The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1886-05-29
TINE BENEVOLENT COMMISSION.


and preach the Gospel to every creature.-siark
More than eighteen centuries ago
the Lord Jesus Christ gave this
world to His church. The posses
sion has not yet been fully realized.
1t was made the duty Of Christian
people to preach the Gospel in all
lands and to all men-to disseminate
the newly revealed principles which
would give the world a better ciyili-
zation-a civilization in which puri-
ty, virtue, knowledge and true re-
ligion should supplant impurity,
vice, ignorance and superstition.
To the few disciples gathered
around our Saviour in the beginning
was given commission as broad as
the race and rs strong as emnipo-
tence: go we into all the world and
preach my Gospel to every creature;
and, 10! am with you always, even
to the end of the world" With that
commission began a tremendous con-
flict, for the end of which the world
has been looking through the ages
in vain. Sin, inhumanity, wrong
all malign spiritual influences on
one side, and Christ and his true
spiritual descendants on the other,
are forces that have been contend
ing hitherto for universal supremacy.
To-day the battle wages between the
elements of all good and the elements
of all evil. And if the church would
achieve what the commission re-
quires and what the Gospel antici-
pates, she must not simply attempt
to hold what she has gained. She
must be missionary, aggressive. She
is
Now, what are some of the rea-
sons why she is? Back of all benev-
olent enterprises that propagate kind
ly feeling among men, and induce
sympathy and religion, back
of the Gospel itself is the doctrine
of the unity of the human family.
In general organization, in af-
fections, appetites, passions, moral
faculty and the play of the under
standing men of all races agree
and are alike Nor is the kingdom OF
mankind divided up by any artifi
cial lines. Looked at from the point
of philanthropy it has no family
lines, no lines of caste, no national
lines, no denominations lines. From
the spiritual plane looking down
upon the human race there are nc
rabbits, no kings, no lords, no ricf
men, no great men, no small men
except in goodness. Gods family
on the globe is the absolute, univer
sal brotherhood of men. There il
neither Jew nor Greek, there is mel
Their bound nor free, there is ncithe
male nor female, for all are one il
Christ Jesus"-one in the sympath,
of the Fathers heart; one in tn
view of the Gospel scheme; one il
, the possibility Of an immortal life
substantially one in nature, life, re
lations, experience and destiny.
! How strange that it has taken tn
nations, especially Christian nations
SO long to learn this simple lessor
Though one Of the most apparen
: truths of the Gospel, it was neve
much insisted upon until the ever
ing of the nineteenth century. Nc
: until recently did Christian peopl
4 begin to act toward other races wit
E consciousness that they wei
brethren, although the world had j
every age groaned and travelled
e pain for the want of 1t.
e But l would not be understood q
n asserting that no differences exis
h among races of men. There are di
l. ferences-growing out of climat
habits of life and education. Thel
IS are variations in structure and pr
t portions. There are variations
l. intellectual capacity, and in the d
t gree of development of the mor'
element. There are differences b
tween the savage and the civilize
n between the old barbarians and Il
It barbarians of to-day. There are di
!. ferences, too, between Christians
the first century and Christian
~ of the present century, and betwct
9 man and man in the same age ar
0, the same nation. But when "
r. come to look at the deeper facts
81 human nature, you shall find tn
the points in which men agree a
. far more than those in which thu
g differ. Vanity. and ambition, al
er faith, and hope, and love, and Il
to yearning for immortality are the sar
10 at the root amongst all nations u
on earth. Men everywhere ha
~ the same weaknesses and the saT
Sc necessities. All are heirs to t
t. same imperfections to a greater
ct less degree. The same burdens al
:, sorrows come upon ALL. None a
free from the cares Of temptatio
none can become good, or wise,
true, or noble without substantial
the same struggle. Considering
m the facts, do not think anyone W
Il. has not pet theory to support c
ed doubt the unity, the brotherhood
ar the human family.
!. Now, it would be useless to d
ho cuss to-day how evil came into Il
on world-whether it was the inevi
on Bile outgrowth of finite intelligen
;,p or the willful disobediencc Of beir
=, that were perfect. 1t is enough
nj us to know that sin is here, doing
II. work of ruin and death. Ignoran
.as squalor, false pride, sordid avari
-. degradation, superstition, idolat
do hive everywhere blighted the hap
- ness of mankind. If we be bcnc
lent. ii our hearts he moved by
spirit "f our Master, what IN