Dear Jack and Betty,

As you know I came to South Street Church last Sunday to hear you make your promise and to see you receive the right hand of fellowship, and during that short ceremony I saw something else. I glanced at your mother and father and saw them thrilled with joy as they watched their children joining the same family Church where they themselves had worshipped for so long. I saw the light of thankfulness in their eyes that the great decisions had been made and heard in the prayer in their hearts that our Heavenly Father would give those children help and strength to fight the good fight in the years ahead. You will need those prayers, for the Christian way of life is not easy. Never forget that Christ needs you young people, too. He needs the passion and enthusiasm of youth for it is to you we shall have to look now for the Great Revival of the 20th century. 

Now I am almost to the last of my letters and I must hurry on for my self imposed task is nearly finished.

We now come to the history of the last 100 years or so. Some of it is within the memory of those older members of the Churches still with us today. To cover adequately the activities of the Congregational Union of England and Wales would take a long time and I can only give you the barest outline. To start with it covers a period of over 100 years. During these years the tendency of Congregational Churches has been towards the centre. I do not think it could be challenged if I say that in recent years the tide has been running stronger than ever in this direction.

Here is a list of some of the outstanding achievements of the Union:-

1. It published the first Congregational Hymn Book and has kept it in the forefront of modern hymn books by publishing revised editions at intervals. The Congregational Hymnary was published in 1916 and has been our standard hymn book for 34 years. It is now, however, superseded by Congregational Praise. 
2. It has raised vast sums of money for various purposes, among them being a fund in 1862 to celebrate the Bicentenary of the Ejectment - another raised in 1881 to commemorate the Union's jubilee as a third in 1899 to inaugurate the new century. These funds were mainly used to build chapels, etc.
   
   Subsequent funds have all been centrally controlled by the Union and include:-
   1. a fund raised between 1909-1912 of £250,000 called the central fund aimed at raising Ministerial stipends to a minimum of £120 per annum;
   2. £500,000 raised in 1921 called the Forward Movement Fund. One-fifth of this was given to Missionary Societies and the remainder used to establish a Ministers' Superannuation Fund and the maintenance of the Moderators;
   3. £500,000 raised during the war years (1940-45) called the Reconstruction Fund for the purpose of helping to rebuild churches whose premises had been demolished by bombing; and
   4. the present Home Churches Fund designed to bring all Ministers' stipends to a minimum of £300.
3. The appointment of nine Moderators in the Country whose duty it is to help and advise churches where desired, to assist in the removal and settlement of Ministers and generally act as an inspirational force.

It may interest you to read what Dr. Peel said regarding the growth of large central funds controlled by the Union. Here it is:-

"The growth of these funds and the increased activities of the National and County Unions provide one of the supreme tests for Congregationalism. It is not easy for a Union to allow a Church to be independent when it is being furnished with financial aid and when perhaps it persists in doing things which appear foolish to the Union's officers. With every increase in the central funds and in the power of organised Congregationalism there must be a corresponding increase in the vigour of the independent churches, a renewed sense of the presence of Christ in the midst of His people, if true Congregationalism is to survive. With more provision made for the support and superannuation of ministers there must be a parallel increase in the spirit of adventure in the Ministry if the work of the Church of Christ is to be adequately performed. If the churches come to rely on Unions for support rather than on their own efforts allies to the leading of the Divine Spirit, the time of decay is at hand. If Congregationalism ever becomes a safe and static things it is doomed. With every improvement in organisation for increase of efficiency in denominational machinery, there must be in the churches a more alert understanding of the Will of God, a speedier grasping of opportunities of service and a more ready adaptation to changing circumstances."

And here are two further extracts from the same source:-

"In forms of worship, too, there have been developments, though here perhaps the greatest conservatism of all is manifest. There is, however, an increasing willingness to make use of both silence and of some liturgical elements in the worship of the churches, and the old uniformity with its two lessons and a 'long prayer' is breaking down. It is recognised that here again Congregationalism must be willing to experiment. Forms of worship are not sacrosanct, whether they have come down unchanged for a couple of centuries or whether they arrive steaming hot from a Country Secretary's office or a Moderators' meeting. Once again the churches have to be prepared to be led by the Spirit into new ways."

And the second extract:-

"We have seen that Congregationalism has no formal creed. It does not believe that men said in the first, the fourth, or the sixteenth century the final word about the things of God. It holds that the Lord has yet more light and truth to break forth and is still making His ways known to men."

