RELIGIOUS WORK 369 



but it is not, it must not usurp the place of action. Heaven and 

 entrance thereto through the redemption of Jesus Christ are 

 glorious elements of faith never to be diminished; but the true 

 Christian knows that it is only as a man seeks to bring heavenly 

 light now and here while and where he lives that he can fit himself 

 or be fitted to endure the radiance of heaven hereafter. Godet's 

 great words are everlastingly true: " Ce n'est pas dans le del qu'on 

 trouve Dieu, mais c'est en Dieu qu'on trouve le del." " It is not in 

 heaven that God is found, but it is in God that heaven is found." 

 With this great truth ringing its symphony about her, the Church 

 finds her work clearly marked. She is to reveal God as a present 

 God. She is to make him real. She is to prove him real. She is 

 to show how he works, and demonstrate the pow r er and method 

 of his working. She is to prove that he is the Lord and Ruler of 

 all living, and, therefore, she is to seek to bring all living, all experi- 

 ences, all works under his control. Nothing in all existence can 

 be without interest to her because all things are of interest to God. 

 There can be no secular and religious things; all are religious. 

 There can be no human interests separate from the divine interests. 

 All are one because God is one, uniting and holding all things in 

 himself. Hence the ideal of the Church is very clear and very 

 beautiful. It is the union of all who are trying to make God known 

 and to bring his Kingdom. In its organized forms it is a body 

 seeking to reveal God, through creed, through worship, through 

 service, through preaching, through reform, to a world partly or 

 wholly ignorant of him. Its work is as infinite as God's world. 

 It has no longer a single part to play, but a whole real drama to 

 enact. The Church is not merely to hold a form of sound words, 

 or to stand as a witness, or to utter warnings, or to rebuke vice. 

 All these things she certainly has to do, but they are parts of the 

 great catholic work of regeneration, of saving the world and bring- 

 ing it to God. Every nation and every individual in all the world 

 are hers because Christ's. Every great highway and every alley 

 of the slums, every saint and every sinner, every truth and every 

 work, thoughts and words, books and men, states and rulers 

 the Church is the leader of them all to righteousness. 



III. Purpose of Religious Work 



This brings us clearly to an understanding of the purpose of all 

 religious work; it is to bring the righteousness of God amongst 

 men. There has been much haziness even amongst good people 

 here. With some the purpose of church work has seemed to be 

 the glorification of the church herself. " We are living," the 

 leaders have cried, " for see what great works are here being done." 



