"37 On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’”39 Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
40 When they heard these words, some of the people said, “This really is the Prophet.” 41 Others said, “This is the Christ.” But some said, “Is the Christ to come from Galilee? 42 Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the offspring of David, and comes from Bethlehem, the village where David was?” 43 So there was a division among the people over him. 44 Some of them wanted to arrest him, but no one laid hands on him."
John 3:37-44
The application of the thoughts expressed in yesterday's Note is surely pertinent and obvious today. For the danger of institutional religion has always been that it should degenerate into a barren formalism, with no life in it. It is certainly one of the great problems that faces the Church in our time. There is no lack of religion in Scotland, with more than 11⁄4 million members on our rolls. They come to God's House, they work for the Church with a loyalty that is indisputable, yet so many are 'outside' and strangers to the real meaning and message of the gospel. They think of Christ as He was 2000 years ago, they think of Him as Example, Inspiration, Hero, but it is always something in the past. It is for this reason that there are multitudes that are in error about the Faith, and have no real assurance of salvation; it has never become a vital reality to them, it had never happened to them. It is over against this that the gospel word must be proclaimed. And O, the need for a protest today against the dead and barren institution of religion, O, for a breath of the living Spirit to bring real religion to men's hearts and to congregations, to make all the great affirmations of the Faith into real, living experience, to make them happen to people!