Christian Character and Environments.
By Editor
In a recent sermon, speaking on the strike question, Dr. C. R. Brown of this city said:— You can not make a Christian of a man until the conditions of his employment are such as to make his work a means of grace. If he labors under such conditions that he is becoming dull, sullen, and despairing, then you can not hope that he will win Christian character by occasional excursions aside into the realm of sacrament and ceremony. We do not know who Dr. Brown means by “you;” it is probably Christians generally to whom he was talking. But let it be known that no man or men can make Christians by any sort of conditions. Jesus Christ makes Christians, and He can make Christians of men who will let Him, despite any conditions, even to slavery, prison walls, torture, or death. To the man who loves God, who yields all to Him, “God worketh all things with him for ‘good.’” Christian character is not the result of environments or conditions, but of personal relations with Jesus Christ. “That ye may be blameless ‘and harmless, the children of God, without blemish ‘in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, ‘among whom ye are seen as lights in the world.’”