighting for public health, for good
government, for righteous labor condi-
tions, for clean courts of justice. It
was the leader of a darky revival who,
when asked why he didn't sometimes
read the Old Testament, replied: "No,
sah. Dem commandments just upset
de whol' revival." There is no need
that taking up politics and social
questions should exclude the preaching
of the Christ. Men will follow today
a Engsley and a Maurice, a Lincoln,
a Beecher, a Brooks, or a Worcester as
they will a Heney, a Hughes, or a Polk
or any man in whom they see plainly
[13J

WHAT THE CHURCH

li <

reflected the unselfish love of the
Christ.

Who cares, as a matter of fact, which
way these men said their prayers?
They may have been Catholic or Prot-
estant, or in honest doubt, but we love
them and will follow them. To us they
stand for real love to man, and so real
faith in God; for true pluck and will-
ingness to take up their cross. Oh, if
every member oi the churches and
every .wearer of "the cloth" realized
the privilege of standing by every up-
lifting effort, and was always so valiant
for truth as to make a Rueff or any
agent of the devil occasionally think
it worth while to take the risk of trying
to kill them — as in the case of this same
Lincoln, of Heney, of Lindsey, and of
the Master — the world would recognize
then that the Church was worth while,
and there would be no discussing
whether it was going to die out or not.
A littl physical shooting wouldn't hurt
the Church. The world wants a Church
Militant, not a backboneless intellectual-
ism. Only the "great Church victori-
ous" can be the "Church at rest."
[14]

MEANS TO ME

Nowhere is this fact more unanswer-
ably demonstrated than in the mission-
ary field. Faithlessness in this respect
and fearfulness of expenditure, both
of men and money in missionary
work, have always stood in any church
for choked channels of spiritual power,
and subsequently spelled anaemia,
atrophy, and death. Constant metabo-
lism is IS essential for spiritual life
as physical. A church must die that
doesn't use up and give out energy as
surely as a physical body. The period
of latent physical life is not long. God
in his mercy has seemed to prolong
latent spiritual life almost unduly in
the case of some churches. Those who
love the Church are breathing a little
more freely because of the Laymen's
Missionary Movement.

Lack of Clearness

To me personally it is hard to know
exactly what the Church has meant;
it is hard to "know one's self." The
attitude of practically all men's minds
is to excuse their own shortcomings by
attributing the cause elsewhere. Thus
[15]

WHAT THE CHURCH

Paddy blames the Government for the
hole in his trousers, j.ist as he does ft r
the typhoid resulting from the dump
heap.in front of his own door. When I
first essayed to write on this subject, I
several times tore up the manuscript,
feeling that I had written that which
was calculated to rend her at whose
breast my o\\T1 spirit had first found
life-giving sustenance and afterwards
wisdom, encouragement, and aid.

Yet. history seems plainly to show that
there have been times when the world
would have been more Christian if the
organizations to which men often limit
the name of church had ceased to exist.
I presume the experience we have all
had with organizations calling them-
selves "the Church" has driven us, at
times at least, to the same conclusions
in our own day about those partic-
ular branches. But this bears no refer-
ence to the body of men who love
Christ better than their own lives.
They are really the Church, and mean
everything to me, to the world outside,
and to all aspirants to the dignity of
the name of Christian.
[161

MEANS TO ME

Organizations Essential

The visible Church stands to me above
all else as appointed of God for all that
organization means in the attainment
of any other object. Atmospheric re-
ligion is desirable, but to progress, to
permanence, organization is essential.
Moreover, being conscious of the idio-
syncrasy of the human mind, I have
every use for the various communions
if no man is to be excluded.

But I look on one and all simply as
a means to an end, and as agencies, not
entities. Theoretically there is no reason
why they should not love one another.
Alas! they haven't always done so. A
large membership of ineffective persons
may be only an incubus. Like sailors
on my vessel, if they are incompetent
they are a hindrance, and in every way
expensive and undesirable. I never
care to emphasize the large number
that tiie crew of my hospital ship con-
sists of. As long as I can do the work
I take pride in the small number I
can handle it with. It is far better
for the individuals themselves to have
[17J

WHAT THE CHURCH

more responsibility and see clearly the
result of their own handiwork. They
feel also, then, that it is more important
to be ready at all calls, and when at
it they will work far more keenly.
History proves that when Constantino
filled the Eastern Church with nominal
Christians he led directly to its down-
fall. Yet one of the most difficult
things I have had to learn is that relig-
ious people find it impossible to be-
lieve that others do not care one iota
whether a man is labeled a Methodist
or an EpiscopaHan. I certainly do not,
and I do not believe God does.

