The only way we ever really know any of the masters, the real geniuses, is by knowing their style. Suppose you hear a strain of music that you have never heard before, but in just a minute you say, "that's Brahms," or "that's Beethoven." How do you know? That's their style, the way they do it. No one else does it quite that way. We had quite a controversy some time ago when somebody gave two wonde...
We have talked so much about winning an "all-out" victory during the years of World War II that our attention has been focused and our interest centered upon mass behavior. We speak of the world as having gone mad. But madness is a malady of the human mind. The world outside cannot go mad; only the world inside is capable of sanity and insanity. We talk of the Government’s having full responsibili...
3. Answering Criticism
Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30
Illustration
Kent Moorehead
Think of the things that were said about Lincoln by his contemporaries - the calumnies, the caricatures, the unjust criticisms. But consider the accurate estimate of his style today. With what insight he wrote, when he said, "If I were to try to read, must less answer, all the attacks made on me, this shop might as well be closed for any other business. I do the very best I know how and I mean to ...
In such a crucial hour as this when the hysteria of war threatens to blot out our reason and paralyze our faith in all spiritual forces, it is imperative that the church should again declare its abiding conviction that the Christian way is the only way out. "But just what is the Christian way?" Ah, there’s the rub. With such obviously contradictory statements coming from so many so-called orthodox...
The key idea that unlocks the haunting theme of Henrik Ibsen’s undying drama, Ghosts, is succinctly stated by Mrs. Alving when she exclaims: Ghosts! When I heard Regina and Oswald in there, I seemed to see ghosts before me. I almost think we’re all of us ghosts, Pastor Manders. It’s not only what we have inherited from our father and mother that "walks" in us. It’s all sorts of dead ideas, and lif...
Is the social gospel out of date? That, obviously, is a loaded question. In fact, it is double-barreled. First, it is charged with combustible emotionalism that is liable to explode whenever the trigger-term "social" is used. To the fear-conditioned conservative, "social" smacks of socialism. And what could be more dangerous than communism which, they’ve carefully taught, is nothing but socialism ...
In such tense and terrible times as these, every sincere minister of Christ who takes seriously the prophetic function of his vocation, must readily recognize the cogent relevancy of this theme and the importance of dealing with it practically and realistically. To that end I have raised with myself four obvious questions: Why? What? When? How?
Why preach unpopular truth? Why not be adroit, skill...
What do you consider the most important and revealing fact to know about a person? Is it his antecedents, heritage, background? Certainly that is not to be overlooked. Or would you be most interested in his possessions, the position he occupies, the nature of his reputation? Unquestionably this factor would seem to be of no little practical consequence. Or would it mean most to know his possibilit...
Emphasis on evangelism is essential to vital Christianity. The evangelization of the world is its main business. But this means vastly more than a matter of additional church members. It is, above all else, a matter of transformed, empowered personalities. Evangelism means preaching the gospel to secure conversions. The essence of the gospel that the Christian Church is supposed to proclaim is sim...
There are four highly accredited ways to study the Bible. First, study the beauty spots, the familiar passages. Second, study the individual books and master them. Third, study the great biographies and know them. And fourth, study the structural ideas of the book as they are developed. Now this last method is unquestionably the most rewarding and likewise the most adequate way of knowing the Bibl...
It is perfectly possible to tell a lie without saying anything untrue. As a matter of fact, the most effective liars are those who never deliberately say anything that is not so; they simply tell a piece of the truth and refuse to tell all of it. Let me illustrate the lying power of partial truth. I know a man who, with two other men, deliberately planned to get a fourth man in a particular situat...
The principle wrapped up in that text would seem to be quite obvious - that the most important thing to remember in dealing with all ambiguities, controversies, uncertainties, is that there is a spirit of truth available and if we keep our hearts and minds receptive, attentive responsive, we shall be led into all truth.
Now that’s the core of the liberal’s approach to life. Keep that in mind as w...
Confronted with such a catastrophe as the contemporary world situation presents, with evil so wildly rampant, destruction and death so widespread and violent, and the threat of the triumph of ruthlessness so imminent, one question keeps coming up to pester and plague religious faith with an incorrigible persistency: With everything seeming to go to pieces, what on earth is God doing? Where is he? ...