Olive Tree Journal

By Rev. Maitland Alexander, D.D.

From: Presbyterian Men; Addresses and Proceedings of the Fourth National Convention, Presbyterian Brotherhood of America, Held at St. Louis, MO, Feb. 21-23, 1911, p. 115–126.

Fellow Members of the Presbyterian Church. I come to speak to you here tonight in the face of all that we have heard today, and of a great deal that we have heard in the past few years, concerning some great movements which have characterized the modern advance in Christian practice; to speak to you in behalf of the underlying thing which makes what we have heard tonight of men and the Christian religion a possibility. That institution and or­ganization upon which every part of the super­structure of the conquest of the world for Jesus must rest. That organization is the Church of the living God.

My subject has been given to me: “Our Brotherhood and Our Personal Re­sponsibility to the Church,” and before we can get any further in this discussion it is necessary for us to understand definitely what we mean when we speak of the Church of God. What is our view of this organization which has come under the fiery tongue of criticism, which has had to bear the brunt of great opposition, and from which sometimes we ourselves feel that we need to be lifted by some new inspiration and new power, because we have got into what we call a rut?

What is the Church?

There are many views held of the Church of God. Some hold the corporate view, and be­lieve it is a corporation gathered to do a cer­tain work. Some believe the Church of God is an educational institution, for the propaga­tion of certain truths in its possession which men must learn. A great many people think the Church is a kind of club, or an association of like-minded men and women. But we are in dan­ger of forgetting that the Church is a divine institution, put into the world under the sanc­tion of Almighty God through His Son, Jesus Christ. We are, I am afraid, drifting away from the idea that the Church is the Ark of God, and over and above it and in it is the Shekinah which indicates the presence of the Glory of God. We are sometimes forgetting, too, but we were reminded of it in the first address today, that the Church is the Body of Christ, the Bride, the Lamb’s Wife, the finished work of Jesus, and that for which He died that it might one day be presented without spot or wrinkle or any such thing before the throne of His Father. I believe we cannot take too high an idea of the organized Christian Church. It is good for us to go back again to those early days when from the Mount of Olives, twelve men, the organized Church, went down to Jeru­salem to wait until the power of the living God should come down upon them and endow them to accomplish their mission. One of the most humbling things to me in all the divine revela­tion is that into the hands of us men has been given this body of truth, this trust. It is a trust of knowledge, it is a trust of faith, and it is a trust of power; and it has been given to us by the Lord Jesus Christ. You and I stand to the world in the position of Trustees for this great thing, this gospel, which has come to us from the hands of God; which shall issue, if we are faithful, in the regeneration of the world, and in the bringing of all men to a saving knowledge of Him whom to know aright is life eternal.

One of the most touching things in all the Bible is the idea which Jesus Christ Himself had about His Church. Do you remember that day when He had about Him that little company of the apostles, and the great conversation took place between Simon Peter and Himself about His Deity? Jesus Himself understood that Peter would stand in the judgment hall and deny Him. He foresaw that Judas would take the thirty pieces of silver. Jesus understood that the twelve disciples would forsake Him and flee, but in the face of the inconstancy of these first members, the Master flings back into the face of the opposition of all History, His personal pledge that the gates of hell should not prevail against His Church.

Members of the Church

Who constitute the successors of these first members of the Church? The membership of a Church, as I understand it, is composed of men and women who have taken upon them­selves to publicly confess their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Savior, and to take, whether verbally or silently, a solemn, sacramental obligation in which they promise they will do what Christ would have them do for the advancement of His kingdom, for the spread of His truth, and the glory of His name. I do not think that any Christian Church can contravene that definition of what it means to be a member of the Church. Here we have the divine side; yonder we have the human side. Here we have the promised power; there we have the sacramental obligation. Here we have God revealing to man the whole splendid plan of redemption for the world. There we have men earnestly, unconstrainedly, longingly, lovingly, taking into their hands from His pierced hand this sacred trusteeship that His will may be done on earth as it is in heaven. Uncoerced, we men have accepted His service; now we must see to it whether our work is being done faithfully.

