The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-06-17

the former, Bishop Bloomfield of London-no
preiudiced authority, certainly-cautloned his
clergy many years ago, as practice borrowed
from the Church of Rome. And yet here we
are, after the lapse of these years, adorning our
churches at Easter after this manner-beauti.
full in itself, and seemingly appropriate, but
dangerous as an innovation and practice in
that communion from which we have been
called out, as we believe, by God on account OF
her abominations As to the latter, do not mis-
understand me. do not object to the service
of praise being the best that we can Offer l
only object to its being of such a character as
is designed to please worldly people, and TO
render the service of the sanctuary attractive to
such-a plea under which the whole para
phernalia of ritualism might as well
be sustained its bowling and intoning and
theatrical displays being equally successful in
drawing gaping crowd. Let us not do evil
that good may come.
II. And now we may well ask, what we have
done TO draw all this upon us--this sad innova-
tion on the dignity and simplicity of our worship,
over which every true lover of his Church
mourns, and from which he has 80 much to fear
Here I can only suggest. But it seems to me
that If the Church were pervaded with true
and healthy Christian life, we should never have
witnessed what VIC now see, Can we imagine
Ritualism springing up in the healthy organism
OF the Pentecostal Church, or the Church of the
Reformation? Can we imagine it entering into
the thoughts of those whom the lethargy of the
English Church precipitated into Methodism
or invading that truly Apostolic Church, the
| MoraVianl I or as the result of genuine revival
in any religious bodyY
| 1t was only when the zeal of the early Church
had waxed cold, that it found place in the
ecclesiastical usages of the fourth and fifth
centuries. And SO, we believe that it is becaIse
| OF the prevailing lukewarmness of our Church
| at this day that we are now suffering from it,
that God has permitted 1t TO come upon u.s.
| Now, a true and healthy Christian life ia mani
| tested in holding the Head, in following the
| Head, and in self-denying efforts for the Head;
| and so far as it departs from or falls short of
: these, 1t is unsound and unhealthy; there is
! lukewarmness.
l. Christ is the Head, the Head of the body,
the Church, and of every soul that looks for
| salvation through Him. Have we lost sight of
| this in any measure as a Church, or have we kept
| 1t steadily in viewY will not now consider those
who avowedly hold the sacraments to be the
means and instruments of our justification.
will confne my view to those who hold the
evangelical doctrine. Now, though there is
among such much preaching of justification by
| faith, yet, as the result of my observation,
fear that must make the assertion that there
is not corresponding knowledge of it among
! processing Christians There is q vagueness in
their minds as to what faith is, and an unsteadi-
ness of view as to the connection between faith
and Christ. Take ST. Paul's declaration con-
! cerning himself, as the standard, ~ live, yet
not /, but Christ liyeth in me; and l live by the
faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave
himself for me-" Here was the experience of
a true Christian with reference to Christ. And
this call holding the Head and holding it in
earnest, with living grasp. Is this the religion
| OF Christians in our day, in our own Church,
| even in what we believe to be the better portion
ofit? Alas l have too often seen, after all our
teaching to the contrary, men believing that
they are Christians, still leaning upon them
selves, and still halt trusting, at least, to their
own endeavors for acceptance with God.
They will not believe that Christ is the One
Mediator, in whom they are to live and
move and have their spiritual being. They
have, indeed, some notion that His blood
cleanses from sin; bat that He is ''all in alp to
their ruined souls, of this fear that they have
| but little heartconceptlon. But yet it was this,
and this alone, that kept ST. Paul from ritual
ism, that drew him out from the ritualism of
the Jewish Church, and made HIM hate and
trample on all ordinances when they came, in
any way, TO overshadow Him who is the Head.
Christ and Christ only-this should be not
only the tenor of our preaching, but the anchor
Vitally, experimentally held: this is the word
of truth, and the gospel of our salvation. And
SO far as we fall short of it, we are suffering
from lukewarmness in our religion, and laying
ourselves open, therefore, to the inroad of
every error, in doctrine or practice.
2. But Christ hath left us an example, that
we should follow in His steps. "For me, life
Is Christ" said the same great apostle to whom
we have just referred, so fully did he realize
in his own existence what Christ Himself
| spoke, ''of His dwelling in us, and we in Him. u
He could say, THE world is crucifed unto me,
and unto the word" Which of us can begin
to say as much If the world is not enthroned in
our hearts, do we not at least allow 1t to steal in
and encroaCh upon the dominion which should
be Christ's alone? In our amusements, in our
business, in our daily intercourse, how little does
OuTlSJ IuIe, anu HOW nuCu the WOrlul DuJ IeW
are deferred from rash speculation because OF
its injurious effect upon their religion; but few
from exciting enjoyments for like reason. "An
seek their own, not the things which are Jesus
Cbrist's." Worldliness Is death to all spiritual
life, and yet worldliness is the great sin of the
Church in our day. And in saying this do not
refer only to those worldly pleasures in which
Christians indulge, and which are generally first
thought OF when the word is spoken, but to that
world-spirit which enters into all our life and
has the mastery of us instead of the Spirit ol
Christ in its Transforming and renewing power.
"For worldliness," as one has said "is distinct
from Sin, ana the denunciation of 1t Is peculiar
to Christianity. 1t does not consist in distinct
acts, nor in thoughts of transgression, but it is
the spirit of q whole life which hides all that is
invisible, real, and eternal, because 1t is devoted
to the visible, the transient, and the unreal. Men
who find their all in the world, how can they,
feVered by Its business excited by Its pleasures,
petrihed by its maXims, see God in His purity, OF
comprehend the calm radiance OF eternity ~
And the only opposite of the world Is Christ;
"Christ, our Hope, our Pattern, our Life; Christ
in us, the light which is in every man subjec-
lively; and Christ, the light which, shining OBJ
jectively IN His Lille, and Death, and Resurrec.
tion, daily increases, as we gaze, the light OF
Christ within us.n And where is the Word OF
God in these days? Manufactured by millions,
and distributed far and near, we know; but to
each Christian is it the Book of his heart to
an ever-ncreasing delghtY Alb, my brethren,
are not these sad symptoms of the Christianity
OF our day? And are they not bearing their
| bitter fruit?
g. And then as to the matter of doing for, and
giving unto the Lord. How few come forward
and consecrate themselves to the ministry of
the word, especially from the higher walk oi
| life; and fewer still to the missionary work OF
the Church, How few, again. of those who have
reached mature life are found in our Sunday