Work
Story★★★★In an old comedy of Thomas Shadwell’s there is a knight, Sir Nicholas Gimcrack, who practices his swim- ming in dry security, outstretched frog-like on a table. “I hate the water,” he confesses.
“I content myself with the speculative part of swimming. I care not for the practick.”’ We smile at Sir Nicholas’ frankness, but how much swim- ming on land have we done?
Resolutions, perorations, noble sentiments—but we “care not for the practick.” Yet Christianity must act if it is to find concrete leverage in the world. A woman recently went into a five- and-ten-cent store and asked for compasses. “We have compasses for drawing circles, madam,” the clerk said, “but not for going places.’
Christian truth has often been a compass for drawing circles, endless discussions that go round and round. But it is emphatically a compass for going to places, for movement, for action, for definite arrival at definite goals.
The point
Sir Nicholas practices swimming on dry land rather than in water, boasting about theory; analogously, Christians often discuss faith endlessly without active practice, yet true faith requires concrete action.