Next month I shall conclude these letters with a brief summary of Congregationalism and what it stands for.

Your affectionate
​Uncle

The book of the Acts of the Apostles, as its name implies, is chiefly concerned with the work of the early Christian leaders - men called and chosen by God and endowed with special insight into the meaning of the Gospel. Without them there could have been no Christian Church. They are as essential to it as the prophets were to Israel. 

But Christianity did not spread rapidly across the world only through the preaching of the Apostles. There must have been thousands of laymen too, their names now lost, who carried the message everywhere. The success of the Gospel in its encounter with pagan society was as much due to this hidden and unrecorded work as to anything.

The message which the anonymous lay Christians took with them was probably a very simple one, lacking in theological subtlety. Perhaps it could be summed up in the three words, "Jesus is Lord". And yet it was this message which had the power to turn the world upside down. 

For the Jew, oppressed with a legalism he could not fulfil, hedged about with regulations and dominated by an ecclesiastical authority, the message brought a sense of joyous freedom. In the name of One who had declared Himself Lord even of the Sabbath the converted Jew dropped a religion which had become a burden for him to carry and in exchange found a faith which carried him.

Men who lived in terror of evil spirits found in the message One who was stronger than they. Millions who had been taught that the stars in their courses determined life, and who therefore felt themselves to be helpless victims of fate, learned that Jesus is Lord of the heavens no less than of the earth. The cold state of religion of the Roman Empire, which could satisfy no human heart, was undermined, because Jesus had claimed lordship over every earthly power, and taught that a man's conscience did not belong to Caesar. And the sad dignity of the Stoic was transformed into the courage of the martyr, willing to give his life not as a lonely illustration of virtue in the face of adversity, but as a triumphant vindication of the truth that Jesus is indeed the Lord. 

Our situation to-day is very different from that in which the early Church found itself. Behind us are centuries of Christianity, and this constitutes both an advantage and a disadvantage. Many feel that Christianity has been weighed in the balance and found wanting, and this makes our task doubly hard. But there are points of similarity between our world and that ancient world into which Christianity came. Like the men of those times we are conscious of an increasing pessimism. Like them we are conscious, too, of a prevailing moral and spiritual decay. And like them we feel as though something massive and inhuman were weighing upon us - in their case the Roman Empire, in ours the growing power of modern industrial states which it seems no man can direct or control.

Our world knows no Imperial cult, but it knows nationalist self idolatry. It does not know physical slavery, at least in the West, but it knows desperate poverty and economic slavery. The Roman arena has gone, but much of modern life is equally vicious and unhappy. 

The need today is for the same message - "Jesus is Lord". And the method for releasing the transforming power which that message contains must be the same too. It is not enough to leave the propagation of the faith to parsons and professional religious teachers. For one thing there are not enough of them. For another their work only touches a tiny fringe of life. What is needed is for every Christian to shoulder part of the responsibility for evangelism which is laid upon the whole Church. Not all are called to preach sermons. But all may do something to influence others with the truth that Jesus is Lord.

This should be felt with special force by Congregationalists at the present time. For we have now been called to enter the next phase of the Forward Movement, and this means that every Congregational Church is invited to undertake an evangelistic Mission during the coming year. 

Such a task should not be entered upon lightly. It involves much more than a series of meetings conducted by special speakers. What is required is that the Church as a Church should earnestly seek to win others for the Christian faith, and every member should ask himself how best he can take a share in this.

If you are in sympathy with these aims, will you make a point of attending Church meetings during the next few months, especially if you are one who seldom comes? We need some sign that the Church has been touched in its heart by the need for evangelism. A sudden and substantial increase in attendance at Church meetings would be one way of giving a silent witness that this is so, and would be an encouragement to us all.

Nothing can be done now, however, without personal preparation and dedication, and each member is soon to be asked to subscribe to the following covenant, which will be published with our new Constitution. Let us use it as a starting point for a missionary enterprise.

"The members of Romford Congregational Church desire to live in absolute dependence upon the grace of God in Jesus Christ, and own in Him their only Lord, Saviour, and Mediator. Praying for strength to stand by the covenant into which Almighty God has graciously entered with the whole Church of Christ, they solemnly bind themselves to strive to love and serve Him with all their hearts, and to walk in unbroken Christian fellowship with one another."

