Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1878-06-28


Chri>t's teachings and convert faire>t truth
into uslic>t falsehoOd.
When the Young man came running 10 our
Lord and kneeling down TO him asked him
what he should do Ia inherit eternal life. Christ
saw that 1t was not the time 10 preach emo
tional iervor or submissive faith. The Time
for that came ON different occasion. II WAS
when the Jews, hardened by religious con-
ventiona>m, slow of heart 10 believe and to
| love but ready to conform and practice, asked
him, what shall we do that we might work
the works of God:" This is the work of
God" was the answer he sent knocking against
the barred door Of those alien hearts, ''that We
| believe on him whom He hath sent" But
here is mind open and ingenious, n heart
warm and impressiblc, youth whom ii would
have been easy 10 turn into an enthusiast, who
was evidently expecting to be employed in
some grand enterprise in which high deNo-
iion and conspicuous >aintliness should win
the crown of eternal life. But no ; Christ
preache> To him in tones singularly ahectionate
but inleXiby firm, the humble prosaic duty of
scli-lenying obedience. IF thou wilt enter
into life, keep the commandments :" and then
he goes on 10 show him that he had not. Is he
imagined. hitherto kept them. And 50 we find
thri>t'> teaching alternating from time 10 time
according I" the needs OF the hour, between
love and faith on the one hand, and practical
| righteousness on the other, between doctrines
| which one sci of men have carried TO their
| extreme in antinomianism and doctrines which
another set of men have carried 10 their eN-
| IRENE in asceticism.
And this oscillation of doctrinal emphasis
has been pcrpetuated in the church and must
continue 10 be till the end of time. Paul put
the stress of his teaching upon faith James
| upon works. The Oriental Fathers of the
| church and the Swiss and German Reformers
| exalted the intellectual and emotional aspects
| of religion the Western Fathers and the An
| glican divincs insisted more on its practical
| duties. Sometimes the Christian temper Is
such that belief is easy and duty is irksome;
| in those times of an imaginative and sensa-
| tional righteousness, the church must cry
aloud with all her thousand voices for right
| eou>nesS, practical righteousness, insisting
| that without II no man can see the Lord. AT
| other times the Christian world is strict and
| blameles> in the observance of outward duties,
but lacking in piety and the spiritual mind.
| Then is the time to rouse faith and replenish
| the fires Of love on the spiritual hearth-stone.
| Every church should have, either actually or
| virtually, these two great truths bazoned in
letters of light on the one and the other end OF
| lis edlice: over the door, Believe on the
| Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved"
| over the chancel, the commandments. When
| faith is cold, turn that way: when virtue is
| weak, thi, way.
| The Use 10 which we should put our Sa-
| viour'> teaching respecting the adaptation OF
doctrinal stress TO the needs OF the time, is,
rr>t of all To inquire which of the two essen
tlal> OF Christianity needs 10 be more insisted
ON now. \ little reelection, think, will con-
vince Us that il is that one which our text sets
forth, ''lf thou wilt enter into life, keep the
commandments. Comparatively speaking
this is an age in which faith flourishes, and
Righteousness langui- hes. Ii is common TO
speak of this II a >ceptical age. Ii this means
that >ceptici>m l. more outspoken. more per-
>ua>iNe in its logic and its literary form, more
respectable and respected, than ever before,
this i true. But if it be meant that il has
greater following or stronger influence on
the general mind relatively 10 the progress of
faith it is mistaken notion. Take these three |
facts never was so large proportion of the |
leading minds of the world in sympathy with |
the essentials of Christianity; never was so |
large proportion of the people of Christian |
countries enrolled among believers in the faith |
of Jesus Christ; never was the numerical, the |
material and the spiritual progress of the |
church in Christian and in heather lands 50 |
great a> il has been within this generation. |
The very bOldne>> of unbelef is tribute 10 the |
bodnc>s and the conscious power of faith. The /
English Dei>tS were feebler i'll their OPPOSE |
ton To Christianity than modern topposers be- |
cause the claims put forth by Christianity it |
self were fecblcr. IL has recently been brought |
10 our notice that even Noltalrc. SO Tar from
having been the ATHEIST he has been generally |
supposed, declared with his dying breath that
while he hated superstition, he adored God. !
II Hume. >hafte>bury and Gibbon were living
now, they could moi maintain tthc mild, half
way antagoni>m to religion which the tempori-
ling faith of that age left 10 them, but would |
be driven by the more valiant logic of modern |
religious science into either confession or athc-
ism. Look upon the vast array of churches
gathering the great mass of the people from
week TO week 10 worship the God in whom
they believe and to hear his word which they
love, and contrast these enthus iastic congrega-
tons with the little knots of dismal-faced mu-
tually repcllant misanthropes and Adullamites
whom unbeliei by much advertising AMI
bell-rngng with difficulty brings together
al long intervals in some large city reflect
that the tremendous power of the press is by
large prcpOndcrance on the side OF Christian |
faith; that there i not secular journal in |
ChristcndOm of any influence which is hostile
10 Christianity; that while the few anti-t hris-
iian periodicals read by hundreds, the re-
ligiouS Journal, are read 10y tens of thousands; |
that of all the books issued from the press by
far the larger part are religious books carrying |
Christian thought and influence into the homes
OF all lands that i'll all parts of the world the
missionary operations OF the various churches
are meeting with success hitherto unparalleled,
in>omuch that coo-headcd men are already
calculating how near the time IL when Chris
tianIty Will have radating centres whose cir
cles Of influence will touch each other over
every land of our broad earth-and surely this
is a lime when the faith of Christianity need
borrow no alarms from her probable future, |
nor call for any special diversion of forces from
other parts of the field.
But it is often asked, with great anxiety, if
this i not a time specially perilous TO the faith
of young men, ard il it is not necessary, for
their sake, 10 emphasize this side of religion |
-, ','', hh'e W. tinsH W aas III ''t>Nci
tam kind of >ccpticism prevalent among young
men. and though lis existence i, of course, de-
iih H. ap''' " ! Nv ~ neah- 80 io,iiiIua'ie
t In a. II In Ih a'iiios pi NJ
that which i hcaltniul than because il is posi-
lively injurious. II Is in most eases only an :
~ " an VI ui', Nally no" are Ieo- /
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lisheIi,r i, M, ,,;.,' ,f ,'r,,r ,aIi;m,, H., Il
h,t hi. li,tIr hrntL.ri /. ,cry III anJ to- | 81
II has read the last word his heart has already Is
on, mn in i,r,,,r Ia no E,,har in ho,yar b
/ i, no, denied 'th,t nov snJ then we meet b.
,iib . youthtnI Scn,,icisu, nf :, ,,nnro scrin,, Y,
ind, deserving and needing II more serious | y,
treatment than this, but the ordinary malady, d'
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- alarm Ia u,nthrrs anl Sitcr, il 1rb,,'. a. IN
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est lntilotc this 10 adolescent sccptci>m is 81
rurc. ,irtun,,. 1iIinnntIiG. anil Will !, NJ
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u airy whim of the head but a harlnrs. y,
Ttbr hear, nrnn,,i,,, tho ,,n mo-, ,n ill.,, Iii
II the restraints Of conscience and forsakr the III