HERALDS OF GOD
ways men ought to act in an ideal society, but an account of the way in which God has acted in history decisively and for ever.
There can be no doubt that for this prevalent vagueness the Church itself must accept some share of the blame. Too often we have wandered away from our true centre. Perhaps almost unconsciously we have shifted the emphasis from where the apostles put it. We have become entangled in side-issues. We have concentrated too little on the primal verities of the faith, too much on what Phillips Brooks once called the bric-à-brac of theology" Do not misunderstand me. I am not arguing against detailed instruction in the implications of our holy religion for life and character and conduct. On the contrary, I believe that an interpretation of the Gospel in terms of its ethical, social and economic challenge is to-day an urgent necessity. Dr. L. P. Jacks was entirely right to remind us that "every truth that religion announces passes insensibly into a command. Its indicatives are veiled imperatives." But what I am concerned to assert is that in the Christian religion the indicatives are basic and fundamental And nothing could be more marrowless and stultified and futile than the preaching which is for ever exhorting "Thus and thus you must act" and neglecting the one thing which essentially makes Christianity: "Thus has God acted, once and for all."
Of Him that brought salvation down,
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