The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1886-12-01

while YOU san by IN the gliued caDlns OF
Britannia or a Great Eastern.
Second remark. If both Of the married
couple be Christians, but one is 50 naturally
constructed that it Is impossible to enjoy the
services Of particular denomination, and
the other is not 50 sectarian or punctihous,
let the one less particular 90 with the other
who is very particular. As for myself, feel
as much at home in one denomination Of
evangelical Christians as another, and /
think must have been born very near the
line / like the solemn roll Of the Episcopal
liturgy, and / Ike the spontaneity Of the
Methodists. and / like the importance given
10 the ordinance Of Baptism by the Baptists,
and like the freedom Of the Congrega-
tionalists, and I like the government
and the sublime doctrine of the
Presbvterians. and I like mary Of the
others Just as good as any have mentioned,
and / could happily live and die, and preach,
and be buried from any Of them. But others
are born with 50 stout and unbending and
inexorabIe a liking for some denomination
that it is d positive necessity they have the
advantage Of that one What they were in
tended to be in ecclesiasticism was written
IN the sides Of their cradle, If the father and
mother had eyes keen enough to see
it They would not stop crying until
they had put into their hands as
pIavthings a Westminster Catechism OF
The Thirty-nine Articles. The whole cur
rent Of their temperament and thought and
character runs into one sect Of religionists as
naturally as the James river into the
Chesapeake. II would be torture
to such persons to be anything outside Of
that one church Now, let the wife or hus-
band who Is not so constructed sacrifice the
milder preference for the one more inhexible
and rigorous. Let the grapevine follow the
rugosities and sinuosities of the oak or
hickory. Abram, the richer in focks Of
Christian grace, should say 10 Lot, who is
built on a smaller scale: ALet there be no
strife. pray thee. between me and thee, and
between my herdmen and thy herdmen Is
not the whole land before theeI7 As you can
be edited and happy anywhere, 60 with your
companion to the church to which he or she
must 20 or be miserable.
Remark the third: If both the married
couple are very strong in their sectarianisnls,
let them attend the different churches pre-
ferred 1t is not necessary that you attend
the same church. Religion is between your
conscience and your God. Like Abram and
Lot. agree to differ. When on Sabbath morn
ing YOU come out Of the door of your home
f0LEttieE am Dilb lta D4tS way ltA AAAt OAsAtl
the other, heartily wish each other a good
sermon and time of profitable devotion, and
when YOU meet again at the MONDAY repast
let it be evident each to each, and 10 your
children, and to the hired help, that you have
both been on the Mount Of TRANSPORTATION,
although you went up by different paths, and
that YOU have both been fed by the bread of
life. though kneaded by different hands, in
different trays, and baked in different ovens.
But how about the childrens' am often
asked by hundreds of parents. Let them
also make their choice They will grow up
with reverence for both the denominations
represented by father and mother if you,
bv holy lives, commend those denominations.
Ii the father lives the better life, they viii
have the more favorable opinion Of his de
nomination If the mother lives the better
life. they win have the more favorable
opinion of her denomination And some
day both the parents will, for at least one
service. 20 TO the same church. The neigh
bors win say: Il wonder what is going on
to-day. for / saw our neighbor and his wife,
who always go to different churches, going
arm in arm to the same sanctuary" Well, |
viii tell you what has brought them
together, arm in arm, to the same altar.
Something very important has happened.
Their son is to-day uniting with the church
He is standing in the aisle taking the VOWS
of Christian He had been somewhat way
ward. and gave father and mother a good
deal Of anxiety, but their prayers have been
answered in his conversion, and as he stands
in the aisle and the minister of religion says:
ado you consecrate yourself to the God who
made and redeemed you, and do you promise
N hin, oil u
voice he answers 81 do" There is am April
shower in the pew where father and mother
sit, and a rainbow of joy which arches both
their souls, that makes all differences of creed
infinitesimal And the daughter who had
been very worldly, and gay, and thoughtless,
puts her.life on the altar of conservation, and
as the sunlight of that Sabbath streams
through the church window and falls upon
her brow and cheek, she looks like their other
daughter, whose face was lumined with the
brightness of another world, on the day when
the Lord took her into His heavenly keeping
years ago.
should not wonder if, after all, these
parents pass the evening of their life in the
same church, all differences of church pref
erence overcome by the joy of being in the
house of God where their children were pre-
pared for usefulness and heaven.
But l can give you a recipe for running
your children. Angrily contend in the
household that your church is right and the
church of your companion is wrong. Bring
sheer and caricature to emphasize your opin-
ions, and your children will make up their
minds that religion is sham, and they viii
have none of it. In the northeast storm OF
domestic controversy, the rose of Sharon and
the lily of the valley will not grow, Fight
about apostolic succession, fight about election
and free agency, fight about baptism, fight
about the bishopric, fight about gown and
surphce, and the religious prospects of your
children will be left dead on the field. You
will be as unfortunate as Charles, duke OF
Burgundy, who in battle lost diamond the
value of a nation, for in your fight you viii
lose the jewel of salvation for your entire
household. This is nothing against the adj
vocacy of your own religious theories U.s.
all forcible argument, bring all telling illus
tration, array all demonstrative facts, but
let there be no acerbity, no singing retort
no mean insinuation, no superciliousness, as
though all others were wrong and you in
fallibly right
Take hint from astronomy The Ptole
maic system made the earth the center OF
the solar system, and everything was thought
system came, and made the sun the center
around which the planets revolved. The
bigot makes his little belief the center OF
everything, but the large souled Christian
makes the Son of Righteousness the center
and all denominations, without any clashing
and each at its own light and in its own
sphere, revolving around it. Over the toni
of Dean Stanley in Westminster abbey is
kf Of ssrIaxr
ments are exceeding broad Let no man
crowd US on to path like the bridge Al
STRAIT, which the Mohamlnedan thinks leads
from this world over the abyss of he'll into
paradise, the breadth of the bridge less than
the web of a starved spider or the edge of q
sword or razor, off the edges of which many
fall. No; while the way is not wide enough
to take with us any of our sins, it Is wide
enough for all Christian believers 10 pass
without peril into everlasting safety.
But do not any of you depend upon what
you call sound creed for salvation. A man
may own all the statutes of the state of New
York and yet not be lawyer, and man
may own all the best medical treatises, and
not be physician; and man may own all
the best works ON painting and architecture.
and not be either painter or architect; and a
man may own all the sound creeds in the
world, and yet not be a Christian Not
what you have in your head and on your
tongue, but IN your heart and in your life,
viii decide everything.
In olden times in England, before the mod
ern street lamps were invented, every house
holder WAS expected TO have lantern sus-
pended in front of his house, and the cry of
the watchmen in London as they went along
at eventide was: Hang out your lghts.s
Instead of disputing in your home about the
different kinds of lantern, as a watehman OF,
the walls of Zion / cry. @Let your light 50
shine before men that they, seeing your good
works, may glorify your father which is in
heaven Hang out your lights! You may
have thousand ideas about religion. and yet
not the great idea of parioning mercy Ii is
not the number of your ideas, but the great
ness of them A mouse hath trn offspring in
her nest. while the honess hath one in her lair.