The Gospel for the World 
 
 Sermon 
 
 by the 
 
 Rev. WM. HENRY ROBERTS., D.D., LL.D. 
 
 Moderator 
 

 
The Gospel for the World 
 
 SERMON 
 by the 
 
 Rev. WM. HENRY ROBERTS, D.D., LL.D. 
 
 Moderator 
 
 At the Opening of the 120th General 
 Assembly of the Presbyterian 
 Church in the U. S. A. 
 
 Kansas City, Mo. 
 
 May 21, 1908 
 
 T 
 
 PHILADELPHIA, PA. 
 1908 
 

 
 
 
“The Gospel for the World.” 
 
 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only 
 begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not 
 perish, but have everlasting life.” (John iii : 16.) 
 
 These words are the old but ever new story, new in every individual 
 Christian experience, and in the history of the successive Christian generations. 
 Coming from lips clothed with divine authority they appeal to men every- 
 where, whatever their circumstances, and are appropriate to both personal and 
 worldwide conditions. The ideas contained in them are great beyond all 
 adequate comprehension; but when accepted as truths their entrance into the 
 mind involves mental expansion, satisfying knowledge and the inspiration of a 
 deathless hope. Divine in their source, they are in their application the 
 supply of deepest human needs. The heart of the Gospel of the Son of God, 
 they reveal the divine purpose in the advent of Jesus Christ upon earth, and 
 the mission which He fulfills in and through His disciples and His Church. 
 
 Our subject is “The Gospel for the World.” In the consideration of this 
 subject, thought will be developed along the lines naturally suggested by the 
 text. The ideas contained therein are familiar to all, and their restatement 
 will be profitable in dew of present religious conditions. 
 
 I. Consider first the fundamental facts of the Gospel — the things which 
 give to it meaning and make it a Gospel for the world. 
 
 (1) The basic fact is the universal need of mankind. The world is by nature 
 a lost world, and it is only as this fact is realized by the human mind with such 
 distinctness that it becomes a conviction, that the ideas which are contained 
 in the Gospel have full value and power. Christian thinking starts, not with 
 individuals, or with a nation or race, but with a world steeped in that sin 
 whose end inevitably is destruction. Everywhere graven into the heart of 
 things is found the law: “The soul that sinneth it shall die.” Heredity, 
 which modem science so emphasizes in relation to all life, is simply a new way 
 of putting the old doctrine of “original sin,” the doctrine which, while it 
 recognizes the good which exists both in the individual and in the world, 
 nevertheless clearly announces that the rule of evil in human fife, if a way of 
 salvation be not found, means inevitably deterioration, degeneracy, persistent 
 wickedness and everlasting ruin. Men can no more save themselves by their 
 own unaided efforts than they can overcome the law of gravitation by trying to 
 lift themselves by their own shoestraps. A world left to its own redemptive 
 powers is a world doomed to eternal death. The word “perish” in our text 
 is universal in its relations, sets forth a need vide and age-long as humanity, 
 and is weighty with the solemnities of divine justice and eternal destiny. 
 
 (2) The second fact dealt with in the text is God, who is the only source 
 of the supply of the universal need. The Divine Being is the most certain 
 fact of the universe, as He is likewise its greatest mystery. The mystery does 
 
but deepen the impressiveness of the fact, and it is one of the excellencies of the 
 Christian faith that it does not grope after God amid the fogs of doubt, or the 
 mists of philosophic speculation, or the fancies of a poetic imagination, but 
 apprehends clearly that infinite being who is the Creator and Ruler of all 
 things, the author and sustainer of all being, and in whose goodness the 
 world of mankind can alone find refuge, comfort, strength and the assurance 
 of the supply of its deepest need, deliverance from sin and it^ consequences. 
 The realization of the existence of a Supreme Being is at the basis of all hope 
 for the salvation of the world, and is natural to all human beings possessed of 
 reasonably clear intelligence. It is only the fool who hath said in his heart, 
 “there is no God.” 
 
