CHRISTIANITY A MANIFESTATION OF THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST

Christianity thus defined is rare enough in the earth. Many secondary things pass with the uninitiated as substitutes for Christianity, which have little relation to the pure Christianity of Christ. The simplest definition of a Christian is "one who follows Christ." As the Buddhist follows Buddha and the Confucianist follows the teachings of Confucius and a Taoist follows Taoism and a Mohammedan follows Mohammed and a Mormon Mormonism and the Christian Scientist follows the teachings of Mrs. Eddy, likewise a Christian follows Christ. This was what Christ said. "If a man wiI1 be my disciple let him follow Me." As Christ followed a Person, His Father and was on more intimate terms with Him than He was with the Systems of His day which were not in fellowship with His Father, so the Elect, the Christian will be on more intimate terms with Christ than he will be with all the activities of the systems of this day. Fellowship with Christ will be more easy than harmony with all the activities of the systems. For as some one has said "The Churchianity of the Twentieth Century is not the Christianity of Christ and the Apostles: It is both a misinterpretation and consequently a misrepresentation."

There are many commendable things in the Church organization and world which fall short of meeting the test of Christianity -- From the emphasis placed on raising money to finance New Era movements, one would think that money was a big desideratum in the kingdom of Christ. Such is far from the fact: money is secondary. Christ was without funds at tax paying time: He died a pauper: He never put on a financial drive; He never passed the plate or took up a collection or made appeals for money. All of His needs were supplied by the voluntary love contributions of those to whom He ministered. He said the great consideration was to seek first the kingdom of heaven and His righteousness and all of the secondary things would be added unto us. Unlike the present itch for money in the church today, the leaders of the early church told men who thought to ingratiate themselves in the church, to perish with their money. "Because thou hast thought to buy the gift of God with money." The early Church was voluntary in its stewardship. They brought the money and laid it at the apostle's feet. There is the record of the death of two prominent liars who said they were loyal in stewa.rdship while they were keeping back part of the price of a complete consecration. The twofold consecration we hear so much of in our day, one tenth of our substance and one seventh of our time was not the consecration in vogue in the early church where the spirit of the community of goods was the order: it is not the consecration He who is Lord of all desires, and who says we are not our own but are bought with a price. Our conversions, many of them, and our consecrations and sanctifications, are not purely Christian. There are no reservations with the true Christian! "We once heard a prominent evangelist who received nearly $200, 000 (two hundred thousand dollars) in four meetings tell ten thousand men that he gave one tenth of his income to the Lord; and so far were they from knowing the New Testament standard of stewardship of all that they lustily cheered the statement. A nearer approximation of New Testament consecration of means would have been to have given the Lord $180, 000 (one hundred and eighty thousand) and reserve twenty thousand for self! Every Mormon is a tither. Twelve sturdy Mormon young men came into one of our meetings; they were on their way across the continent on a missionary tour which they were financing out of their own tithes. Shall the standard of sensualized, demonized Mormonism be the same as the standard of the disciple of the pure Jesus? Nay. If they do so much for a false system what should not our benevolence be for the true? Raising money can never be the test of our Christianity. The Mormons, Christian Scientists, Catholics, Red Cross, and Governments, during the war far outdid us at that, raising billions for destructive war work to our millions for constructive Christian work.

Neither can the activities consequent on the money raised be the test of Christianity finer temples than our Protestant temples adorn the land; greater institutions of learning than we boast have been financed by the state and exist as centers of destructive criticism of the Word of God.

Enthusiastic zeal in the propagation of our systems is not the test of the Christianity of Christ. The subjects of the Mikado will with fanatical zeal, in frenzy throw themselves into the heart of the battle coveting to die in the service of their Emperor, the Son of Heaven. The wild dervishes of the plain and the demon-possessed Mohammedans of the desert will dance for hours in devotion to Mohammed and the one Allah; they have extended their religion by the fury of the sword, compelling the allegiance of millions. This spirit has no relation to the mild Spirit of Jesus.

