“APPLIED CHRISTIANITY” is a phrase that is made much use of just now in discussions relating to social and political themes. It is spoken of as if it were a sort of new science, that needed to be quite fully explained before ordinary people could be expected to grasp its meaning.
But the Bible constitutes a text-book on applied Christianity, and anyone who will read and believe what it says, will know exactly what applied Christianity is; and on the other hand, whoever will not seek to this [314] source of knowledge on the subject, cannot know what it is, no matter how much he may be told of what somebody says it is.
The Bible teaches that Christianity is itself an applied thing,—that it is manifested in no other form. For according to the Word of God, Christianity is not a creed, or a round of forms and ceremonies, but a manifestation of the life of Christ. It is the application of the wisdom, the power, the righteousness of God Himself, to the individual, through faith in Christ. It is the application of Divinity to humanity. This will of course be seen and felt in the community which environs it.
This is “applied Christianity,” by the agency of the Holy Spirit. It is impossible for man to apply Christianity to anything. Nor is any application of Christianity needed further than that which it is the office of the Spirit to make.