must die that doesn't use up
and give out energy as surely as a physical body. The period of latent
physical life is not long. God in his mercy has seemed to prolong latent
spiritual life almost unduly in the case of some churches. Those who
love the Church are breathing a little more freely because of the
Laymen's Missionary Movement.

LACK OF CLEARNESS

To me personally it is hard to know exactly what the Church has meant;
it is hard to "know one's self." The attitude of practically all men's
minds is to excuse their own shortcomings by attributing the cause
elsewhere. Thus Paddy blames the Government for the hole in his
trousers, just as he does for the typhoid resulting from the dump heap
in front of his own door. When I first essayed to write on this subject,
I several times tore up the manuscript, feeling that I had written that
which was calculated to rend her at whose breast my own spirit had first
found life-giving sustenance and afterwards wisdom, encouragement, and
aid.

Yet history seems plainly to show that there have been times when the
world would have been more Christian if the organizations to which men
often limit the name of church had ceased to exist. I presume the
experience we have all had with organizations calling themselves "the
Church" has driven us, at times at least, to the same conclusions in our
own day about those particular branches. But this bears no reference to
the body of men who love Christ better than their own lives. They are
really the Church, and mean everything to me, to the world outside, and
to all aspirants to the dignity of the name of Christian.

ORGANIZATIONS ESSENTIAL

The visible Church stands to me above all else as appointed of God for
all that organization means in the attainment of any other object.
Atmospheric religion is desirable, but to progress, to permanence,
organization is essential. Moreover, being conscious of the idiosyncrasy
of the human mind, I have every use for the various communions if no man
is to be excluded.

But I look on one and all simply as a means to an end, and as agencies,
not entities. Theoretically there is no reason why they should not love
one another. Alas! they haven't always done so. A large membership of
ineffective persons may be only an incubus. Like sailors on my vessel,
if they are incompetent they are a hindrance, and in every way expensive
and undesirable. I never care to emphasize the large number that the
crew of