"Because he has set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he has known my name." Psalm 91:14
Haggai 1; Revelation 21
This year our Church has designated this Sunday as "Loyalty Sunday." Loyalty is certainly one of the virtues, and if, by means of a Sunday set aside for the promotion of this virtue, its development may be furthered, it will be well worth while.
So much depends upon our loyalty! The Apostles of the Lord at His first Advent knew that they had a message to give to the world. They could not be held back from proclaiming it. And today the New Church has a message for the world. The Lord has come again. This is the fundamental fact of this age in which we live.
At His first coming the Lord came as the perfect man and dwelt among us as the Word made flesh. And though His coming had been looked for for many centuries, when He did come he was recognized by very few. So for centuries since that time the Christian church has looked for his Second Coming, but now that He has come, there are again few ready to receive Him.
Not only as a Church body are we called by the Lord, but each one of us has been led by the Divine Providence into the knowledge of the Second Coming, and there is some special use for each of us in his church; otherwise we should not have been called.
As we look over the history of the past ages, we see how the Lord has adapted His presence with men according to their needs. Today we are in a new era, and the new truths needed have been given. We generally point to the great advance in the arts and sciences as the sign that we have entered upon a new age, but the real and vital sign is that a new freedom has been given to the spirit of man, and unless this new spirit can be enlightened and directed, it can but lead to the self-exaltation of man, which has no regard for God or for Divine laws.
The truths of the Second Coming have been given to meet the needs of this new age. There was never a greater need for the guidance which the doctrines of the Church give. "Where there is no vision," Solomon wrote, "the people perish." And when Isaiah was sent to proclaim a judgment upon Jerusalem, he declared, "the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed." The day is past when a blind acceptance of religious teachings will suffice. The vital need is still, as it always has been, the understanding of the Word, by which the Lord is known and His laws observed. For by His Word He dwells among us and operates in us.
The new church is not another addition to the many sects and divisions. That we have distinctive teachings everyone will admit. They were not invented by men, but were revealed by the Lord himself to meet the needs of our modern everyday life.
We know about the forces of this world, but take little account of spiritual forces. Yet our minds do not dwell in material houses of wood, brick, and stone. Our minds, or souls, dwell in those states of life resulting from the particular principles we have learned and accepted. Or, we dwell mentally in the doctrines we believe, and these determine our lives. We live in the things we believe.
Isaiah wrote, "In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah: we have a strong city: Salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks." In ancient times men recognized the advantage of living in a strong city. It was a guarantee of security, for they were exposed to many ruthless enemies. And do we not today recognize the advantage of dwelling in a strong city spiritually, a city with massive walls, gates, and sure foundations? For there are many subtle and dangerous foes who would rise up to destroy us.
We need a strong city, a firm and enduring faith to help us through the years, with their joys and sorrows, their successes and their failures. And the world needs assurance that the Lord reigns, that it is guided and protected by His infinite and all-wise Providence.
We should be loyal to such a system of truth. It makes no difference that we are few and that we seem to make little impression on the world. Today, when even the possibility of a Divine Revelation is questioned, and when no church except our own even so much as pretends to hold the doctrine of the plenary inspiration of the Word, who shall maintain it if we do not? Today, when the revealed Christ is being rapidly superseded in the minds of men by the "historical" Christ, who shall proclaim the truth of his sole and supreme Divinity if we do not? And today, when culture is taking the place of religion and when the words "sin," "repentance," and "new birth" are rapidly dropping out of the vocabulary of men, who will preach the necessity and the reality of a Divine and Supernatural work in the soul if we do not?
If we believe the Writings of our church to be a Divine Revelation from the Lord through the opening of the spiritual sense of the Word, nothing less than absolute loyalty to them as the means by which He makes His Second Coming to the world is demanded of us.
And we should realize that we must cultivate the distinctive life of the church. It is true that doctrine is for the sake of life, and also that we cannot to know what the life of the Church is except from doctrine. But, although it is not possible to have the life of the church without Doctrine, it is possible to have the doctrine without the life. No one, however, can really have the truth until it is incorporated into his life. One may understand the truth, but unless it takes root in his life and becomes a living part of him, when "the Sun is up," When our worldly interests and desires burn, it will wither and die away and be as if it never had been.
For the distinctive life of the New Church is a life of free and spontaneous love to the Lord and trust in His goodness, and willing performance of our daily duties in His name and strength. Now and always the church is known by its fruits. If the church does us good, if she lifts us above our doubts and fears, if she gives us comfort in affliction, strength in temptation, and joy in overcoming wrong and doing good, there is little danger of our being turned away from her or of our being led astray by our own self-intelligence, or by the self-intelligence of others.
Without the church we have no Rock higher than we, no solid foundation on which we can build. We shall be exposed to every storm, and carried away by every wind of human opinion. But by living according to the truths of the church our house will be founded on the Rock. We shall love the church not only for what she teaches, but for what she is, and shall no more think of going outside of the church for guidance and enlightenment. Our own love for the church will grow and strengthen, and others will be drawn to her light.
It is our duty first and above all to cultivate the distinctive truth and distinctive life of the church. We have to begin with ourselves, for that is the Lord's method. His love should govern our hearts and His truth rule in our minds. From the salvation of the souls of men through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and obedience to His Commandments the Lord proceeds to the salvation of society in all its manifold relations, spiritual and natural, political and social.
The Psalmist writes; "The Lord of Hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge." The Lord has all power not only in the other world, but in this. If men learn and keep His laws, all things will turn out well, not perhaps for their temporal and apparent good, but for their eternal welfare.
Either the Lord is God or He is not. Either He is a Savior or He is not. We should have that experience which enables us to acknowledge the Lord as God and Savior of the world. And we should also have attained the belief that the New Church is to endure forever. Sometimes, because of the apparently meager results of our efforts, we grow disheartened, but we should be able to rely on the sure promises of the Word. The Church is young, and we are called by the Lord to work for Him in the infancy of this Church. Let us have that confident loyalty and that humility which will lead us from trust in self to complete reliance on the Lord. Then we shall have no fear, nor shall we be dismayed by the fewness of our numbers, for the Lord will be with us.
"For there is no restraint to the Lord to save by many or by few."