Dear Jack and Betty,

We come now to the last few years of the 18th century and the first 30 or so of the 19th. Up to now each Independent Church had been a little unit of its own, its horizon mainly limited to the particular locality in which it was situated. It had little or no contact with and not much knowledge of other Independent Churches.

The first step in doing something together was the formation of the London Missionary Society (affectionately known to us as the L.M.S.) in the year 1795. While Independent Churches formed the backbone of its support among its sponsors were many other Evangelical Churches. This was in itself a big step forward and it had the result of showing clearly that together Independent Churches could do things it was impossible to do alone.

In the early 19th century Independents began to realise that there was a real and desperate need for Home as well as Foreign missions. Local churches near enough to be able to work together formed small associations from which itinerant preachers and evangelists were sent out to spread the gospel. A first these associations were nothing more than a "getting together" of a few ministers but gradually over the years they became more ambitious until finally they blossomed out into full County Unions. In the first 20 years of the 19th century many large County Unions came into existence and did grand work for the extension of Congregationalism in their particular County. 

Naturally as the years went by there grew up a demand for a larger Union. One that would combine all the county unions into one for the Country. There were many reasons for the growth of this demand, among them being:-

(a) The growth of the Wesleyan Methodists, who, tightly controlled from a central office, were able to produce convincing statistics of their strength and membership - something which the Independent Churches were unable to do;

(b) the fact that many itinerant preachers sent out by local or County Unions were having a very difficult time. They experienced hostility and opposition, sometimes very bitter, from Anglican Churches, and this brought Independent Churches more and more together in sympathy and fellowship;

(c) the outstanding success of the L.M.S. which by now was well established and showing Independents what could be done by getting together.

But there were great objections to a full union from many of the Independents themselves. One of the strongest arguments against Union was that they were independent and that by joining together they would lose their independency and become merely another "sect". Many attempts were made, many schemes drawn up but all came to nothing. But the movement for Union was too strong to be resisted indefinitely; indeed in the long run it was inevitable. In the year 1832 it became an accomplished fact when the first Congregational Union of England and Wales was formed. Its constitution was very carefully drawn up. Under each Church retained its independency to govern its own affairs, appoint its own ministers and worship as it desired. The powers of the Union were very strictly limited to matters that concerned the Churches as a whole. One of the safeguards was that the Union was not to become a legislative authority or a court of appeal.

During the last 100 years various amendments to the Constitution have been made. In the main these have tended to give more power and authority to the Union, but through all the years independency of the local churches has been jealously safeguarded.

I will try and tell you a little of the work of the Union in my next letter.

You affectionate,
​Uncle

I want to discuss with you three ways in which people sometimes react to troubles. Let us call them the way of the Stoic, the way of the Jew, and the way of the Christian.

Although Jeremiah certainly had no spiritual affinity with Stoicism there is a text in the book bearing his name which expresses very well what I mean by the way of the Stoic. It reads like this. "Woe is me for my hurt! My wound is grievous: but I said, Truly this is a grief, and I must bear it." (Jeremiah 10:19)

Thousands of people with no religious faith show admirable courage in the face of suffering and loss by adopting this attitude. They bear their troubles manfully and in silence. Sometimes they even grin and bear them. They scorn to whine or complain or look for pity, feeling that the dignity of a human being forbids it, and in this matter many pagans put some Christians to shame. Theirs is part of the routine heroism of the world. It happens every day, is not confined to religious people and does not depend on a divine revelation. But nevertheless this is a threadbare cloak to draw about oneself when the wind is bitter.

What else has religion to offer?

The Jew strove to adjust himself to all kinds by accepting it as from the hands of a just and holy God. This point of view is well expressed in the book of Job, where Job says, "Shall we receive good at the hand of God and shall we not receive evil?" In this attitude great strength and consolation is sometimes found. Submission to the will of an all wise Creator whose decrees must never be questioned gives to many the courage they need to get through life.

A glance at the hymn book, and conversation with many Christians, will show that this essentially Old Testament idea is sometimes not much enlarged by an experience of the Christian Gospel. In fact some Christians deal with misfortune as a Jew might. They know nothing better than to attempt submission to the will of a God who "knows best". Hymn Thy Way, not Mine is full of the atmosphere of a patient submission. Thus verse four reads,

Take Thou my cup, and it
With joy or sorrow fill,
As best to Thee may seem;
​Choose Thou my good and ill.

