The Greatest Fight in the World! 6

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Our ARMY

Now we must review OUR ARMY.

What can individual men do in a great crusade? We are associated with all the people of the Lord. We need for comrades, the members of our churches; these must go out and win souls for Christ. We need the cooperation of the entire brotherhood and sisterhood. What is to be accomplished, unless the saved ones go forth, all of them, for the salvation of others? But the question now is mooted, Is there to be a church at all? Is there to be a distinct army of saints, or are we to include atheists? You have heard of "the church of the future" which we are to have instead of the church of Jesus Christ. As its extreme lines it will take in atheists, we may hope, in our charity, that it will include evil spirits also. What a wonderful church it will be, certainly, when we see it! It will be anything else you like—but not a church of Jesus Christ. When the soldiers of Christ shall have included in their ranks, all the banditti of the adversary, will there be any army for Christ at all? Is it not distinctly a surrender at the very beginning of the war? So I take it to be.

We must not only believe in the church of God—but recognize it very distinctly. Some denominations recognize anything and everything more than the church. Such a thing as a meeting of the church is unknown. In some "the church" signifies the ministers or clergy; but in truth it should signify the whole body of the faithful, and there should be an opportunity for these to meet together to act as a church. It is, I judge, for the church of God to carry on the work of God in the land. The final power and direction is with our Lord Jesus, and under him it should lie, not with some few who are chosen by delegation or by patronage—but with the whole body of believers. We must more and more acknowledge the church which God has committed to our charge; and in so doing, we shall evoke a strength which else lies dormant. If the church is recognized by Christ Jesus, it is worthy to be recognized by us; for we are the servants of the church.

Yes, we believe that there ought to be a church. But churches are very disappointing things. Every pastor of a large church will own this in his own soul. I do not know that the churches of today are any worse than they used to be in Paul's time, or any better. The churches at Corinth and Laodicea and other cities exhibited grave faults; and if there are faults in ours—let us not be amazed; but yet let us grieve over such things, and labor after a higher standard. Albeit that the members of our church are not all they ought to be, neither are we pastors ourselves. Yet, if I went anywhere for choice company, I would certainly resort to the members of my church.

"These are the company I keep;
These are the choicest friends I know."

O Jerusalem, with all your faults, I love you still! The people of God are still the aristocracy of the race! God bless them! Yes, we mean to have a church.

Now, is that church to be real or merely statistical? That depends very much upon you, dear brethren. I would urge upon you the resolve to have no church, unless it be a real one. The fact is, that too frequently religious statistics are shockingly false. Cooking of such accounts is not an unknown are in certain quarters, as we know. I heard of one case the other day where an increase of four was reported; but had the roll been amended in the least, there must have been a decrease of twenty-five. Is it not falsehood—when numbers are manipulated? There is a way of making figures figure, as they should not figure. Never do this! Let us not keep names on our church books—when they are only names. Certain of the good old people like to keep them there, and cannot bear to have them removed; but when you do not know where individuals are, nor what they are—how can you include them? They are gone to America, or Australia, or to heaven—but as far as your roll is concerned—they are with you still. Is this a right thing? It may not be possible to be absolutely accurate—but let us aim at it. We ought to look upon this in a very serious light, and purge ourselves of thevice of false reporting; for God himself will not bless mere names. It is not his way to work with those who play a false part. If there is not a real person for each name—amend your list. Keep your church real and effective, or make no report. A merely nominal church is a lie. Let it be what it professes to be. We may not glory in statistics; but we ought to know the facts.

But is this church to increase—or is it to die out? It will do either the one or the other. We shall see our friends going to heaven, and, if there are no young men and young women converted and brought in and added to us, the church on earth will have emigrated to the church triumphant above; and what then, is to be done for the cause and the kingdom of the Master here below? We should be crying, praying, and pleading that the church may continually grow. We must preach, visit, pray, and labor for this end. May the Lord add unto us daily such as are saved! If there is no harvest, can the seed be the true seed? Are we preaching apostolic doctrine—if we never see apostolic results? Oh, my brethren, our hearts should be ready to break, if there is no increase in the flocks we tend. O Lord, we beseech you, send the harvest!

If a church is to be what it ought to be for the purposes of God, we must train it in the holy art of prayer. Churches without prayer-meetings are grievously common. Even if there were only one such, it would be one to weep over. In many churches the prayer-meeting is only the skeleton of a gathering; the form is kept up—but the people do not come. There is no interest, no power, in connection with the meeting. Oh, my brothers, let it not be so with you! Do train the people to continually meet together for prayer. Rouse them to incessant supplication. There is a holy art in it. Study to show yourselves approved by the prayerfulness of your people. If you pray yourself, you will want them to pray with you; and when they begin to pray with you, and for you, and for the work of the Lord, they will want more prayer themselves, and the appetite will grow. Believe me, if a church does not pray, it is dead. Instead of putting united prayer last, put it first. Everything will hinge upon the power of prayer in the church.

We ought to have our churches all busy for God. What is the use of a church that simply assembles to hear sermons, even as a family gathers to eat its meals? What, I say, if the profit, if it does no work? Are not many professors sadly indolent in the Lord's work, though diligent enough in their own? Because of Christian idleness, we hear of the necessity for amusements, and all sorts of nonsense. If they were at work for the Lord Jesus, we would not hear of this. A good woman said to a housewife, "Mrs. So-and-so, how do you manage to amuse yourself?" "Why", she replied, "my dear, you see there are so many children, that there is much work to be done in my house." "Yes", said the other, "I see it. I see that there is much work to be done in your house; but as it never is done, I was wondering how you amused yourself."

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