059. RESPONSIBILITIES OF BAPTISTS

RESPONSIBILITIES OF BAPTISTS

If we are but faithful! This suggests that there are responsibilities as well as advantages, duties as well as privileges. The question has perhaps occurred to some who have heard me whether I expect that the whole world will ultimately become Baptist. To this I have two replies: first, that Baptist doctrine is probably not the whole of truth, and therefore the final church and creed may be something more than what at present we call Baptist; but secondly, that Baptist doctrine is just as certainly an important part of God’s revealed will, and therefore to be embraced without curtailment or diminution in that final sum of triumphant truth which is to be the heritage and Confession of the church universal. If we do not believe this, then we have no right to be Baptists at all. If our doctrine is merely an indifferent or optional matter, a human opinion but not a divine prescription, then it is schism and a rending of the body of Christ for us to maintain a separate existence. But, being convinced that we have the truth of God, it would be cowardice and blasphemy to doubt that this truth of God will triumph. There are indeed other communions that number more than ours. But in the words of Edward Johnson’s "Wonderworking Providence of Zion’s Savicur," written in the dark year 1634, we can say: "The Lord intends to achieve greater matters by this little handful than the world is aware of." The kingdom of truth is sure to come,— that is our confidence and comfort. But then it is equally sure that the kingdom is near or far, just in proportion to the faith and love and devotion of those to whom this truth is committed to keep and to propagate.

Faithfulness to Christ requires of us three things: Education, Union, and Evangelization. I think of these three respectively as activities of the mind, the affections, and the will; and as tending to bring man’s mind and heart and will into conformity with the truth, the love, and the holiness of God. As God is truth, it is our duty to know the truth, and that implies the obligation to educate ourselves and to care for the education of others. The educational revival that has marked the last quarter of a century is a proof that God is with us,—it is an augury that God is going to give us the kingdom. The single new University of Chicago has a larger property than belonged twenty years ago to all our Baptist colleges and theological seminaries put together. But many millions more will be required to meet the needs of the growing West, and to educate the masses of our colored brethren at the South. In spite of our great growth in the country at large, we are still very weak in some of our great cities, and it should cause us shame and confusion of face that in the metropolis of the State and of the country, with its contiguous populations the second greatest city of the world and numbering three millions, Baptists have up to the present time not the vestige of any institution of learning! If we withhold our hands from giving, our rapid growth may be followed by as rapid a decline. With our provision of education, however, there must go also the spirit of freedom,—liberty to follow truth to the farthest bounds of thought. Soul-liberty, under bonds to none but Christ and his word, has been in the past the secret of Baptist success and progress. If any man assumes to impose his authority upon the free spirit and to dictate what we shall believe, let Baptist blood arise and Baptist courage answer: "Who are you, to interpose between me and Christ? To my Master alone I stand or fall!"