Some Christian buttress this thought by reflecting that our true joys are in heaven, not in this vale of sorrows, and that it is wrong to expect much happiness on earth. Hymn I'm But a Stranger Here begins in this not very inspiring strain: -

I'm but a stranger here,
Heaven is my home;
Earth is a desert drear,
Heaven is my home.

The question is whether Jesus thought the earth was a desert drear, and whether the highest Christian ideal in face of sorrow is truly expressed in the prayer for a "heart resigned, submissive, meek."

I do not wish to imply that there is no truth or health in this sentiment. A Christian no less than a Jew desires to accept the will of God and knows that "now we fight the battle, but then shall wear the crown." Nevertheless an emphasis upon acceptance of sorrow is not, as I hope to show, a fully Christian one, and may imply a sub-Christian conception of God.

Now let us turn our thought to the words of Jesus, uttered, according to the Fourth Evangelist, on the occasion of His arrest. "The cup which my Father has given Me, shall I not drink it?" This was said to Peter, who wished to resist with violence, and it seems at first sight to imply the Cross ought to be accepted as from God.

But God did not nail Jesus to the Cross. His enemies did that. We cannot identify the will of God with the will of Caiaphas. That His Heavenly Father required of Jesus an obedience which would involve the Cross, and that the Cross was made to serve the highest Divine purpose, is true. But that is very different from supposing that in the hour of His Passion our Lord accepted suffering as an act of God.

​No sorrow is like unto His sorrow, but here at the Cross we may reverently learn something of the Christian approach to all suffering.

In the first place many things are permitted by God which are not willed by Him. In our darkest hour let us at least remember that. We are to trust Him as a Heavenly Father in all circumstances. But we are not to suppose that all circumstances come from His hand, although all circumstances are in His hand.

Most of our troubles can be traced back to human ignorance, or sin or foolishness (our own or another's, or that which belongs corporately to the race); or else to laws of nature which operate, I incline to believe, in a certain measure independently of God. We are often dishonest with ourselves when we forger this. Sometimes what people finally resign themselves to as the will of God is something they have been doing everything in their power to avoid. In fact we often attribute to the will of God those things which we cannot control, and for no better reason. At the present time thousands of human beings die every year of cancer, and Christian people contribute money to cancer research in the hope that a cure may be found. And yet in how many homes is a loved one who died of this disease spoken of as "taken" by God? People who say they cannot understand why such as good man should have suffered so much imply that their sorrow is due to a Divine decree. In that case every penny contributed towards cancer research is an attempt to frustrate the will of God. And if we shrink from such a blasphemous absurdity let us also shrink from the belief that God "sends" all our troubles to us. 

The struggle of a protesting, suffering heart to accept some tragic happening as in some hidden way "good" for it can be very distressing and is quite unnecessary. Christian piety is not blind obedience to an inscrutable authority, but trust is a heavenly Father. And when it is desperately hard to maintain such a faith try to remember these three simple things. (1) Whatever happens to us God has permitted to happen, though He may not have willed it. (2) God can use what has happened, even when it is not His will, so that in the end it will be seen to have served His purposes. (3) Ultimately God's will must prevail, and even now, since evil and suffering only exist by permission and not in their own strength, God is in complete control. 

This, however, is only one side of the Christian response to suffering, and it is the negative side. Jesus accepted the Cross, indeed He took it up, as the inevitable result of obedience to God. But He did more than receive it. He also offered it, as at the Last Supper when He gave the cup to His disciples and bade them share it amongst themselves, telling them that His death was to be something accomplished on their behalf.

Of course it is futile to compare the sufferings of Christ with ordinary human experience. But in the fact that His cup was both received and offered we may learn something which has a practical application to ourselves. The most Christian response to suffering is surely to ask oneself, not "How can I put up with this?", but "How can I offer this to God? In what way can it be found that a trouble can be turned into an offering, and in so doing we transform it into a creative source of life for other people instead of a drag upon ourselves. I think, for instance, of a woman lying in a hospital ward for many months, her twisted body offering vert little hope of future happiness for herself. And yet it was quite from her cheerful and trusting spirit that she was determined to do something with her situation which would be of service to other people. I think she was a source of courage and reassurance for everyone else in that place. I believe her life was a daily offering to God.

A pagan can bear his troubles manfully. A Jew can submit to them obediently. But only a Christian can offer them lovingly.

