From Harvie Conn, “A Church with a Message,†Presbyterian Guardian, Jan. 1958
Our Church has too many faults. Seminary professors, and students have long been pointing them out. But with all her faults, I love her still. As a new year rolls around, I’m thankful to be a minister of God’s pure gospel in her fold. As a minister upholding her ways, there is at least a message I may bring. As Machen put it to beautifully, many years ago, at the beginning of the conflict that still rages, “Whatever be the limitations of your gifts, you will at least have a message. You will be, in one respect at least, unlike most persons who love to talk in public at the present time; you will have one qualification of a speaker – you will have something to say.†Find the hungry heart that needs such a message, and then you will have your chance. “While angels look on, you will have your moment of glorious opportunity – the moment when you can speak the word that God has given you to speak. It will be a word of warning; false hopes must be ruthlessly destroyed. But it will also be a word of wondrous joy. What can be compared, brethren, to the privilege of proclaiming to needy souls the exuberant joy of the gospel of Christ?†For that gospel, that good news, that announcement of truth, and not opinion, I give thanks this year.
Old Life 