Bar Association. One definition which he gave then deserves remembering. "What, indeed, is true civilization? By its fruits you shall know it. It is not dominion, wealth, material luxury; nor not even a great literature and education widespread, good though these may be. Civilization is not a veneer; it must penetrate to the very heart and core and societies of men. Its true signs are thought for the poor and suffering, chivalrous regard and respect for women, the frank recognition of human brotherhood irrespective of race or color or nation or religion, the narrowing of the domain of mere force as a governing factor in the world, abhorrence of what is mean and cruel and vile, ceaseless devotion to the claims of justice." Where these ideals win their way there the rule of God is coming; and they who work to these ends are helping to bring in the Kingdom.

PREMILLENNIALISM AND THE CHURCH

By the church is meant here the organized and visible fellowship of the followers of Jesus, "ordained to be the visible body of Christ, to worship God through him, to promote the fellowship of his people and the ends of his kingdom, and to go into all the world and proclaim his gospel for the salvation of men and the brotherhood of all mankind." The church is not perfect any more than are the members who compose this fellowship. It is not the kingdom of God, for the kingdom of God is simply the rule of God and as such is present wherever the will of God is done in the life of men. But this fellowship of Christ's followers is the center of God's

17 From the Cambridge Declaration of Faith adopted by the representatives of the evangelical free churches of England.

rule and his chief instrument for bringing it in upon earth. To it God has intrusted his message of truth, in its fellowship Christian character is to be built, by it men are to be inspired to service in every walk of life. The most notable fact in the life of the church to-day is the larger way in which it has grasped its task. It has seen that God's purpose is nothing less than to redeem the world, to make a new humanity, and that it dare not set any lesser goal for itself. It is this conception which controls modern missions. The aim of the church is a Christian China, not simply a few Christian Chinese. To that end it does not merely send evangelists, but establishes schools, founds hospitals, carries on industrial work, and trains natives to lead their people forward in every aspect of a true civilization. Typical of this new attitude was the men-and-religion movement of a few years ago. Even more significant are the "forward movements" in which various church bodies are engaged to-day. The Centenary Missionary Movement of the Methodist Churches, for example, stated its goal definitely to be "the maintaining and extending of the kingdom of God." It began with a survey of conditions, tasks, and resources at home and abroad. Educational tasks, social problems, and evangelism came equally within the purview. Methodism North and South secured not far from two hundred million dollars in gifts. Equally clear is the ideal expressed by the Presbyterian Church in its New Era Movement. The very title is a confession of faith, that God through his church here and now is bringing in a new era for men.

What has premillennialism to say to the church of to-day?

1. It declares that these hopes are vain and this program wrong. The church is to carry on missions, but it must not expect the nations to be converted. It must not expect America or any other land to be Christianized. Least of all must it expect the world to be won for Christ. Such results are out of question because God has planned otherwise. "The rallying cry of Protestantism, The World for Christ," says Dr. Haldeman in the Sunday School Times, "is a false slogan." Dr. Torrey objects to the watch-cry, "America for Christ," and "The Wide World for Christ"; these things are not possible in this dispensation.18 It is a terrible mistake, says A. C. Gaebelein, for the church to try to convert the world. "There is in Christendom," he declares, "continual talking of 'building up the kingdom' and 'working for the kingdom,' etc., which is unscriptural."19 We are not to preach the gospel of the kingdom or even to pray for its extension, for the kingdom cannot even commence until the Lord comes.20 The program for our age is merely "the accomplishment of the number of God's elect."21 God is not trying to save the world by man's "puny efforts," but simply "taking out of the world a people for his name."22 F. C. Ottman even charges the church with a "perversion of her resources in the attempt to bring about kingdom conditions in the earth."23 With the interesting ability to overlook inconvenient passages, Matt. 28. 19 is forgotten. The purpose of the church is not to "make disciples of all the nations."

18 Return of the Lord Jesus, p. 120.

19 Harmony of the Prophetic Word, p. 119. 20 Christian Workers Magazine, XVII, 278. 21 Ibid. 22 Ibid., XVI, 448.

25 God's Oath, Introduction.

Missionary work has two ends: first, to win the limited number of "the elect"; second, to preach the gospel "as a witness." According to Adventist exegesis, the latter means to preach the gospel so that this fact can be used in the day of judgment against those who refuse.

Nothing could be in sharper contrast with the spirit, the hope, and the plans of the church to-day, not the worldly church of which Adventists are always speaking, but the church of Christ's devoted and earnest followers. That church is saying, "Attempt great things for God; expect great things from God." Never was there so great confidence in the power of the gospel, never such great plans or such a summons to service. The premillennial declaration is like a blow in the face of this advancing army. Take down these banners, Adventism says, on which you have written, "The World for Christ." Instead, resign yourself to the fact that the world in this age belongs to Satan. "Remember that 'the days are evil' and that the time of general conversion has not yet arrived. Thank God that any are converted at all." "The real followers of the Lamb are but a little flock, nor does our Lord even hint that they will ever be a large flock until he shall come. . . . It has pleased God during these past eighteen centuries to bring comparatively a small number to the saving knowledge of the truth; and if there is a word of promise that it shall be otherwise until the end, let the word be presented."25 The missionary ought to see "that the gathering out of the elect is his sole hope," then he would be "far less disheartened by opposition than when he vainly expected every day

24 Ryle, Second Coming, by well-known preachers, pp. 43-45. 25 Brookes, The Lord Cometh, pp. 309-11.

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to see symptoms of national and universal conversion."26 The whole matter is summed up in a statement quoted with approval in the introduction to the official report of the "prophetic conference" of 1878: "It does not surprise me at all to hear that the heathen are not all converted, and that believers are but a little flock in any congregation in my own land. It is precisely the state of things I expect to find. It is for the safety, happiness, and comfort of all true Christians to expect as little as possible from churches, or governments, under the present dispensation... to expect their good things only from Christ's Second Advent."27

2. But premillennialism goes farther. So far from being the agent for the saving of the world, the church itself is to grow increasingly corrupt and end in utter failure. "Christendom is apostate as well as the world, and is hastening on to her doom."28 The organized Christian Church is to become more and more the Babylon, the Harlot City, of the book of Revelation. Her very activities, missionary and otherwise, are a ground for suspicion and criticism. "The inward corruption of the church keeps pace with her outward expansion"; the two sides go together, "the deepening of apostasy and the extension of the gospel, enormous missionary activity and enormous departures from the truth." And the church, "while decking itself in the garments of a world-harlotry, proposes to itself a plan which already the mouth of God has declared to be false," that is, the conversion of the world.29 "So far

26 A. Bonar, quoted by Brown, Second Advent, p. 317. Premillennial Essays, pp. 6, 7. 28 Prophetic Studies, p. 41. 29 West, The Thousand Years, see pp. 442-44, 278, 279.