The Crucifixion of Philip StrongSheldon, Charles M.
General
The Crucifixion of Philip Strong
Sheldon, Charles M.
Christian fiction
"What less can we do than give ourselves and all we have to the
salvation of souls in this city? Have we not enjoyed our pleasant things
long enough? What less would Christ demand of the church to-day than the
giving up of its unnecessary luxuries, the consecration of every dollar
to His glory and the throwing of ourselves on the altar of His service?
Members of Calvary Church, I solemnly believe the time has come when it
is our duty to go into the tenement district and redeem it by the power
of personal sacrifice and personal presence. Nothing less will answer.
To accomplish this great task, to bring back to God this great part of
His kingdom, I believe we ought to spend our time, our money, ourselves.
It is a sin for us to live at our pleasant ease, in enjoyment of all
good things, while men and women and children by the thousand are dying,
body and soul, before our very eyes in need of the blessings of
Christian civilization in our power to share with them. We cannot say it
is not our business. We cannot excuse ourselves on the plea of our own
business. This is our first business, to love God and man with all our
might. This problem before us calls for all our Christian discipleship.
Every heart in this church should cry out this day, 'Lord, what wilt
Thou have me to do?' And each soul must follow the commands that he
honestly hears. Out of the depths of the black abyss of human want and
sin and despair and anguish and rebellion in this place and over the
world rings in my ear a cry for help that by the grace of God I truly
believe cannot be answered by the Church of Christ on earth until the
members of that Church are willing in great numbers to give all their
money and all their time and all their homes and all their luxuries and
all their accomplishments and all their artistic tastes and all
themselves to satisfy the needs of the generation as it looks for the
heart of the bleeding Christ in the members of the Church of Christ.
Yea, truly, except a man is willing to renounce all that he hath, he
cannot be His disciple. Does Christ ask any member of Calvary Church to
renounce all and go down into the tenement district to live Christ
there? Yes, all.
"My beloved, if Christ speaks so to you to-day, listen and obey.
Service! Self! That is what He wants. And if He asks for all, when all
is needed, what then? Can we sing that hymn with any Christian honesty
of heart unless we interpret it literally?--
"'Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were an offering far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all!'"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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