Only One Way Left
'THE essence of a Bible prophet is not that he forecasts the future- It is that he fears in his bones what is going to happen if we don't recover God's design right now.'
Basing his prophecy on 'two prior considerations,' Dr. Macleod goes forward from the point that (1) There is no longer any such thing as 'Christian West,' and (2) This has as serious personal es corporate consequences. The book deals in a most incisive, livelY and attractive fashion with those aspects of the Christian corn' munity in this present age which need, and need desperately, the attention of all thinking people. Dr. Macleod has the advan- tage of a really wide knowledge of the missionary-church and of the world in which it is set: and he has the advantage also of 8 theological training which enables him to go to root principles.
In consequence this is a book which may even achieve that most difficult of all objects—the shocking of complacent Christians to a realisation of their present dire situation. Nothing would be more timely or could be more useful, for the hideous truth is that, at this time, so very few Christian leaders seem to realise how utterly irrelevant the Church has become to the ordinary man and woman. And so very few also seem to realise that a new direction, a new purpose even, is needed if missionary endeavour (in the widest sense) is to succeed at all. There are today widening gulfs between man and man : most obviously 10 countries like South Africa where racialism is rampant. But not only in that kind of context.
It seems to me that the loneliness, the searching, of so manY in England also has basically the same origin : a sense that the Church (not just its leaders either) is not 'involved,' not identified with mankind as it must be if it is to be true to its vocation as part of the process of the Incarnation. 'If Christians do not more liberally add their salt to the boiling mixture that is the present turmoil then . . . it will boil over to the scalding . . of the whole world. This involvement is the King's business and it req ui reth haste.'
Every Christian should read this book. If it leaves him still in his armchair, sucking his pipe or dozing by the fire, then let burn say to himself : 'I'll be damned.' He will.
TREVOR HUDDLESTON
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