Healing the sick is not the test of one's rightness with God! Christian Science has numerous instances of preternatural healing -- healing by Satanic power, fulfilling the prophecy of Christ about the latter day wonders and signs in this Name, but leaving the subject bitter toward the blood atonement and the plenary inspiration of the Scriptures: denying the Lord that bought them, repudiating the apparent facts of sin, sickness, death and the future torment of the wicked. Bodily healing is a fact with us. It concerns us to know the source. We have the profession of bodily healing with spirits that are as bitter as gall; wives loudly claiming healing of the body while their souls are filled with rebellion; despising their husbands whom God commands them to love and reverence; led off by the snare of the devil to teach that the Conjugal relation, which God proclaims honorable in all and the bed undefiled, is adultery: and leaving the husband from whom God says she should not depart. We also find a profession of healing coexistent with a spirit which despises those who do not see the doctrine as they do and an unwillingness to fellowship them unless they do; whereas Christ did not tell the disciples to preach any theory of healing but to heal: respect of persons, uncharitableness and covetousness which excludes from the kingdom of God also are evident with a persistent profession of healing, whereas when God heals the body. He also heals the soul of selfishness.

The Master teaches those who glory in supernatural power that they might cast out demons and yet spend eternity with them; as for works of charity, they might do many wonderful works and yet hear the solemn, "Depart, " in the final day because He never knew them; and as for social activities, the world will be full of them when Christ comes as a thief.

A text by which to test our Christianity is found in the 8th Chapter of Romans, the latter part of the 9th verse: "Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His." A truly startling statement, my reader for you and me to ponder. We preachers are used to quoting texts at the congregation. Let me search and solemnize my own heart by reversing this order: "Now, if I have not the Spirit of Christ I am none of His." I read of one preacher, during an impeding electrical storm, asking the congregation where they would be if the livid lightning should leap from the angry heavens and strike them? Just then the tables were turned and it struck the preacher, who so generously blamed the congregation, and nearly killed him, and did kill a preacher of his type by his side. If the Lord would just strike the preachers with another kind of lightning the congregations would come along all right. For it is still like priest like people. So many of our preachers seem timid and fearful; they seem to have a fear of offending; a fear of the consequences of duty; a fear of preaching right out their convictions in the energy of the Spirit. There is a fearful accounting day for preachers. Sometime since we preached for a brother and before the service gave him certain points in the message. He was quick to suggest that we had better be cautious. But when the word was preached and the people eagerly crowded forward to shake hands and heartily thank us for the stirring truth, the pastor saw his mistake: the people often want what they do not get from many of God's servants. Satan is lying to the pastors about what the people want.

We can no more than point out a few of the characteristics of the Spirit of Christ which is the test of Christianity. John you will remember, wrote that we were to abide in the doctrine of Christ -- a much needed injunction in some places -- and Paul said we were to have the Spirit of Christ. We have been losing both.

Universal: His was the universal Spirit. I do not mean Universalism, but universal in the sense that His provision was world-wide and He would enter into loving fellowship with all. He is not narrow nor partisan nor restricted, as the sectarianist, in His sympathies. He can not be limited in His love to one sect. The party spirit would limit the Holy Spirit; but He has nothing for one He would not gladly share with all. We are limited in our conceptions of the Spirit of Christ; He was not colloquial or provincial in His vision of service; though reared in a despised province in a small town and His people being the narrowest of the narrow and the most exclusive of the exclusive, He did what few ever do, rose above the interests of family, community, province, nation, and religious training, broke over the narrow exclusive Jewish traditions, saw other men of other nations as dear to God as the chosen nation, and spoke in world terms of the love of God: "God so loved the world, " not the Jewish world. Oh, thank God that,

Our religious speech has a foreign accent, a brogue, a twang, that gives us away; that shows we have not yet drunk deeply into His Spirit. As P. W. Wilson wrote of Peter, his Galilean accent nearly cost him his life; he had never been able to rise above it, as some foreigners w.ho come to our shores always talk with an accent which shows that they have not perfectly mastered our language "Peter thou are one of His disciples, thy speech betrayeth thee; thou art from Galilee, thou talkest with the Galilean accent." That is the trouble with much of our Christianity; we talk with an accent; our religious talk is not purely what Paul terms conversation in heaven; it does not minister grace to the hearers, it is rather in the adroit speech, the subtle art of the proselytizer, ever alert to make converts to his sect -- we do not so purely speak that men are added to the Lord: our converts are the converts of men not of Christ, often, and zealots for a sect rather than in fellowship with a Person! A man's speech will soon give him away culturally and we do not talk long with our religious accent until we give our little knowledge of the pure spirit of Christ away. We are sectional; we sing,

