01.00. Heralds of a Passion
Heralds of a Passion Rev. Charles L. Goodell, D.D. by Rev. Charles L. Goodell, D.D.
Secretary, Commission On Evangelism and Life Service of the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America
New York George H. Doran Company
Copyright, 1921 by George H. Doran Company Printed in the United States of America
731980 to My True Friend Judge Amos L. Beaty
FOREWORD
I think it fair to my reader, my booK and myself to guard at the outset against any possible misapprehension as to the form and purpose of my message. Lest any one should be misled by the word “ Passion” in my title and its recurrence through many chapters, I hasten to say this book is no plea for emotionalism or sentimentalism of any sort. I am not interested in turning the steam on the whistle; my concern is that there shall be fire under the boiler. Nothing in this book can be construed as an appeal to fear, or self-love, or a spineless mysticism, or against criticism, high or low. If scholars have brought virgin gold to view, if criticism has cut an old truth into finer facets, no one will welcome that more than I. Each additional discovery makes the whole Christian world richer. It is a common treasure in which men of all shades of opinion should rejoice.
You may be wiser than I, and that is well, not because it is a treasure over which you may gloat, but because it supplies you with the means to be of greater. service to your kind. He who knows most must, therefore, do most, “for to whom much is given of him also will much be required. ’ ’ I am following after you as fast as I can. “What I know not, teach thou me,” said the good St. Augustine. Wesley cries, “Do not beat me down in order to quicken my pace for then I can not follow you at all. There is one thing greater than truth, and that is love. You may die without the knowledge of many truths, and yet be carried into Abraham’s bosom, but if you die without love, what will knowledge avail? Just as much as it avails the devil and his angels.”
I am led to the choice of the stirring theme which I present because it seems to me after wide travel throughout the country and intimate associations with men in the churches and out of them, that the great need of the hour is a holy passion for the souls of men. If the angel of the churches was to bring once more a greeting and challenge to the Church of the Living God, it would be a repetition of the message to the Church at Laodicea.
Once it was said that “the coat-of-arms of the twentieth century is an interrogation point rampant above three bishops dormant, and its motto ’Query’.” We are not passed far into the twentieth century, but we have passed beyond that attitude of mind. The church and the country are in the throes of no great theological question the names of Darwin, of Spencer and of Huxley no longer marshal the scientists and theologians to battle. The effect of the great war has discounted the position which was taken by many German critics. Even higher criticism itself has spent much of its forces; some of its contentions have been established and others have been proven to be of too little value longer to disturb and irritate the Church. The great fundamentals of the Christian life were never more generally accepted inside the Church than they are today, but the sad thing about it all is that the world does not seem to be enough interested in Christian things even to discuss them. Not long ago the question was propounded in literary circles, “Do you find religious unrest among your friends and what is the cause of -it!” The answer returned was, “We know nothing about religious unrest; we are not disturbed at all, we sleep. We do not go to church Sunday morning because we are in bed. We do not take up religious questions because we are not interested in them.” So it appears that the weapon which is being used against the Church and religion today is not the sword or the stiletto, but the sand bag. The neglect of these things which we once held dear is due not to conviction but to indifference. We do not make this as a sweeping charge. There are happy exceptions throughout the country. On the whole, no year has marked as large gains in the Christian Church as the present year, but it still remains true that compared with what might be accomplished there is such a dearth of zeal and such benumbing of thought and activity as to sadden the heart of every lover of righteousness. This attitude of stolidity and indifference was the one thing which Jesus could not stand. Next to actual hypocrisy, He fulminated against it with all the power of a flaming soul. He wanted men to think things through and to do as they ought to do. He could not brook indifference in anything. The message to the Church at Laodicea was: “Ye are neither cold nor hot. I would you were either one thing or the other. I would rather you would stand out openly against me than to be cold and indifferent. You have plenty of money and think you need nothing. You do not understand. You are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. “ What a challenge that was to the first orthodox church in town, with a tall steeple and a fine choir, a big congregation and a great preacher!
I wish to bring this simple message of my Master. When He ordained Peter, He asked him no question in creed or church reform. There was only one question, so often repeated that it burned itself into Peter ’s soul, “Lovest thou me?”
Among the dilettanti, it is supposed to be bad form to be interested in anything. The spirit of wonder has died out. Nothing any more is grand, dominant and imperative. The glory of Wordsworth’s early morning has faded into the light of common day. In some way we must get back our old enthusiasm; in some way we must find once more that passion which changed the face of the ages and sent the Church with a pentecostal flame to carry the good tidings everywhere. It is to that purpose that these pages address themselves. c. L. a.
CONTENTS
Foreword 1. Passion of Jesus 2. Table-Talk of Jesus 3. Heralds of Passion 4. Holy Boldness 5. Culture a Load or a Lift 6. The Passion of the Prophets 7. The Passion of the Great Evangelists 8. The Teacher’s Passion 9. The Passion of the Church 10. The Passion for Service 11. How to Nourish the Sacred Fire