HERALDS OF GOD
You will be able to show that God does not will the baffling evils of the world to-day, any more than He willed the treacherous conduct of Joseph's brethren; that, nevertheless, when sin has taken the game into its unclean hands, God is still master of the situation, using tragedy creatively and making the wrath of man to praise Him; and that the divine alchemy which thus brings good out of evil depends on our willing cooperation, just as it was by refusing the way of bitterness and recrimination, and by keeping his spirit even at the darkest hour alert and sensitive to God, that Joseph was able to turn his necessity to glorious gain and to lead captivity captive.
Or it may be your purpose on another occasion to expose the inadequacy of a merely derivative and borrowed religion in this day of crisis. There is that swift retort of Jesus to Pontius Pilate, who had been vaguely sounding our Lord about His claims to sovereignty: "Sayest thou this thing of thyself, or did others tell it thee of Me?" How that rapier-like challenge pierces the pretensions of a second-hand religion! Or you are eager to impress upon your people the Christian's paramount obligation to be an active witness among men to the truth and the power of the Gospel. Do you remember the four lepers at the gate of Samaria who were the first to discover that the besieging Syrians had fled? "We do not well," they cried, "this day is a day of good tidings, and we hold our peace." Or you are concerned to stress the dangers of a half-hearted, sentimental religion, the need for a
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