 (3) From thought of the fact of God let us advance to thought upon that 
 which is the moving power for the supply of human need, the love which the 
 Gospel alone reveals as an attribute of the divine nature. That love is natural 
 to God is suggested to us by the relationship set forth in the text between God 
 and Jesus Christ. It is well in dealing with the revelation contained in 
 Scripture to note how the family idea in connection with God is one which 
 persistently makes its appearance in the words of our Lord. Christ invariably 
 uses, concerning the relation between God and Himself, the word “Father.” 
 Whenever any Scripture record is made of speech on the part of God to 
 Christ, the sonship of Jesus is recognized therein. At the baptism by John the 
 Baptist, the voice which came from Heaven announced our Lord’s sonship in 
 definite words, “This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” A 
 Father and an only begotten Son, such is the revelation which the text makes 
 as to the nature of the God-head. It reveals the fact that at the heart of the 
 universe, guiding its destinies, there has always been, and there will always con- 
 tinue to be, a gracious, holy, loving, divine household — Father, Son and Holy 
 Spirit. God is love, because God from all eternity is a Father, and God loves 
 the world because His is the heart of the eternal Father. The wonder, as we 
 reflect upon the social nature of God, is that there arc so few suggestions in 
 human literature of a belief in the divine affection for man. There are traces, 
 it is true, in pagan and heathen writings of faith in a great All-Father, caring for 
 the many, directing all lives, and meteing out at the close of life rewards and 
 punishments. But providential care and the administration of justice are not 
 love. It is only in the Scriptures that the idea of love in connection with God 
 is communicated to the minds of men. And it is the Son of God alone who in 
 His words reveals fully and clearly the truth as to the divine love for man, and 
 emphasizes the fact that the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is the 
 God whose goodness is impartial. What men have been or are, in any and all 
 circumstances, is neither a limit upon, nor the reason for, the love of God for 
 them. His love for the world arises out of His nature. God is love, and 
 therefore was and is it the fact that, though the world was and is lost in sin, 
 though it merits only condemnation, yet “God loved the world.” 
 
 (4) Consider now the method of the manifestation of the divine love 
 toward the world in the person of Jesus Christ. Gifts gather value from three 
 considerations — the character of the giver, the need of the recipients, and the 
 nature of the gift. The character of the giver referred to in our text suffi- 
 ciently appears in the declaration that it is God, the infinitely holy, just and 
 loving Supreme Being. The world lay under condemnation, a lost world. 
 Its supreme need, therefore, w r as a Saviour able to save unto the uttermost, 
 and that Saviour God gave to the world as a gift. And what a gift unspeak- 
 
 [4] 
 
able He was! Few indeed are they among men and women who would give a 
 beloved child to suffering and death in order to bring salvation, either in this 
 life or the life which is to come, even to a friend. But God, looking upon a 
 lost world, a world hostile to Himself in its desires and conduct, gave for its 
 salvation not a human being, not an angel or an archangel, but His only 
 begotten Son. The gift which God gave was the one being who was the 
 express image of His own person, the brightness of the divine glory. Never 
 was there such a gift, nor ever will there be its duplicate. There is but one 
 Christ, there is but one only begotten Son of the Father, and Him the Father 
 gave to be uplifted upon a Cross, that dying thereon, He through His death 
 might be “ the propitiation for our sins, and not for our’s only, but also for the 
 sins of the whole world.” Bethlehem and Calvary unite in making Christ as a 
 Saviour the all-sufficient Saviour for the world, and fill with the radiance of 
 sunsliine the words, “God so loved the world.” 
 
