/Christian Work/--We rejoice at every sign that Christians realize that
wealth is a sacred trust, for which they shall give an account. We
rejoice more that they are giving that personal service which is a law
of His kingdom. Men and women of culture and gentle birth are going
into the abodes of sickness and sorrow to comfort stricken homes and
lead sinful folk to the Saviour. Brotherhoods, Sisterhoods, and
deaconesses are multiplying. Never was there greater need for their
holy work. Many of our own baptized children have drifted away from all
faith. To thousands God is a name, the Bible a tradition, faith an
opinion, and heaven and hell fables. But that which gives us the
deepest sadness and makes all Christian work more difficult is that so
many of those to whom the people look for example have given up the
Bible, the Lord's Day, the house of God, and Christian faith. Alas!
they are telling these weary toilers whose lives are clouded by anxiety
and sorrow that there is no hereafter. "They know not what they do."
They are sowing to the wind and will reap the whirlwind. May God show
them the danger before if is too late! The loss of faith is the loss of
everything; without it morality becomes prudence or imprudence. When
the tie which binds man to God is broken all other ties snap asunder.
No nation has survived the loss of its religion. We are appalled at the
mad cry of anarchy which tramples all which we hold dear for time and
eternity under its feet. We cannot look into its face without seeing
the lineaments of that man of sin who "opposeth and exalteth himself
above all that is called God and worshipped." Antichrist is he who
usurps the place of Christ. "He is antichrist who denieth the Father
and the Son." Our hearts go out in pity for those whose mechanical
ideas of the universe may be a revolt from a mechanical theology which
has lost sight of the Fatherhood of God. We stand where two ways meet.
We shall take care of the people or the people will take care of us.
The people are the rulers; the power of the future is in their hands.