The Work of the Church

I am sorry to believe that men are drawn out from the definite work of the Church by calls which seem good of themselves, but not directly in line with the work of the kingdom. I can think now of an elder in the Presbyterian Church, a good man, a strong man, but who felt that he could not find in his own church work for his enthusiasm, and so he got to tak­ing up outside things—religious things in a measure, a certain type of religious and philanthropic service, all very good in its way; but that man let go the things he had promised to do when he united with the Church of God, and obligated himself to do in his own church. He does not go to his evening service. He does not get to prayer meeting. He does not do the things that belong to the routine work of the kingdom. He does not keep his pew full of unchurched men; does not do any of the things he ought to do in support of his own personal and individual church. I do not believe that is right. I believe it is subversive of the very spirit of his pledge, and the underlying princi­ples which he professed when he became a Christian. For there is nothing in the world more solemn that the vows of your sacramental obligation; there is nothing so high as the ideal standard set for you by Jesus Christ, the head of the Church.

You ask me to state for you tonight, if I can, what I believe to be the place of the Brother­hood in the Church. I believe the work of the Brotherhood in the Church of Jesus Christ is to emphasize the sacramental obligation which every man took on uniting with the Church to do his work in his own church where God has put him. I believe when every Presbyterian man and every other Brotherhood man in the Church of Christ throughout the world does his work in his own church, we will have come so far along the road to the coming of the king­dom that we will not be able to recognize the dusty battlefield on which we work today. Here, then, is our call. I believe in a worldwide evan­gelism. I believe in civic righteousness. I be­lieve in social service, in these great, tremen­dous movements that belong to our modern day, but I believe a great deal more—and as the underlying basis of it all, that every man must be found faithful first in his own church where God has seen fit to put him. The Brotherhood man’s first duty is to give his church his best. The man who does not give his home his best is not a worthy man. He may not be able to spend much on his home; he may not be able to have that home like many another; and it may not be filled with the vital interest of some other; but after all it is his home, it is the place where he owes his tenderest love, his inspiration, his care—he is the head of his home. I believe it is true about the Church. You owe it the best you can give it in every way.

Fellow Presby­terians, it is a very easy thing to follow in the assent to great platforms; it is a very easy thing to be swayed by tremendous movements with splendid predictions; it is a very easy thing to believe in great reforms; it is easy to assent to schemes that you yourself do not have to carry out; it is a very easy thing to follow along with a great crowd having intense enthusiasm, led by magnificent leaders who do the work; but it is a very much harder thing to go back to your obscure church or your great church, and fit yourself so that when you are ready you can take a class of boys or girls and teach them the word of God. It is a differ­ent thing for you to go back to your church and there bring your best thought and influence, that you yourself may be able to bring about a great advance movement along the lines of the church’s efficiency. You remember the man whom Jesus healed said: “I will tell all men; I will go here and there and witness what you have done for me.” And the Master said: “Go home and tell them what great things God hath done for thee.” I believe this is the emphasis which the founders of this Brotherhood put on the Brotherhood work. One of the things that impressed me was how the first president of this Brotherhood, in the city of Indianapolis, went around to his friends’ houses, and re­cruited men for his own church prayer meet­ing, and that has been the symbol of the creed of what the Church might expect through its Brotherhood men. Its aim must be not to spread out into side issues, but to lay hold on men with sufficient force and power to make them work on the line of their own duty in the Church.

Taking Action

I believe, first of all, this responsibility in­volves the study of the individual interests of your own church. How few men there are who are willing to do that; who will study the re­ligious development, the religious opportunity, the financial problems, the enlargement of the congregation, the Sunday School, the Young People’s problems! We will interest our­selves in things that will not touch us too closely. We need to have a resurrection. Our own church’s development—what are its lines for advance, and how can we, without an individual work of our own, hope to be a power for our King? Sometimes it seems as though the brains of the Church were wrapped up in a napkin instead of being invested in the work of the kingdom.

There must be a far-sighted policy all along the line, whether it be in big things or little things, and until the laymen come to the point where they are willing to do this, the Church will be under the criticism of those who oppose it. But when you and I to whom have been committed this sacred trust hold fast to our principles; when we do our work as we ought to do it, and plan for the kingdom with the best that we have, then we will find the Church will rise up and be in every community where it stands the power of God unto salvation for every one who believes.