 (5) Think next upon the simplicity and availability of the condition of 
 salvation required by the Gospel, as indicated by the word “believeth.” It is 
 faith which is the one condition of salvation, and faith is a simple, natural 
 operation of the mind, a receiving and resting upon Christ alone for salvation, 
 as He is offered in the Gospel. It is a belief in His promises and a looking to 
 Him alone for their fulfillment. How divinely appropriate this condition to 
 the nature and needs of all men! It is faith, not character, that saves; for if 
 character be insisted upon, such as the divine law requires, then no soul can be 
 saved. It is faith that saves, not works ; for if works be the condition of 
 salvation, then no infant dying in infancy can be among the number of the 
 elect. It is faith, not perseverance in a Christian course; for if a fife of godly 
 service be the condition of salvation, then the penitent thief is not to-day with 
 Christ in glory. The condition of salvation is solely that faith which is the 
 outgoing of the heart in trust, confidence and love toward Jesus Christ, and 
 whose results in human life are the good works to which believers are fore- 
 ordained. 
 
 (6) Note further the Gospel’s universal proffer of salvation contained in 
 the words “whosoever believeth.” Calvin, in his commentary’ on the Gospel 
 of John, writes concerning the words of Christ in the text in the following 
 manner: “And He has employed the universal term ‘whosoever’ both to 
 invite all indiscriminately to partake of fife and to cut off every excuse from 
 unbelievers. Such is also the import of the term ‘world’ which He formerly 
 used; for though nothing will be found in the world that is worthy of the favor 
 of God, yet He shows Himself to be reconciled to the whole world when He 
 invites all men without exception to the faith of Christ, which is nothing else 
 than an entrance into fife.” There are no discriminations known to Christ in 
 connection with the offer of His salvation. He wiio gathered up little children 
 in His human arms in Palestine welcomes all infants to His everlasting divine 
 embrace; He who forgave a Magdalen of old in Palestine will not turn away 
 any sinner, however far he may have wandered from his God ; He who forgave 
 such a persecutor as Paul, whose hands w r ere red with the blood of the saints, 
 can take any man, however great his sins, and make of him an apostle of 
 righteousness. Christ has saved in the past men of all classes and conditions, 
 of all races, and out of all lands, and as in the past, so in the present, and 
 throughout the future, wherever man is found, the call of the Gospel will be 
 heard declaring that “whosoever believeth shall not perish, but have everlast- 
 ing life.” 
 
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How great beyond all comprehension these facts and ideas of the text ! 
 They are full of the love divine, all loves excelling, and include within then- 
 sweep all mankind. Recognizing the universal need, they bid mankind 
 look to God for its supply, reveal the love of God as the moving power for 
 human salvation, proclaim Jesus Christ as the only, the all-sufficient and the 
 divine Saviour of sinners, require as a condition of salvation faith in Christ and 
 faith alone, and proffer salvation to “whosoever believeth.” Only God could 
 thus provide salvation for sinful man, and only the divine Saviour can thus 
 save. These ideas further emphasize the fact that God’s relation to this lost 
 world is a personal and loving relation, that it touches every human soul, and 
 that its visible and constant manifestation is in the person of the only begotten 
 Son. In this world of ours there has been and there is, since Bethlehem, Calvary 
 and Olivet, a mysterious and mighty, a spiritual and intensely vital force: Godin 
 Christ reconciling the world unto Himself. The ideas which are the power of 
 the Gospel find their source, their life and their efficiency in the divine Almighty 
 Saviour. 
 
 II. We pass now to thought of the nature and influence of the blessing 
 which the Gospel bestows upon the world. This is set forth in the text under 
 the expression “everlasting life.” Tins life as to its nature is the life of God 
 within the soul of man, and it has relations both to the world that now is and 
 the world which is to come. It is not a something into whose possession men 
 are to enter in the future which lies beyond the grave. Our Saviour’s own 
 words are explicit: “He that believeth in me hath everlasting life.” The life 
 which God proffers through His only begotten Son to a world lost in sin and 
 subject to eternal death is a life which follows immediately upon faith, and 
 whose benefits are in part enjoyed upon earth. The fullness of that condition 
 which is set forth by the words “everlasting life” can be comprehended ade- 
 quately only in Heaven, when the redeemed soul shall come into direct con- 
 tact with those things which eye hath not seen or ear heard, but which God has 
 prepared for them that love Him. But even here and now that eternal life, 
 which is the life of God, is communicated by Christ to believers, and brings 
 forth upon earth abounding blessings for the individual and for the 
 world. 
 