"If I stoop
Into a dark, tremendous sea of cloud
It is but for a time; I press God's lamp
Close to my breast; its splendour, soon or late
Will pierce the gloom: I shall emerge one day."

Dear Jack and Betty,

During the reign of Charles II thousands of Nonconformists were imprisoned for failure to comply with the various Acts of Parliament aimed at their extinction - and imprisonment often meant death. There is an estimate that between five and eight thousand died in prison during Charles' reign. Yet, although driven underground they were never exterminated. One of the noted men of the time was John Bunyan who, during imprisonment, wrote that most famous and well loved book "Pilgrim's Progress". Bunyan was later called to be minister of the Congregational Church at Bedford, a church which bears his name to this day.

In 1665 occurred the Great Plague of London. Many clergymen fled from their Churches in panic and in the general breakdown of the city's normal life which the plague caused, many Nonconformists slipped into the vacant pulpits. Their courage in visitation and work during this period made a great impression and may have resulted in the Declaration of Indulgence of 1672 which gave them three years of liberty. During these three years many new Independent Churches were formed but in 1675 persecution broke out again and went on for another 10 years. Then in 1685 James II (a Roman Catholic) came to the throne and in trying his best to help the Roman Catholics he was obliged (probably unwillingly) to give Non-conformists some relief.

A few years after, James II lost his throne to William of Orange (a Protestant) and in 1689 the Toleration Act relieved them of persecution. There was, however, nothing generous about the Toleration Act. It did nothing more than make them safe from further persecution but there was still a lot of feeling against them and they had to suffer many indignities. Many times their meetings were broken up and socially they were almost outcasts among their fellows, but they were safe.

Now Nonconformity began to grow apace. The three main denominations, Presbyterian, Independents and Baptists, built about 1,000 churches (or meeting houses) in the 20 years following the Toleration Act. In the main the congregations were small and the churches poor; the services were simple to the point of austerity; the sermons and prayers were long.

Now, strangely enough a blight fell on Independent Churches. The great progress of the previous 20 years was halted - slowly but surely decay began to set in. Dr. Peel describes it thus:-

"Persecution had stiffened Nonconformist convictions; tolerance resulted in the weakening and slackening of moral fibre. The old religious earnestness disappeared, as did the sense of joy and privilege in belonging to a Church composed of Christian believers. It is as true as it is suggestive that 'An enquiry into the Cause of the Decay of the Dissenting Interest' (1730) gives as the first and primary cause 'Ignorance of their own principles'."

A further reason for the decay was a social one. The old Independent stalwarts had died and their children did not possess the convictions of their fathers. They found that as Independents they were looked upon as "cranks" - the social pull of the Anglican Church had its effects and many members and even some ministers went over to the Church of England. The whole of Christianity in this country was at a low ebb. The old burning zeal had been lost. The old insistence on purity of life had disappeared. Men were careless of religion, prayer and worship. They ceased to be scrupulous about their amusements and began to worship the gods of pleasure and money. Men had in fact, for a time, lost the sense of God's presence. 

And here, perhaps, I can break my narration for a short space. As I wrote this description of religious life in the early 18th century, I was struck with its similarity to our own times now. Are we going through a similar phase today? Are we today putting too much stress on material things, on getting on in life? Have we of this generation lost the sense of God's presence? Perhaps you young people will just put this down to the moralising of an older man. It may be so, but I feel this generation has lost something and we have to find it before the great revival can start. Come it will I am certain. There is more than personal faith in this statement. It is the lesson history teaches.

Certainly a great Evangelical revival came in the 18th century. Wesley and Whitefield went through the land proclaiming the gospel with passionate intensity. The Sunday School movement commenced and men's thoughts turned towards missionary work. Revival spread throughout the length and breadth of our land. Congregationalists played a great part in this revival and Independent Churches acquired a keen sense of their responsibility for the Evangelisation of the world. Suddenly Congregationalists saw the terrific magnitude of the task ahead and they saw that while a Church independent and alone could deal with the problems in its own immediate neighbourhood something larger was required if the task of evangelising the world was to be attempted.

How we faced up to that task and its results I will tell you in my next letter.

Ever your affectionate
Uncle

1. The Biblical View of History
The Biblical view of History can best be indicated by comparing Isaiah 40:3-4 with the first chapter of Ecclesiastes. The writer of this section of Ecclesiastes, though a Jew, has a pagan spirit. For him there is "no new thing under the sun". History can best be represented as a circle. "The thing that hath been it is that which shall be".