Christ Counts, not Creeds

I sat in a small, mean little cabin on
our coast some time ago while a trained
nurse from New York washed a sick
baby and taught the mother how to
save the poor little mite's life. It was
that gentlewoman's ministry for Jesus
Christ. For the privilege she was pay-
ing her own expenses and receiving no
salary. If ever I realized the Master
standing by in my life it was then and
there in the semi-darkness of that hut.
[18]

MEANS TO ME

That kind of ministry never fails to grip
the laboring man. An hour later, as
I spoke to a preacher about this angel
of mercy, he said. "Yes, but it is a
pity she is a Roman Catholic." Yes,
it is hard, this faith in Jesus Christ.'
It will bring her no praise of men.
Yet it was such sermons as this nurse's
that Jesus thought it worth while wast-
ing his time on, when the world lacked
theology far more than it does today
Those sermons of his in their modest
settmgs have been the most brilliant
of the world's possessions ever since.
I think the Church grades her preachers
wrongly. There is no failure of Christ's
aims. His message is bearing fruit
m the hearts of many men whom

the-necessary-to-define-your-mental-at-
titude school would rule out of the
kingdom. Even Elijah made a mis-
take m the matter of how many ser-
vants God had.

Usefulness the Supreme Test
These divisions of the Church mean
to me cargo vessels, and if for any rea-
son they can't carry, they should go
[19]

(

WHAT THE CHURCH

out of commission. If one is beyond
repair or the type has been superseded,
it should go out permanently. We con-
tinue to run old three-deckers for fight-
ing battles, or Columbian caravels for
freighting purposes. It appears to some
to cause a temporary setback to fight-
ing eflSciency to send a once serviceable
ship to the scrap heap, but it is the best
and cheapest in the end. In the North
Sea fishery I saw hundreds of sailing
craft that had helped to make fortunes,
that had kept the markets full, and that
still had years of life, laid up, and then
sold practically for old junk. Why?
Simply because swift steam-trawlers had
been found to do the work better.

These sub-organizations, as far as I
am concerned, are existing merely to
help men to work in the spiritual field.
They are not like some yachts, just to
carry bunting and paint to be admired.
As for church aflSliation, what I like to
see is a hungry man going where he
will be fed and get strength. I trust
it does not seem flippant to say that I
look on all church organizations in the
same way, and that the tradition of a
[20]

MEANS TO ME

long past suggests to me the inefficiency
of a dotage, quite as much as the stim-
ulating aroma of potency which, as
in the case of some wines, can only be
acquired by the lapse of time. Some
will say that this Modernism has no
sense of obligation, no sense of venera-
tion, makes no allowance for the idio-
syncrasies of others. Well, that may
be so. I may plead, on the contrary,
that what we call the ancient Church
was the youthful Church. The Church
of the twentieth century is the ancient,
grown-up Church.

The Building Itself, Pro and Con

Experience has convinced me that
bricks and mortar and sectarian loy-
alty have more often been hindrances
than helps to that expression of faith in
him which Jesus looks for in our lives.
I admit I have not lived long enough
in one place fully to appreciate the pos-
sibilities for stimulus and help this
tying up into bundles can afford. On
the other hand, I feel so certain that
buildings set aside for pubhc worship
are essential in every place, that where
1211

WHAT THE C "URCH

none exists I feel wretched, and I have
shares in quite a number all along our
Labrador coast.