 The first duty of Christians and of the Christian Church is to get men right 
 with God. That is accomplished when, by the proclamation of the Gospel and 
 the power of the Holy Spirit, faith in Christ enters into a human heart, and 
 brings in its train the forgiveness of sin, adoption into the household of 
 God, the unchangeable divine favor, and an eternal salvation. But getting 
 right with God has large and lasting effects in the earthly life of man — effects 
 that are the visible evidence of the character of the Gospel as a Gospel for the 
 world. Think in this connection upon the first conquests of the Gospel. 
 
 That pagan world into which Christ was born was a world in which a single 
 power ruled, the Roman Empire. There was in its political and commercial 
 relations the quality of universality. Paul describes its deplorable moral con- 
 ditions in the first chapter of the Epistle to the Romans. Its social condition 
 was that of a ruling caste, comparatively few in numbers, controlling abso- 
 lutely with the power of life and death vast multitudes of slaves, both white 
 and black. Its spiritual condition was hopeless, for lust in its worst forms 
 had been deified and was worshiped. To put it briefly, a few ruled the 
 many, property was vested in those who held the sword, poverty was a 
 crime, slavery was the almost universal condition, vice was esteemed a virtue 
 
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and lust was worshiped. Over it appeared to be permanently written “with- 
 out hope and without God.” 
 
 Into that world Christianity entered. Its adherents at first were a few 
 thousand despised Jews, more hated then than now. Even these early dis- 
 ciples, the Apostle Peter among them, did not readily yield to the idea of the 
 Gospel as a world Gospel. They failed to appreciate the fact that its message 
 because it was divine had in it the quality of universality, and they debated 
 fiercely whether the Gentiles were objects of God’s love and Christ’s salvation. 
 But Jewish prejudices melted in the warmth of divine love, and then came the 
 first Christian evangelistic campaign, led by one who had been a persecutor, 
 and there burst suddenly upon an idolatrous empire, worshiping numerous 
 deities, the thought of one God, a Supreme and Infinite Being, who so loved 
 the whole world that He gave Ilis only begotten Son lor its salvation. 
 
 To the new thought of God was added a new thought of man. Christ 
 revealed God not only as interested in man, not only as sympathizing with 
 him in his sin and sorrow, but as bound to him by the close tie of father- 
 hood. Man was a prodigal, but he was nevertheless a child, and then out 
 of the thought of man’s potential relation to God there sprang an increasing 
 sense of human brotherhood, a realization of the meaning and value of the 
 soul, the consciousness that man was born for something higher than this life 
 of earth — all the ideas which are at the basis of a better, grander and holier 
 human life. To these new thoughts was added a new idea of service alike to 
 God and to man. Life on earth was revealed to be both a trust for this world 
 and a preparation for the world which is to come. To live was to serve, and to 
 serve was to live. The potent truths of the divine Fatherhood and of human 
 brotherhood uniting to produce the Christlike life, wrought increasingly 
 through the first three centuries in the disciples of Christ a fashion of conduct 
 and a frame of mind that gave to our religion an aggressive and all-conquering 
 moral power. Xot by might nor by power, but through the teaching and lives 
 of His disciples, Christ lifted His own life upon that ancient world, as the sun 
 lifts itself at dawn upon the earth, scattering the forces of darkness before its 
 advance. A new life stirred within the great empire, and an abiding hope 
 lifted upon men in many lands the light of heaven. The selfish and bestial 
 gods of the Pantheon fled forever from the sky of human life, and in their stead 
 was enthroned Him who is the life and light of the world, and with Him came 
 into the world, right views of God, true appreciation of man, the Christian 
 home, Christian standards of conduct, and all the other inestimable bless- 
 ings of our holy religion 
 