The second thing, I think, in this obligation, involves a preparation on our part to do this work. Preparation of the unprepared. I live in a city where there are great industrial enterprises, where every year there are hundreds of young college men come to work. I find the men who rise are the men who especially pre­pare themselves for efficient service along the line of the industry’s needs. A man who is willing to throw himself into the learning is the man who ultimately works out his own suc­cess and proves a power in the concern. A young Yale man went to work in one of the industrial concerns in Pittsburgh. There was a great deal of reconstruction going on. After that plant was finished, I, happening to be inter­ested in him, asked the head of the plant whether he was worth his salary. “Why,” he said, “do you know that man, I believe, could sit down and tell you the price of everything that went into that plant, the quality of it, how it was put together. He has fairly lived and slept and eaten and worked with it until he knows the construction of this concern as it stands today as well as I know it.” Why did he do it? Because he wanted to make himself indispensable to the man for whom he worked.

How many of you are making yourself indis­pensable to the Head of the Church? I do not mean to your pastor, minister, or officers, but how many are fitting yourselves by study to do your assumed work? Men are standing up in crowds and saying: “I am not fitted.” In the name of God, be fitted by your own efforts, by your own work, and by the Holy Spirit in you.

Moses said, “I am not fit.” Isaiah said, “I am a man of unclean lips.” Paul said, “I have persecuted the Church of God,” but God did not take these excuses. The rod was given to Moses, the live coal was laid on the lips of Isaiah, the sight of the risen Jesus was given to Paul; and they were sent out to do the things God wanted them to do. Men, you must learn how to teach, learn how to pray, learn to win souls; learn how to constructively build up the Church and be true to the responsibility of your call.

Faith our Motive

Everything I have said thus far is dependent on your personal conviction about Christ. You cannot make strong men in the Church who have not any conviction about the Church or about the King and Head of the Church. I deprecate with all my heart this sentiment which seems to be arising more and more that it matters little about aggressive, positive, virile conviction; that all that is needed is social serv­ice. There is not anything that can be done in the world, least of all in the kingdom of God, without convictions that are born out of a stu­pendous yet sometimes trembling faith; con­victions about God, about His Son, about the power of His grace; convictions about the grandeur of His Kingdom, about the other sheep not of this fold whom Jesus desires to bring that they may hear His voice; that there may be one shepherd and one fold.

Look, at those disciples as they sought for power, with inadequate equipment, poor position, intense opposition. Look at us, with all the parapher­nalia of Church extension, with the magnificent testimony of the ages of the Church’s history to stand behind us, with the miracles of grace that are wrought throughout the world to tes­tify to the Church’s power, with talent, influ­ence, and money, and social position. What are we doing in order that we may make Christ’s kingdom count? Fellow Christian men, let us listen, if we can, to the testimony of Jesus Himself concerning the predestined and transcendent triumph of His Church. For to me it is a solemn fact that though you and I may be deficient in our commitment to the Church of God, but it is not going to make any difference in the advancement of the kingdom. It may stay the progress of the kingdom’s chariot for a day; it may retard the millennium year a lit­tle, but God’s kingdom is surely going to come, and His will is going to be done on earth as it is in heaven. And you and I may, if we will, be among those who with the King shall lay down before His Father’s throne that unspotted and unsullied and triumphant Church, or we may let go our chance to march with Him to the ulti­mate victories of His Cross.

To me the secret of the whole life of the Church lies in our response to God’s call in -our own churches. Have you ever stood in the field in the autumn, and seen the birds get­ting ready to migrate—how they fly around and around until at some mystic signal they cut through the air, and start to answer in the sunshine and among warm breezes the call of their Creator? Sometimes amid the fluctuating masses of men moving in the world there comes to men the call; it comes to every man, but all do not heed it; and when it comes, like the birds, we who hear it must fly that we may do the bidding of Him who calls.

If the triumph of the Church is to come, as it will come, when the King asks you whether you have been faithful, what will you give Him as the evidence of your fidelity? Will you give Him some great general assent that you have given to the propositions of the Gospel; will you tell Him of your endorsements to move­ments, your attendance at conventions; or will you bring Him proofs of your own work in the place which represents in your life that for which He died?

Finis