Aggressiveness: His was the aggressive spirit. He was an itinerant. He said at an early period of His life, "Wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business for therefore am I sent." He walked all over Palestine to preach the Gospel. He said, "I must go to other towns." "I must work the works of Him that sent Me while it is day." "I have a baptism to be baptized with and how am I straitened till it be accomplished." The proof of His anointing with the Holy Ghost was that He went about doing good. It is a very interesting study to list all the individuals He helped. W, hen He would retire to the wilderness for a brief respite it was to recuperate so that He might soon return to the Father's work. If we have His spirit we too will be filled with a Divine enthusiasm to go about declaring the glad tidings of the kingdom of God; to do all in our power to help others go: we will do all in our power to do good to the bodies and souls of men, having the helpful accommodating spirit of the Master.

His aggressiveness was not spent in building systems, but men, in holy character. He was never diverted from His life mission as outlined by the Father to Him, which, in His own words was to: "Finish the Father's work ("I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do").

To give men the Father's words ("The word which thou hast given to me I have given to them").

To manifest the Father's name ("I have manifested thy Name to the men which thou hast given me").

To glorify the Father: "I have glorified thee."

What pressure is brought to bear on the minister today to seek to engage him in things foreign to the program of Christ.

Another element of the Spirit of Christ we wish briefly to consider, was His Spirit of consideration and thoughtfulness of others:

He never injured anybody nor took advantage of anybody; He was ever careful to avoid doing so. How thoughtless we have been! The law of His life was so thoroughly to think of and serve others that it became a habit with him so that until the last He demonstrated this rule "Bear ye one another's burdens and so fulfil the law of Christ."

Some see the significance in the silence of the Gospels about Joseph after the record of the taxation when Jesus was twelve years old; the inference is that Joseph died shortly after this event and that Jesus being the oldest child of the seven recorded children of Joseph and Mary must assume the responsibility for their support.

If his is so it is a touching reference to the thoughtfulness of Jesus toward others. And it is thought by others that the reference to the widow and the unjust judge is an incident from the experience of His own widowed mother. There is abundant proof that from an early age He was abundant in good works for others: His subjection to His parents implies much helpful service to them in the rearing of a large family. Thoughtfulness of others and doing good to them was the habit of His life and will be of ours if we have His spirit. The basic axiom in Geometry is that things which are equal to the same thing are equal to each other. That is so of the Spirit of Christ. In His heart and in the reader's had in the writer's heart the Spirit is the same and as that Spirit prompted Christ to helpful service to others as the rule of life He will likewise prompt us. See Him not only through part of life but in the last hours of life exemplify this law. On the way to the cross when groaning under the heavy weight of the cross and when exhausted and faint from the stirring scenes He had but recently passed through; and worn from a life more occupied than any with arduous activities, as the mothers of Jerusalem line the Via Dolorosa and weep for the suffering Saviour and the awful agony before Him on Calvary, He is so forgetful of self and so thoughtful of others that He tells them not to weep for Him but to weep for themselves and their children for the miseries which are coming on them. When He is finally nailed to the tree the life habit of thoughtfulness of others is so strong on Him that He exercises it to the last. Turning around, amid excruciating suffering, he calls to John His thought of His mother. "Behold thy mother!" He would rather she be with the apostle of love. He so far forgets His own sufferings that He remembers the cry of the penitent thief and assures him that that day he would be with Him in Paradise. Then finally remembering the poor demonized murderers He prays, "Father forgive them, they know not what they do." Oh, for the thoughtfulness of Christ for others! There is a touching incident told of Father Taylor of the Seamen's Bethel, Boston, when he was in his eighty-fifth year: someone was leading him past a full length mirror and, Father Taylor's eyesight being dim, he saw but faintly the image of an old man in the mirror, and thinking he was some stranger he cried out as was the habit of his soul-saving life: "Old man, you had better give your heart to Jesus." We may attain to that -- doing good to others -- a spontaneous habit!