Abram Herbert Lewis - Spiritual Sabbathism

202 SPIRITUAL SABBATHISM
to record that the twentieth century, which opened
with unparalleled brightness for science and commerce,
proved to have attained more knowledge and
more wealth than it could assimilate? that it was
educated beyond its abilities, and rich beyond its
power of moral resistance?
Will he record that, as
a consequence of this materialism, Christianity, the
child of a sternly pure Hebraism, succumbed so
completely that a new Secularism, a new Paganism,
took its
place?
We hope that his task will be different. We
hope that the Harnack of the fortieth century will
have nobler things to record. We trust that men
will so cooperate with God that they may attain life
with him and in him. We trust in God. But we
do not trust in fortune and the sun, as the Emperors
trusted and have perished. We can not lean upon
the thought that chance will bring us through or
that holidays can consecrate us. We can not get
far upon the road to Spiritual Sabbathism by scorning
the gentle but solemn command: "Thus saith
Jehovah." But we can calmly wait and joyfully
work in the faith that even here, on earth and in
time, there remaineth a Sabbath Rest for the people
of God.