The Denominational Voice
By D. W. Reavis
As the work enlarges and interests multiply, there is a subtle danger confronting the rank and file of our people, not recognized by all. Some become absorbed in local interests, and fail to keep themselves enlarged through an intimate knowledge of the progress of the world-wide message. Shorn of this knowledge, personal responsibility gradually loses its compelling power, and our members unconsciously begin to weaken and to drift. In time they may recognize the change in their relation to the message, but do not seem to know the cause of this change in feeling, in faith, and in the love of the truth. With the message, God gave an inspiring, educational, and unifying medium through which his followers could be strengthened, encouraged, and knit close together through the Holy Spirit’s witnessing to human efforts in the salvation of men, a voice penetrating the earth with notes of progress, success, and overcoming victory,—a voice, though human, guided by the overshadowing spirit of the message, and Heaven blessed. This voice came with the advent message in the form of the REVIEW, which has continued and developed with it, and will remain until the work is finished, ministering to the spiritual needs of the believers, in bringing good cheer, building up faith, keeping alive the spiritual fire of the soul, imparting an impelling spiritual force and vitality, and creating a working devotion in the proportion and support of the message. The REVIEW is, therefore, far more than a mere newspaper, which may be read with small gain or neglected without great loss. Believers cannot deprive themselves of the REVIEW for the sake of monetary economy, or to enable them to have a general paper for missionary purposes, for it is an essential in their own spiritual life,—a weekly review, a constant inspiration, brought into existence and maintained solely for their spiritual health. The great danger confronting each member in this time of many interests is in failing to recognize the individual responsibility as it affects the progress of the world-wide message, in dwarfing the spiritual growth of the individual by the neglect of the means God has provided for his development. In addition to the spiritual value of the REVIEW, it is needed as an educational factor by every member, irrespective of his place or position in the denomination. We know that preaching is an ordained means of presenting the gospel to believers and to the heathen; but if our ministers are to take up all the commendable interests belonging to the church, and give each line of work sufficient time thoroughly to instruct our people, where are they going to find the time to give the message to the world? Our ministers cannot, therefore, instruct us in all things needful. We might learn something by travel, but life is too short, the world too large, and our means too limited to do much or to gain much in the way of travel. We might learn much by books on church and mission work, from the great moral movements of nations and individual development, but possibly not one third of our members have ever read a book on missions, or will ever know from published volumes of the unevangelized races of the world and what is being done for them. Books have their place and their influence, but they are not sufficient to meet our needs. We might learn much from personal visits from our missionaries, but they cannot leave their fields. All these agencies are good, and should be made use of as much as possible, but they are only as pearls on the great unifying denominational cord, the REVIEW. Break the cord, and the pearls fall. The REVIEW holds the shining pearls together. It uses every one of them. It gathers up what is good everywhere—by travel, by books, by addresses of missionaries and sermons of ministers, by letters and circulars, through conferences and conventions, periodicals and magazines; collates, condenses, and carries all right into our homes to instruct, to edify, and to inspire. It uses the letter, the telegraph, and the telephone, the photograph and the phonograph, etchings, cablegrams, the wireless, and all the agencies known to modern printing, to bring to the home of every believer all the needs, and all the news, and all the varied activities of our world-wide work, not even neglecting the local interests and the individual homes of every conference. In this age of intense activity, with every wind of doctrine and phase of skepticism forcing itself upon us, and while our message is rapidly swelling into the loud cry, the safety of our members centers more and more in the great denominational voice, the strong unifying11cord, the REVIEW. Movements may rise and fade away, enthusiasms may sweep over the earth, the great deceiver may even impersonate Christ, but against an educated, Spirit-filled, vitalized, unified church there can be no successful assault.