Excerpt from Bulletin of Columbia Theological Seminary, Vol. 33: Inaugural Address; September, 1940, No. 2

The whole order of Western civilization is not without responsibility in this day of horror. What we are seeing tonight in fearful war, has already been happening in moral, social, and spiritual collapse. In vain have care less men counted on society maintaining standards of conduct, better than the level of their own personal behavior. In vain have foolish men expected faith in God to remain steadfast, while they themselves prae ticed a doubtful tolerance in permitting harmful neglect and destructive criticism to sabotage the prestige of the Holy Scriptures. In vain haveselfish men given themselves over to secular pursuits, expecting the church to safeguard the morals of society while they took license to live in indulgent wickedness. God is not mocked! Many, many men, who knew better, have sown the wind, and are now to realize in blood and tears that we must reap the whirlwind.

But it is not my purpose tonight to keep your minds focussed on this darksome hour. This much has been said that we might have a realistic background for our thinking as we now turn soberly to our theme. What then is the function of the Bible today? Is the study of the Bible some thing for days of leisure and peace? Or is it true, that the darker the hour the more reason we should turn to the Scriptures? Is not this what the Psalmist implies when he writes, Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path? We do well to remember that the world has passed through fearful times ere this, and it has been the glorious testi mony of Christians, that when the walls Of society and of empires crum ble before the onslaught of raw physical violence, then there is always an Augustine with upraised arm pointing the hearts of men to The City of God. The heroes of faith have ever triumphed as they patiently ran their race, enduring as seeing Him who is invisible. It has ever been true, and it is true now, that God always causeth us to triumph in Christ Jesus. Earnest men have faithft warned a sleeping church for years that the shadows were deepening in the hearts Of men. Fascinated by material prosperity, and drunken with human achievement, multitudes have left their Bibles unopened, their knees unbent, their heads unbowed they did not worship God sincerely, nor admit their own sins honestly. But God has not left Himself without witness. In every generation some have cared about God, have turned from their own sin to God, and have lived triumphantly by faith in God. Such men have glorified the name of Christ as they have been the salt of the earth and the light of the world. By their true, patient, worthy living they have kept the name Christian on something of a gold standard all over the world.

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