 What of our modern world? Earnest Christians often question to-day 
 as to the progress of the Gospel toward world sovereignty. Consider concisely 
 the situation. The modern world has in its life the quality of universality far 
 beyond any previous age in human history, for material progress has trans- 
 formed it into a neighborhood, records its affairs in the columns of a daily 
 newspaper, and brings to numberless hearthstones the blessings of civiliza- 
 tion. In this modern world we find, further, that the ideas of the Gospel are 
 fundamental in many lands to all individual -conduct, to the relations of social 
 classes each to the other, to the transaction of business, to plans for the uplift- 
 ing of the masses, the education of the people, the care of the poor, the infirm 
 and the sick, and to all the interests connected along social and economic lines 
 with the welfare of humanity. 
 
 In our own land as well as in Europe, whatever may be the conduct of 
 
 [ 7 ] 
 
individuals, and however deep the seeming chasm between class and class, 
 yet the standards of right and wrong and the moulding power of public opinion 
 are largely controlled by Christian ideas. Time was when individual men and 
 women were generally indifferent to the conditions of the life of their neighbors, 
 and when the relationship between social classes was of the sharpest and at 
 times of the bitterest kind. But a vast change has come over modern society. 
 There is everywhere an upward lift, everywhere a realizing sense of the brother- 
 hood of man, and everywhere a belief that unseen yet omnipotent forces are- 
 moulding all human society. The world of mankind realizes its oneness in 
 circumstances and in hope as never before. 
 
 Nations likewise, as well as individuals, have come under the control of the 
 beneficent ideas contained in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. There is an increasing 
 sense of fellowship between peoples hitherto alien. War, it is true, still at 
 times lifts its horrid front and brings in its train incalculable evils; but there is 
 everywhere a growing feeling against the use of war as a method for the settle- 
 ment of differences between nations, and such gatherings as The Hague Confer- 
 ence are distinctly the witness to the recognition of His authority who is the 
 Prince of Peace. It is true that evil still controls multitudes of individual 
 men and women, that nations bearing the Christian name are to a large extent 
 in the conduct of their affairs manifesting any other spirit than that of the 
 Lord Jesus, but nevertheless it is also true that never was there so much good- 
 ness in the world, and that this goodness finds at once its source, its center and 
 its strength in Him who is "the way, the truth and the life.” 
 
 The ideas of the Gospel further are realized to-day by the Churches of 
 Jesus Christ in a striking manner. They have greater recognition on the part 
 of the Churches than through any purely social movements or the action of 
 any government. This is but natural, for the universal Church of Jesus 
 Christ is the direct witness in every portion of the world to His saving and 
 uplifting power. Society and government to a large extent bear indirect 
 testimony to our Lord’s influence, but the Church speaks everywhere in direct 
 terms concerning Him as Saviour of the world. There have always been 
 within the Church sensitive souls who have realized clearly the Church’s one 
 great mission, the salvation of the world, but it is only within the past one 
 hundred years that the thought of the redemption and the uplifting of all 
 humanity, both for earth and heaven, has entered largely into its prac- 
 tical life. 
 
