The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-04-19

mean to say is this that the life OF the church is
| spiritual life, life derived from God, through
| our Lord Jesus Christ, by the Holy Spirit and
that Intellectual, social, animal life cannot take
the place Of, or in any sense be substituted for,
this spiritual life. This is the life that must be
] built up in the church. First of all by means
( of the word, and not by lectures on scientific.
| philosophic and poetic themes. The word OF
God first, the word of God last, the word of God
| all the time, will make strong, conquering
| church. have no fear of light for the church,
| or for the cause, il men are built up by the
word of His grace" Anything that may
hold in our notions that is not transparent that
the light of the Bible will not shine through, we
| ought to fling away as useless and harmful.
ANYTHING in the services of Gods house, in
music, oratory, or decorative art that in any
degree diverts the mind from God and the word
of His Grace, will inevitably result in a fabby,
puny life of Christian manhood and womanhood.
Again, brethren. we commend you to God, for
his service. The apostle was not commencing
sinners to God He directed them to God for
salvation, but he commended the church to God
for service-service in the broadcast sense. Some
how the service of God has become, to some ex-
tent, hedged about by the limitations of certain
forms OF worship-preachlng, together with
the accessories of singing and praying, so
that we call these things Service" or services"
as though orr highest idea of serving God is by
going through certain exercises or which preach
ing, hearing, singing and praying make up about
the sum of our service. Now, to some extent
this is a service, and doubtless one that is well
pleasing to God; bur Co the membership OF the
church, more especially, it Is the reception that
God gives us rather than the service we render
him. God says, here / spread my table; come
| and secure and partake, that ye may be able for
service. You employ man to do your work.
work which he is supposed to be qualified to per-
form. He has been commended to you, and You
employ him. He sleeps well and eats well, and
spends his time sitting round your cheerful hre
in your comfortable home. Now. would You call
that service2 And yet that is about the idea
that some people who call themselves Christians
| have Of service. OF course the servant must
have rest and food, and if he is good and faith
ful servant he will be ready for these things at
their appointed time. And so we need the word
of His grace that we may be made strong for
| service; and I have observed thatsthe workers in
the church are the most regular in their attend
ance on the means Of grace; indeed, they must
have their regular meals. They cannot eat
enough at some banquet, some revival, to last
them until there is another unusual spread.
These men and women who are doing the
real service of God are nearly always
Service is not getting, but giving; service Is not
receiving, but DOING service is not limited to one
day out of seven or to forty days out of three
hundred and sixty-fve, but involves consecra-
ton that puts in all the time / do not mean
that you are to put in all your time at the meet
ing house, or in a monastery or nunnery, but all
your time in the rational, delightful. beautiful
service of God, in business, in pleasure, in So
Cl0Ly SERVICE
is rendered to GOD according to that which
man hath, and not according to that which he
hath not"
The ideal church will extend as far as possible,
under grace, the limits of it's membership The
true church is no closed circle. It's ranks are
always open; it's hand is always extended to well
come any and all who sympathize with its OBJ
jects and are willing TO comply with its condi-
tons; and the conditions of membership in the
church of Christ should not be hard. Christ
NOT aEa fhn Af colu horn
Then why make the conditions of church mem
bership harda The doors Of the church should
stand open for sinners on the simple condition
that they are seeking Savior. Christ received
sinners. Shall not His church, The church
should receive doubters on the simple condition
of their willingness to receive evidence. Christ
received Nicodemus and Thomas doubters,
Shall not His church receive doubters? When q
man makes up his mind to the effect that
he is sinner, and needs savior,
he is certainly worthy of place in the
Christian church. But he had better be quite
sure that his mind is fully made up on this ques
ton of giving up his sins before he comes into
the church, because ii he does not, he will be
quite likely, sooner later to feel that the min
lister is little personal ;r his remarks. and that
| the church is just a little too strict in its re-
quirements. And SO the man with the tentative
faith may be received into the church. yet he
had better be quite sure that he really wants
the evidence that he demands, because If he goes
into the church he will be apt to get it whether
he wants it or not.
Now. what is the aim of the church2 To build
up; build up men, build up society, build up the
state. Certainly this cannot be done by gather
ing masses into heterogeneous conglomeration,
where the sinner is to remain sinner, and the
skeptic remain skeptic; where the naughty
are to remain proud and arrogant, and the ignor-
rant and vulgar to remain ignorant and vulgar.
We seem to be OVERRIDING this thing of reaching
the masses Just little What do we want to reach
the masses for2 4 fourth or fifth-rate theater
will reach the Masses an elephant and clown
will reach the masses; negro minstrelsy reaches
the masses; pot-house politicians reach the
masses; any iniammatory fool on any
subject can reach the masses; but how much
better off are the masses after they are reached2
1t is certainly no difficult matter to reach the
masses. Last summer had the pleasure of
tending very large campmeeting in the great
State of Ohio. By permission of the authorities,
two girls from the Salvation Army came on to
the grounds to hold services according to their
somewhat novel way. One girl sixteen years
old. sang ditties with no sense in them, and the
other little girl, ten years of age, played the
tambourine. Now it was soon made quite evil
dent that the girls could reach the masses, and
it was useless to try to hold any other service
on the grounds while the girls were performing
But can Christs church be turned into circus,
and the minister into clown. and the congrega-
ton into surging rabble, for the sake of reach
ing the masses2 1t is an easy thing to reach the
masses; but when you undertake the work of
building up the masses, then you will find that
it can not be done in single revival effort, by
extraordinary. novel, and sometimes coarse and
vulgar methods. 1t requires that which the
revolutions of all history have failed to iostle-
that against which the gates Of hell cannot pre-
vail--to build up the masses--the church of the
living God. Here, and only here, we find the
golden chain of love divine that can bring to-
gether and hold together the moral sinner and
the criminal. the educated and the ignorant, the
cultured and the uncultured the old and the
young--where by patient toll and mutual help
funess, they built up in all that relates to
his glorious service Of building character we com
mend you.
Yes God will take us into the blessed fellowship
of His love and co-partnership of his plans Yes,
He takes us-little and weak and ignorant as we
are-if we but come in the name of Christ, and
He imparts to us the Christ-life and then sends
us out to repeat the wonderful words of His