The Gospel of the Sovereignty

And Other Sermons

The great need of our day is not the discovery of new truths, but the vitalization of old ones, and the man of the hour would be he who could breathe new life into certain simple, elementary truths which have been in the Church’s possession throughout all the years of her continuance. We have quite enough articles in our creeds, what we want is sincerely to believe in them. For every truth honestly believed in becomes an energy in our life. Every genuine belief is a force. But many of the beliefs we profess to hold are as void of life and power as the dry bones in the valley of the prophet’s vision. Some of the primary truths of our Christian faith would come upon us with all the surprise of new revelations if we once really felt their power.

And among the truths which need to be vitalized and restored to potency and influence amongst us is the great and

blessed truth of the Sovereignty of God. It is a primal article in our creeds; but to a large extent it has passed out of the category of effective beliefs. It has ceased to be an energizing faith. It is not to-day a force in our lives. And there is nothing which, in the interests of a deep, virile, serious religion, we need more than to know the power of the truth that “the Lord reigneth”; that our God is not a dead God, not an inert God, not an absentee God; but a living God, a Sovereign God, a present God, a working God, actively engaged in directing, overruling, shaping the affairs of nations and of men.