Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1884-03-22
The Work of the Church.

| Both Secondary and Primary ResuIts
Which are to be Sought for by Minis
ters.
At Marquand chapel yesterday afternoon
Dr. John Ball, of New York, addressed the
theological students and a large gathering of
townspeople He said: 1t is to the results of
the church's work that your attention is
called to-day. OF course it would be easy to
give you statistics about the products of the
church. You can get from books facts and
statements as to the relations of things
which, if you had any fears that Christianity
was losing ground, would dispel those fears.
I want to follow on the line that has been in
dictated, and to show that in the degree it
which the machinery of the church is broughn
into Christ's idea, in that degree the church
will be successful. A farmer goes to Mons
tans to raise grain and get rich. He has a
number of secondary objects which he will
accomplish along with his primary aim. The
church accomplishes many secondary results,
but We must not lose sight of the great pri-
m airy object. The church values these Chris
tian documents confided to her care. Both
voluntarily and Involuntary has the church
The scriptures appeal to the conscience of
each individual and every man is then re-
sponsible. When you become ministers
spread the book Put it into the hands and
hearts of as many as you can. These are
features of the Christian faith which we
SHOULD not forget. You probab bly, know that
Max Muller is giving to the world the religion
of the East in a very scholarly manner.
There have already been twenty-three of
these volumes published and believe there is
more knowledge in half the book of Mat
thew than in the whole twenty-three Volumes
You have instructed yourselves in Roman
and Grecian history where such low idea of
life was held and you know how Christianity
has modified these ideas of life and property.
When the human mind has taken in the
great principles of the Bible or even of the
de a'ogue his ideas are radically chang Cd.
/ 0, but you say you ought to take some ex-
amples from simple, unRdulterated human
nature away from luxury and cultivation.
But slight acquaintance with the simple,
savage tribes will suffice to show that those
unaffected by the influence of the book
dation. 1t would be easy to show that socie-
ty itself has been organized through the in
1uence of the revealed word Intelligence is
diffused by m sans of the Bible. There is a
direct relation between reason and revelation.
The talk of the conflict between science and
religion ignores the truth that religion ia of
itself kind of science, and that the conflict,
if there be one, is conflict between differ
emit kinds of science Take the Jews, what a
miserable bit of territory they had in Pales-
tine Yet to what high place they soon
| rose among the nations. They got their in
telligence from the book. They took q
foremost place wherever they went They
WI 6anonnpo6 a tha hu
the Russians because they are the
| bankers and hnanciers and are of superior
intelligence. Thus the church incidentally
| has given to the world the intelligence that
makes the soul of our civilizstio What
would home be if this book had not been
| in the world2 We know what the harems OF
| the East have been where men cared fer
nothing but the qualification of the lowest
side of their nature. What has changed
this2 If we are Inundated by suicides in the
| community tell the people that they
are due to the fact that we do not live up to
the pure and blessed principles of the Bible.
| Among the incidental products of the Chris.
tian church are all the benigpity
and kindness we have. Fine ethical
principles can be found in Plato,
| Cicero and Socrates and other ancient
writer's Christians do not need to deny
that. But you tell your people when
you become ministers that there are three
points in which the ethics of these writer's do
| not equal the ethics of the Bible. The first
/ is, there is in them no ideal set before us.
Where is the Christ of the Vedas or of the
Greek and Roman literature? There they
| have no motive to set before us as have
| the ethics of the Bible. He loved us and be-
cause we love him we keep his command
| ments. The third point in which the ethics
of those writer's fail is in the power which we
all need. t'My grace is sufficient for you,
and will perfect thy weakness in my
strength
The primary object of the church is the
saving of souls. This cannot always be kept
| in view. This object can be obtained in the
degree in which the power is relied upon.
In days when men allowed outside and
heather influences to come in and modify
their conceptions of right and duty and of
the right use of the machinery and power of
the church the secondary benefits diminish
ed. History proves the truth of that remark.
Remember the time when Mohammedanism
made its tremendous progress and swept land
over land How much it looked as if it would
conquer the world and it seemed to put
Christianity in the background. But NOLAN
| mechanism never had its Reformation and it
| has unconsciously borne testimony to the
divine elements of power and life in the
scriptures. But the solid and enduring
results are to be found in the right hand of
God.
Consider the nineteenth Psalm. In the
| first six verses is the basis of natural theolo-
gy. The style is figurative and horid. Inn
agination runs through it. One can see the
sun rising in the east and making its way
across the sky to the west as the ancients
thought. In the second half the style
changes Here is no imagination, no figures.
| The style is calm and earnest, the sentences
concise and brief. 1t touches the inner life.
1t tells of wonderful pc wer which God brings
| into the world. Take the spirit of that
| Psalm with you. In the first part there is
room for your Imagination, fancy, poetry,
astronomy, natural theology That is pri-
mary Then remember that in the second
part is Jehovah, able to keep you from pre-
sumptuous sin, converting the soul.
contemplate you al ministers in this New
England, / love New England. have
good reason to do 90. When | was mere
boy got great good from the works of DIR.
Dwight and Jonathan Edwards. It would
| erieve me bitterly if the New England church
| did not hold its place and ground that God
gave to her. Ii she is to do this her minis
| ters must be clear, positive asserters of this
| truth that is asserted on the book.