The Expositor's Bible: The Book of NumbersWatson, Robert A. (Robert Alexander)
Religion
The Expositor's Bible: The Book of Numbers
Watson, Robert A. (Robert Alexander)
Bible. Numbers -- Commentaries
Is it asked why many, partly fascinated, remain proof against its
appeals? why an increasing number prefer, like Hobab, the liberty of
the desert, their own unattached, desultory, hopeless way of life?
The answer must partly be that, as it is, the Church does not fully
commend itself by its temper, its enthusiasm, its sincerity and
Christianity. It attracts but is unable to command, because with all
its culture of art it does not appear beautiful, with all its claims
of spirituality it is not unworldly; because, professing to exist for
the redemption of society, its methods and standards are too often
human rather than Divine. It is not that the outsider shrinks from the
religiousness of the Church as overdone; rather does he detect a lack
of that very quality. He could believe in the Divine calling and join
the enterprise of the Church if he saw it journeying steadily towards
a better country, that is a heavenly. Its earnestness would then
command him; faith would compel faith. But social status and temporal
aims are not subordinated by the members of the Church, nor even by
its leaders. And whatever is done in the way of providing attractions
for the pleasure-loving, and schemes of a social kind, these, so far
from gaining the undecided, rather make them less disposed to believe.
More exciting enjoyments can be found elsewhere. The Church offering
pleasures and social reconstruction is attempting to catch those
outside by what, from their point of view, must appear to be chaff.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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