I love to wander through an ancient
edifice in which generations of men have
come and worshiped and found help
and comfort. I like loclcing at the
Viking ship, but I don't want to cross
the Atlantic in it. Personally, I like to
hear, to see, and to understand. The
dim religious light and sonorous sounds
do not waken me to a keener sense of
the call of God to be up and doing,
hey just make me sleepy. Besides
being diflBcult as a rule to hear, there is
too much around to distract my atten-
tion. I don't think Westminster Abbey
helps me personally to attend to the
service. On the contrary, I think it
makes me think of the building. I
used somehow to imagine that service
in the open air was necessarily asso-
ciated with cant. Now I like it far
the best. Not merely because it is
more sanitary — till some one learns
how to ventilate a building decently
— but because it absolutely forces you
to feel insignificant, and anxious that
[22]

MEANS TO ME

the great Creator should condescend to
care about a mosquito like you. More-
over, I have often noticed out in the
open a unity between those of different
sects that was perfectly delightful.
Meanwhile I am not unmindful that in
many, if not in all, a deep inborn spir
itual craving, no child of philosophy, is
a powerful factor in helping men God-
ward. Also that many find their only
help in authority and the faith of others.
iVll these the Church has to provide for.
It] is no easy task to be prophet and
conservative custodian at the same
time.

The New and Better Spirit

One great trouble with tying one's
self to any one church, from my peri-
patetic point of view, has always been
the fact that so many other churches
say, "If you are not one of us, you are
against us." It is almost too personal
to illustrate this from my own somewhat
sad experience in my early days, but
every worker in wide fields must have
felt it. Jesus had specially to rebuke
his own disciples for forbidding any
[23]

IPI

WHAT THE CHURCH

man from casting out devils. For
whatever his opinions, he must be on
our side.

Thank God there is a new spirit
entering the churches, a larger spirit!
Only those can survive eventually who
cultivate it. A spirit that wants to
use every effort to raise humanity, and
seeks a return for its outstretched hand,
solely in the fact that it thereby grasps
more of those of "his brethren."

The Only Right Wat to Grow

This is the way for a church to grow.
The more it exercises its muscles in
pulling men out of their pits, the more
dexterous, powerful, and altogether de-
sirable it will be, because the world \v v)
need it, and it will no longer appeal
only to those who prefer its form of
worship or have a bias towards its
particular church polity. The law of
demand and supply should be recog-
nized as applying equally to the church
as to other agencies. The desire to be
needed, to find work, and not merely
to be a big party product can alone
develop communions able to remove

[24]

MEANS TO ME

the stigma of being cither parasites
or fads.

If a church is really anxious to fulfil
its functions as set down in the only
book of instructions for each of them;
if it wants to call forth latent energy,
as a Washington from his homestead,
or a Lincoln from his farm, it must
cease to lay stress on orthodoxy and
get to work where the world really
needs it. A surgeon may be ever so
correct in his knowledge of operative
surgery, but he must find a practise
or he is useless. It is not so much for
holding services, as for rendering ser-
vices, that the world is looking to the
Church today.

Human Need the True Objecttvf

Today the Church should not only
have a message for the strong and well.
In Christ's day it had a message for
the sick and suflFering also. I admit
that the medical profession has neg-
lected too much the influence that mind
has over matter. It therefore frequently
endeavors to treat a human being as
if he was nothing but a conglomeration
[25J

WHAT THE CHURCH

i I

of material cells. But the Church, it
seems to me, is making an infinitely
more serious mistake in entirely aban-
doning the valuable aid it can give the
physician when he has found that no
organic cause accounts for the symp-
toms of his patient. What is known in
America as the Emmanuel Movement
has my entire sympathy. It is an
honest effort of sane men to bring to
the aid of physical sufferers demon-
stratively valuable spiritual influences.

The Minister only a Servant

The priest or minister is the navigat-
ing lieutenant of the Church ship. He
is the tactician of the army. He is the
specialist whose experience is invalu-
able. He is not called to be one whit
holier than I am, but being on a lofty
pedestal he will possibly be more closely
watched. His, indeed, is a pitiable con-
dition if he has not the spirit of his
Master. His creed may seem infal-
lible, his faith most orthodox, but for
my part I would rather not be so sure
of what I did believe, and pray witn
"the man after God's own heart,"
[26]

MEANS TO ME

"Teach me to rfo the thing which pleases
thee. This is a sure step on the road
to the answer of, "Lo-*-. I believe, help
thou mine unbelief. I airi c .evinced
there would be no i lek of wor hy can-
didates for the miuKVuy i! only the
churches would lay more stress on the
mfinite privilege of human service it
opens up. There are more medical
students than are needed.