 To this trend God has responded mightily by His spirit. During the past 
 century, how vast the progress everywhere in connection with foreign missions; 
 how steady and persistent the effort to uplift morally and spiritually in the 
 home lands the multitudes who have been as sheep without a shepherd; how 
 the Church is addressing herself to all classes and to all conditions, and how, 
 above all, Christians are realizing their unity in Jesus Christ! The beats of the 
 mighty heart of the King of Redemption are seen in every movement within 
 the Churches, whether concerned with missionary effort or with work in 
 Christian lands, or with the relationship of the Christian denominations each 
 to the other. Christendom, and especially American Christendom, was never 
 so much a unit as it is to-day in the apprehension of the one great purpose of the 
 Gospel of Christ. And as a result we see in many lands those elevated and 
 noble forms of benevolent Christian activity which so markedly contrast the 
 opening years of this century with all that has gone before. As the sun can 
 turn the ice of winter into running brooks, so the love of God the Father, the 
 
 [ 8 ] 
 
grace of Christ the Elder Brother, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit the 
 Life Giver, have turned the chill selfishness, natural to countless men and 
 women, into rippling streams of kindliness, usefulness and blessing, which 
 have brought salvation, joy and immeasurable earthly happiness to unnum- 
 bered hearts and lives throughout the whole world. 
 
 Inspiring are the past triumphs of the Gospel, and hopeful the outlook 
 for its progress along both earthly and heavenly lines of advance. It shall 
 one day make the kingdoms of this world the kingdoms of our God and His 
 Christ, and shall fill Heaven with a multitude that no man can number, out 
 of every nation, kindred, people and tongue, redeemed by the Saviour’s blood 
 and sanctified by His Spirit. “Not unto us, O Lord! not unto us, but to Thy 
 name give glory, for Thy mercy and for Thy truth’s sake.” 
 
 III. Consider finally the obligations imposed by the Gospel, which are 
 heightened by the hopeful conditions of the present century. These obliga- 
 tions are imperative in their nature. They spring out of the fundamental 
 facts and ideas contained in the text. All who profess to believe in Jesus 
 Clirist as their Saviour and Lord have acknowledged by such profession the 
 binding nature of these obligations, and having within their hearts the inspira- 
 tion of the Gospel should make its truths the controlling principles of their 
 lives. - 
 
 One of these truths has to do with the value of the human soul. The 
 relation of the soul to God and the destiny of the soul are increasingly matters 
 of deep moment to thoughtful persons. For the salvation of the soul Christ 
 died upon His Cross, and by virtue of the power of His Crown He is prepared 
 to bestow upon every believer the gift of eternal life. As Christians think 
 upon man the immortal, in the light of Christ’s person and work, they are 
 obligated increasingly to realize that the value of each human soul is to be 
 measured only by the blood drops of the sacrifice of Calvary, and that the 
 supreme obligation of the Gospel for the world, whose preachers and teachers 
 they are, is the proffer to every creature of that everlasting life which Jesus 
 purchased with blood upon His Cross. 
 
 Another truth which is to control Christian conduct is that which has to do 
 with the value of character. The agreement is general that no other force is 
 so powerful as Christian character in the dissemination of the Gospel. The 
 unthinking may not be convinced by argument, and the thoughtful may vigor- 
 ously resist the inferences of logic, but neither class can successfully oppose 
 the proof furnished by the moral and spiritual renewal of individuals. It is the 
 character of the individuals who make up communities and nations, that 
 determines their welfare and destiny, politically, ’commercially, socially, 
 morally and spiritually. Christians, loving the world in some measure as 
 Christ loved it, and longing for its welfare as He longs, should see to it there- 
 fore that, both at home and abroad, there be added to Christian evangelism 
 the power of Christian education. These two forms of effort are simply the 
 recognition of Christ’s two great commands: first, “Go ye into all the world 
 and preach the Gospel to every creature”; and, second, “Go ye therefore and 
 teach all nations.” Christians are not only to evangelize, but also to educate. 
 The Gospel for the world is a Gospel by which there is to be added to faith 
 knowledge, and to knowledge all the other Christian virtues. 
 