Deutero-Isaiah, on the other hand, has a view of history which is Biblical through and through. The verse containing the words "make straight in the desert a highway for our God" sums up the whole matter. In this thought history may best be symbolised not by a circle but by a straight line. The human race is on a road, not a roundabout. History is moving towards an ultimate and triumphant conclusion. Time is therefore an all important element in experience, and this is why the Biblical writers are in the main concerned with meaningful events rather than ideas.

Western man derives his view of history, and in particular his conception of progress, from the Bible.

2. The Lord of History
The Biblical view of history is accounted for by the Biblical view of God. God is creator and Lord of History. As creator He is necessarily above events in this world, and ultimately in control of them. Nevertheless the Bible stresses the immanence of God, and reveals Him as actively at work within world events.

3. The Holy Spirit History
To say God is active in History is to say that the Holy Spirit is active there. For the Holy Spirit is not a vague influence for good, but the life of God Himself as actually encountered by us in the world. 

Two things are to be observed about the world of the Holy Spirit.

1. According to the Bible the Spirit's activity is always associated with the Word of God - the declaration of the Divine will and intention - just as a man's breath is always involved in his speech. Spirit and Word come inevitably together. 
2. The Spirit works in and through persons or communities to whom some Word of God has been addressed.

In addition to this it should be noted that the Spirit is thought of as active in all the works of nature, as well as in personal life. But then the natural world only comes into existence through the Word of God. "God said, Let there be light, and there was light".

The Bible would have us recognise the activity of the Holy Spirit in history through the following Divinely elected ways.

• (a) In and through the human race, as such.
  All men experience some measure of the Spirit, otherwise they would not be human. All men are conscious of responsibility, even though they often resist or ignore it, and in this awareness they acknowledge that a Word from God has come to them calling them into responsible existence. Thus the Word and the Spirit are really part of the experience of everyone. (See the works of Emil Brunner for the development of this idea.)
• (b) In and through Israel, the chosen people.
  Chosen to minister to the whole race Israel has, through its history, experienced a special measure of the Spirit. This is because a special Word came to Israel, calling it into special responsibility. That is why we owe to the Jew all our most profound religious insights.
• (c) In and through individual prophets.
  We owe more to Israel's prophets than we realise. Through the unique and personal Word of God which came to them they experienced an indwelling of the Spirit which enabled to interpret that nation's mission to it. Without them Israel would have been blind to the meaning of its existence.
• (d) In and through the Messiah.
  Through Israel the work of the Spirit in history leads to the most important event of all - the Incarnation, the coming of Jesus, the Word made flesh. Our Lord reveals God and He also defines Man. As He reconciled the world to God, so he showed the meaning of human life, and the end to which is moving in the Kingdom of God.

4. The Holy Spirit in the Church
Henceforth the Holy Spirit, though active everywhere, is shaping the course of history through the New Israel, the Christian Church. The Church alone has heard and received the full Word of God which is in Christ, and therefore it is through the Church that the Spirit will realise the Kingdom of God on earth. That is why Christianity is, in Christopher Dawson's phrase, "a world changing religion". The restless enterprise of Western man, though seldom related to religious ends and often evil in its result, is nevertheless due to the impact of Christianity. It is no coincidence that empirical science has flowered in the West and not the East, where religion preserves a static culture for centuries, but provides no impulse for bringing a new kind of world into existence. For the religions of the East time is an illusion, For the Christian faith time, and therefore history, is the loom of God.

5. The Holy Spirit in the Contemporary Situation
Today Christianity exists under the menace of atheistic Communism. It must be remembered that the Communist view of history is in many essentials derived from the Bible (Marx was a Jew). This accounts for its dynamic and revolutionary character. Communism is a perversion of Christianity.

But if God is the Lord of History the present situation has not emerged by accident and cannot get out of control. There is a Word of judgement in it - upon the world, because it has rejected Christ again in this generation, but also upon the Church because it has sought to accept Christ on its own terms.

The Holy Spirit is certainly active in the present scene of world affairs - perhaps forcing us, through events, to take Christianity seriously once and for all. Rest assured that the Work of the Spirit, which we have seen running like a thread through all the centuries, cannot be frustrated by anything men have power to do. History will not end with an atom bomb. It will end when He who began it has finished what He is doing in it.