The Futility of the Intellectual
Test

Is it then a necessity, or an advis-
able thing, that before a man can be-
come a worker with the Church he must
pass an intellectual test? Is it impera-
tive for him to find exactly what he
does not believe? That makes it almost
impossible for him to get back after-
wards. The effect on the unfortunate
heathen of warring messengers, all call-
ing for different faith tests for member-
ship in Christ's Church, has always
seemed to me little short of disastrous.
Ihe theory of Christianity wouldn't
convmce the heathen of the Congo
[27]

1)1

WHAT THE CHURCH

that religion is desirable, or make a
Russian Jew wish to adopt Russian
Christianity. The same applies to the
Turkish views of Austrian Christianity,
or the attitude of the Indian of South
America towards Christian Spain. As
for me, I am satisfied in my own work,
and I think my Master was, with the
faith that makes a man anxious and
willing to come and help me, ever be-
lieving that he that is not against us
is on bur side.

Joshua, a servant of God if ever there
was one, is often quoted as saying,
"Decide," "Choose." We must re-
member that what he said was, "Choose
whom you will serve," not what your
final belief is going to be. Christ never
sought for admirers, but for followers.
The most voluble protestants of their
faith in Jesus as God's Son were devils.
They knew it, but benefited little by
it. Thank God, Jesus never made
the opposite of confessing our belief in
him before men to be the non-apprehen-
sion of his divinity, but always the
denying and being ashamed of his ser-
vice and becoming a stumbling block.
[28]

MEANS TO ME

Though I know what a wonderful thing
it is, as a source of power, to be able to
confess our faith in Jesus as the Son of
God, and what infinite peace it affords
to have chat confirmed by experience.

The shrewd judgment of Wall Street
would not lend a man ten cents because
he had been accepted as a member of
a church on confession of faith. Often
enough members of the same church
wouldn't either, although they probably
both would to a doer, like Living-
stone. So let us abandon the creed-
judging of others. Jesus accepted the
following of the adulterers, publicans,
and the harlots, and the man who has
honest doubts m- - a Christ follower
or a Christian, ever says the

contrary.

Banded together fob Manly
Service

I have always loved to think of Jesus
Christ and to commend him as Master
because he accepted all who came —
whether for comfort, for help, or for
service. When a man sets to work on
[29]

WHAT THE CHURCH

! s

i I

• '

the road that leads to heaven here, he
will be tasting the sweetness of the
believing that involves everlasting life.
In our Labrador work we form no
church. Our fellow-workers pray and
worship in every denomination as the
bias of their mind and temperament
leads them to find peace and comfort
and strength best. Yet we are a defi-
nite body associated together for certain
purposes. These we believe are trans-
lations into action of our interpreta-
tion of our debt to God and to our
neighbor. In that sense are we not a
true ecclesia?

Will it horrify my readers if I confess
I have accepted doctors for our hos-
pitals, nurses for our districts, and
workers of every type, and yet have
never known which way they prefer
to worship? Nor have I ever played the
censor on their right to help us by defin-
ing what they ought to believe before
I allowed them to set to work. Before
a member joins the permanent staflf
we must know he is in absolute sym-
pathy with our aim to glorify God and
serve our brother, and that he or she
[30]

MEANS TO ME

is willing to give their best for that
object. But that is all. I am fear-
less to confess that I would enroll
for a colleague in the clinics, which
hold in their hands the lives of my
friends, a man who is facile princeps
in the art of surgery rather than a
second-rate surgeon who can subscribe
to the very same intellectual tenets as
I do myself.

Our claim to be capable servants of our
Master and reincarnations of his life
is judged in our little world by the good
work we do; if as surgeons or nurses,
by our skill; if as storekeepers and labor
employers, by the clean deals we give.
If we are second-rate in our work all
our talking won't persuade men of our
fitness for our position. Securus judi-
cal orbis terrarum —- and to my mind
God seeks first men diligent in business,
fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. "

All the sects have only the same work
for the same Master to accomplisii; it
is through being feilow-worker s and not
identical thinkers that love for all who
love Christ must come. This is unity.
The camaraderie of a fighting force is
1311

WHAT THE CHURCH

/|; I I

i I

not disturbed by the feeling that one is
of the cavalry, another of the infantry,
a third of the artillery; or even, as has
often been shown in warfare, whether
they are of different races, climes, or
temperaments. There is nothing like
common work to beget intelligent love
for your fellow.

