Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1878-10-27

and shows how often fate picks up its agents
in the most unexpected quarters.
REBUKING SIN.
Them that sin, rebuke before all, that others
also may fear.-I. Timothy, v:20.
Many sincere Christians who have the
canse of the church at heart, write to thank
the SUNDAY GLOBE for it's earnest efforts to
eradicate from the pulpit and from the pews
all that is ungodly and injurious to true re-
ligion. "But," they ask, show can we as
sist you in your work of evangelization, and
rid the church of these hindrances to its
usefulness?'' The answer is: By following
the example set by the SUNDAY GLOBE.
Wherever you see fault, fearlessly rebuke
it; cry aloud and spare not against the hypo
critic in the pulpit and the pews, whether
clad in homespun or in fine fabrics. We
are convinced that many of the sins
of the church, more especially
of the ministers of the gospel,
are not deliberate transgressions, but are the
result of thoughtlessness or misconception
of duty. Moral obliquity is too common
among protesting Christians, but where one
is deliberately vicious or regardless of the
duty he owes to his God and his fellow man,
score become SO from pure habit-from
sheer carelessness or incidence. In the first
place, very few church members study as
they ought the commands and the teachings
of the Master they profess to serve. They
are content with giving their adhesion in
the abstract to what are denominated the
principles of Christianity. They never seem
to realize that true Christianity is active,
not passive; that by embracing it one con-
tracts to act as we'll as believe.
The belief that Christ is indeed the son
of God never made any man or any woman
better. Such a result is only attained by
learning and understanding his will and fol-
lowing his example. We very often find
ministers who teach justification by faith in
such manner as to lead their hearers to the
men true followers of Christ. Such doc
trine is pernicious and destructive to true
religion, especially when we see the preach
ers acting upon their own theories-profess-
ing to have faith sufficient to remove noun
tains, yet acting in such manner as to con-
vey the impression to the world that if they
are examples of what religion can do for
man, religion is a good thing to avoid.
mongers, too, simply through the force of
example. The minister, by a careless word
about a neighbor or a significant shrug of
the shoulder, can inculcate lesson that all
his preaching for a century cannot counter
act. The line of demarcation, too, between
harmless gossip and hurtful SANDER is not
very clearly defined, and one instinctively
and perhaps unwittingly crosses the border.
A habit thus acquired becomes chronic, and
is seldom fully cured. So it is that church
members are the most incorrigible of Cos
sips and scandal-mongers. They are shut
out by the church from many of the amuse-
ments and diversions that other people en-
joy, and to find entertainment flock to The
sewing circle or church sociable, which are
in reality but associations organized for
scandal and defamation of character. To
cure this evil it is necessary to put guard
upon the lips and watch upon the tongue,
for the practice is insidious and awfully de-
structive to ones moral nature.
By association and example man fire.
quently falls into the habit of speaking
trivially of sacred subjects, and almost be.
fore he knows it his conversation becomes
not only profane but blasphemous. He is
not necessarily deliberate in his transgres-
sion; he is careless, however, and that is quite
as great sin. At any rate his example is
quite as harmful as if he was maliciously
wicked.
Lying, dishonesty, hypocrisy, overreach-
ing in business, and other faults among
church members are different from those We
have referred to, because they are deliber
ate and premeditated. No man can speak
an untruth without knowing he is doing
wrong. Neither can he use the little brass
kettle or any similar device for cheating II
trade without knowing it. He can
not be hypocrite without in
| "1ANAy OOoHAoAASo AAAAASOAA oAAu hAOW1uS 1t
deserves the lash for his deceit. Offenders
against the morals of the church in ties,
respects deserve no consideration or mercy
They should be hunted down and driver
from the church which they disgrace.
1t is every Christians duty to expose ani
denounce the sins of those who bring dis
grace upon the church. If the transgresso
occupies the pulpit he is deserving of less con
sideration than if he but filled a pew, for hi
example is far more potent for evil. b
overlooking these faults they lend encour
agement to their commission and continue
ton. In the first place the practice of tru
religion, not particularly its theory, ought t
be kept ever present to the mind. Men an
women should be taught that justice to ma,
is justice to God This text should be era
ven upon every heart: "If any man anon
you seem to be religions and bridleth not hi
tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, thi
mans religion is vain. Pure religion an
andefled before God and the Father is this
20 visit the fatherless and widows in thei
affection, and to keep himself unspotte
from Tho 1uorId -