 Another obligation has to do with the attitude of Christians toward the 
 world at large. This attitude should be that of God in Christ, the attitude of 
 disinterestedness, of sincere affection; if need be, of devotion to the welfare 
 
 [ 9 ] 
 
of others, even unto self-sacrifice. The Christian who is close to Christ loves 
 the world as God loves it, sees in every human being an object of divine love, 
 and regards no person as shut out from the potencies of Christ’s salvation. 
 Such a Christian will make the “whosoever believeth” of the text a reality 
 in his prayer and work, seeking ever to bring the Gospel to lost sinners of 
 whatever race, class or condition, and rejoicing to behold them receiving the 
 earthly blessings which follow its acceptance, assured that theirs shall also be 
 the joys which are for evermore at God’s right hand. 
 
 The obligations of the Gospel further have to do not only with Christians 
 individually, but also with Christian Churches. It is certain that the test 
 of the nearness to God of any Christian Church is the extent to which in its 
 life it puts the Gospel into effect in its organization and work. Much is said 
 nowadays about the Apostolic Church in some quarters, and the declaration is 
 often upon the lips of many, “I believe in the Holy Catholic Church.” But 
 the Church nearest the Apostolic, and the one most truly Catholic, is the one 
 which most fully realizes in its own life and work the love of God for His 
 world, the devotion of Christ to the world, and the duty of the Church to 
 carry the message of saving divine love to the world. 
 
 True Apostolicity and Catholicity are characteristics of the inward rather 
 than the outward life; they are vital rather than formal; they partake of the 
 spirit rather than of the letter. Thoughtful Christians do not esteem lightly 
 the external and formal things in religion. Those persons understand little of 
 God or of man, of the divine or of human nature, who depreciate creeds, or 
 church order, or forms of worship or denominational activities. These all are 
 outward manifestations of inward needs, adaptations of liidden spiritual forces 
 in visible form to satisfy the multiform demands of human nature, and to give 
 full scope to the energies of men and women. Even things which some persons 
 regard as superstitious God tolerates in His service, if only, despite sluggish 
 minds and dim eyes, the hearts of those who thus grope blindly after God, 
 have within them as a controlling and directing power love for their fellow- 
 men. The test of that vital Catholicity, which is the true glory of any Chris- 
 tian Church, is ever its loyalty to the love for the world which led Christ to the 
 Cross on Calvary, and which made Him the Almighty Saviour of sinners. A 
 really Catholic Church will be an intensely evangelistic and missionary 
 Church. 
 
 All these obligations have not only general but likewise special relations. 
 While the duty is unquestionable on the part of Christians and Christian 
 Churches to give the Gospel to the world in the uttermost parts, special 
 emphasis should be laid upon the obligations connected with the immediate 
 environment. Our Lord gave command that his disciples, beginning at 
 Jerusalem, should be witnesses for Him in Judea, in Samaria, and unto the 
 uttermost parts of the earth. His emphasis upon the thought that the work 
 of the Apostolic Church was to begin at Jerusalem was remarkably confirmed 
 by the great outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. That first great 
 revival w T as the beginning of the w r ork which was to reach through Judea to 
 Samaria, and thus to the uttermost parts of the earth. One man who knew 
 personally what that revival in Jerusalem was, as to its features and effects, 
 has left on record, in his first Epistle to Timothy, the conviction that he who 
 provideth not for his own “hath denied the faith and is worse than an infidel.” 
 These declarations of Christ and of Paul emphasize the need resting upon the 
 American Christian Churches to give increasing efficiency to the great ideas of 
 
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the Gospel within the land in which God has placed them. They are called to 
 act upon the truth that the world, for whose salvation the Gospel exists, 
 includes the communities and countries in which they live — means Kansas City 
 as well as Pekin, the United States as well as Cliina. 
 
 Especially do I press home through this General Assembly upon the 
 Church of our choice this closest duty connected with the Gospel. Our coun- 
 try in the present time stands for great ideas, socially, commercially and 
 politically. Above every other nation of modern times, the United States is 
 a part of those widespreading movements which are uplifting men out of the 
 narrowness of caste, which are making the world a neighborhood, and wliich 
 seek for the welfare, not of a class or classes, but of the whole people. Further, 
 when we come to think of the destinies of the world, there is common consent 
 that no nation is more intimately connected therewith for either weal or woe 
 than our own. America has increasingly vital relations to the welfare of the 
 world of mankind. 
 