How did Christ admit his members?
By their profession of faith? I think
not. By their readiness to work? Yes.
Those were workers he chose, every
one of them. Did he wait until they
could say they believed, even that he
was God's Son, before he sent them out
to work? Not at all. He said if you
are willing to go out and work you will
get faith by working and seeing others
work.

In this way most men get faith now.
The empirical method is the very best
way to get it firmly rooted. Experi-
entia docet "Now we believe, not
because of what you say, but because
we have seen for ourselves." Did not
Judas work with Jesus? Yet it is ab-
surd to contend that Jesus was "un-
equally yoked with unbelievers" on
[32]

MEANS TO ME

that account. At the end of Christ's
life only Peter seemed even to guess
who he was, and his protestations
were not even the asset he thought
they were. For a few minutes after
he had openly, to Christ's face and
before witnesses, asserted his faith,
Christ called him "Satan" and told
him to get behind him. When he was
in trouble they every one ran away.
They would never have done that
from a handful of soldiers if they had
honestly believed he was the very Son
of God.

To sum up, What has the Church
meant to me? It has meant the agency
through which I received such spiritual
sight as I have. It has meant the body
through which has come to me strength
in weakness many times, comfort in
trial, help in time of need. Through the
Church of God, which Phillips Brooks
said is "the kingdom of good hearts
united in love," have come the talents
to use in the work to which my life is
given. When I want more help it is
to this wide Church I go to look for
it, and I have never looked in vain
[33]

WHAT THE CHURCH

As a man loves the members of his
family, so I love the Church of God.
For resources it stands to me as a per-
manent war office stands to an army
in the field. Fine uniforms and titles
are of little moment as compared with
wisdom and eflSciency for supplying
men and sinews for war. We fully
value the great leaders in our home
country, and we also love our "Bobs"
or out "Wellington" because when
called on they are loilling to march in
the front rank themselves.

As a peripatetic worker myself dur-
ing open water in my little hospital ship,
and in winter with dogs and sleigh, I
recognize that it is but transient help
which I can give alone. So I love the
little hospitals, which speak of perma-
nence. When a call for help comes for
me, often enough my place is vacant.
But the cheery haven of refuge is always
there.

The grip of fellowship the visible
churches give us on our homeland visits
is a real factor in our work. It makes
them real sharers in it. And I thank
God for the real Church of God. I
[34]

MEANS TO ME

realize as never before how essential
that ,s. Besides all this, she stands as
a great reminder of God to the world.
Lest we forget. Lest we forget."
My last is purely a private confession,
and It IS this: If it were only through
a^ociation. I love also that organiza-
tion within God's Church of which I
am myself a humble member. It is
because I love it I am willing to write
exactly as I feel. For I love it enough
to wish with all my heart and soul and
strength that God might be able to
use It to a fuller capacity, as with open
eyes and unprejudiced heart and with
wisdom developing by experience it
becomes willing to see that it also must
have Its scrap heap, or its museum for
honorable antiquities, on which to lay
aside the weights that are impeding
It m the race, which are crippling its
usefulness, and which are bound even-
tually to destroy it if it blindly con-
tinues to cling to them.

The qualification for life eternal is

to have done well. The final test is to

be ethical, not theological. I expect to

tmd more roads leading into the Golden

135]

\]f

WHAT THE CHURCH

City than many seem even to wish for.
After the school day of life I look for
an ecclesia, a mighty host, called out
for more perfect service. My ideal
church is characterized solely by the
very simplest interpretation of the old,
old story, and each member deserves
the name of the "friend of all the
world."

[36]

■-S

WHAT HAS THE CHURCH
MEANT TO ME? IT HAS
MEANT THE AGENCY
THRO^UGH WHICH I RE-
CEIVED SUCH SPIRIT-
UAL SIGHT AS I HAVE • IT
HAS MEANT THE BODY
THROUGH WHICH HAS
COME TO ME STRENGTH
IN WEAKNESS MANY
TIMES, COMFORT IN TRIAL,
HELP IN TIME OF NEED

MY IDEAL CHURCH IS
CHARACTERIZED SOLELY
BY THE VERY SIMPLEST IN-
TERPRETATION OF THE
OLD, OLD STORY, AND EACH
MEMBER DESERVES THE
NAME OF THi^ "FRIEND
OF ALL THE WORLD"