The Need of the Hour

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Aug 6, 1896

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 22, No. 31.

The Need of the Hour.

The National Christian Citizenship League sent out a circular to pastors, asking that a sermon be preached on the sabbath (Sunday) before or after July 4. In that circular the League says:—

“The particular need of the present hour is a fuller recognition of the kingship of Jesus Christ, and of the fact that the truths taught by him are the only cure for present-day evils. We demand the application of the principles of the Gospel to all policies, platforms, and parties, to all questions of municipal government and reform, to all social and industrial problems—to everything which affects man’s relations to his fellows as well as to his God.”

With the first sentence we have no particular fault to find, if the recognition of the kingship of Christ and the application of the truths taught by him are personal. The principles of the Gospel can not be applied to government or parties or platforms. Words may be embodied in written documents, political, governmental, and otherwise, but no words of men are the Gospel of Christ. The Gospel is a message from God to individuals, and can be received only by personal faith. It can not be enforced save by love. Christianity is not a form, a theory, but a life imparted by Christ to the individual soul through faith. All that the League could accomplish by the carrying out of its “demand” is union of church and state, the manufacture of hypocrites, the persecution of the good and just. The real need of the hour is the Gospel of Jesus Christ as preached by him and his apostles.