 Further, in this land to-day the American Churches confront conditions of 
 a notable character. The world wliich God loves is in a striking sense repre- 
 sented within our borders. Its multitudes are pouring into every corner of 
 the country. The populations of Europe, in particular, are accessible through 
 us to the influences of the Gospel in a marked manner. So vast is the move- 
 ment that it can be said, as was said at Pentecost, that men out of every nation 
 under heaven are in our midst. These are far, however, from being devout. 
 
 Opposed to the Christian Churches in our country are to be found many 
 evil influences. There is the irreligion of the average immigrant, the presence 
 of an inordinate commercial spirit, the Gallio-like attitude of a majority of our 
 political leaders, who care for no religious opinion whatever, but solely for self, 
 and, above all, the practical unbelief of the majority of American men. We 
 are a Christian nation, but only because three-fourths of our women are 
 Cliristians. Everywhere there is the need, whether we have regard to our 
 native population or the foreign immigrant, for persistent, united, evangelistic 
 and educational work. 
 
 We emphasize, however, the duty of evangelism, for it conies first in order. 
 By evangelism is to be understood the preaching of the Gospel by the Christian 
 ministry in its simplicity and integrity. A pure Gospel, preached with earn- 
 estness and sincerity, is the deepest need of our country. Would we secure 
 the true economic interests of our nation and abate the rancor of social classes, 
 we must evangelize. Would we increase the manifestations of righteousness 
 in high and low places alike, and make both our business and our politics 
 Christian, we must evangelize. Would we secure the best results from our 
 educational systems, and so adjust all our national interests as to conserve, 
 alike for the welfare of humanity and the success of the cause of Christ in the 
 earth, all the resources of this great nation, we must evangelize. We must go 
 forth everywhere under the influence of the love for the world of God the 
 Father, and of the saving power of Jesus Christ, the only and all-sufficient 
 Divine Saviour, proffering unto every creature that salvation which is profit- 
 able both for the life that now is and for the life that is to come. We must 
 unceasingly strive to win America for Christ through the Gospel, that we may 
 thereby win the world for Him. 
 
 May God enable us, with all Christians in this land, to live and labor in 
 obedience to our Lord’s last command. Beginning in that community which 
 is our Jerusalem, reaching out toward that State which is our Judea, seeking 
 
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for the salvation of that class, race or nation towards which we feel within 
 our hearts such sentiments as the Jews cherished for the Samaritans, may we 
 unitedly and aggressively in this hopeful century so witness for Christ, so 
 preach and teach His gospel, that ere long the uttermost parts of the earth 
 shall bow at His Cross and acknowledge His sovereignty. 
 
 There is a picture of Sargent’s in the Boston Public Library that has 
 touched to the heart depths all classes and conditions of people who have 
 looked upon it. Called the “Dogma of Redemption,” it is a picture of Christ 
 upon the Cross. Bound up with him by a common girdle, on the one side is 
 Adam, the father of all humanity; on the other is Eve, the mother of all the 
 race. Each holds out the loving cup to catch the drops of blood from the 
 pierced hands of the Saviour. That cleansing blood of the Cross is the hope 
 of the world. It is the crucified Christ alone who is the power of God and the 
 wisdom of God unto salvation, both for earth and for heaven. God is in 
 Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto 
 them, and hath committed unto us the ministry of reconciliation. Never 
 was there a time when the work of reconciliation was so full of hope. Faithful 
 to our ministry then may we be in every hour, true always in preaching, in 
 teaching, and in work to the words of our living Lord, “God so loved the 
 world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him 
 should not perish, but have everlasting life.” 
 
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