St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-01-25

OF the marriage relation that he compared
II 10 His own relation with the church.
shall appear at the door of the great hall of
the Last ASSize, and all the multitudes OF
earth and hell and heaven shall rise I'D and
cry out from the three galleries: Behold
the bridegroom cOmethI"
MR. BEECHER'S SERMON.
On the Relation of the Religion of
Humanity TO that OF the Church.
Special To the Globe.
NEW YORK, Jan. 24.-Alr Beecher spoke
this morning from the text Ephesians xviii.
ll-l6: 'He gave some apostles, and some
prophets, and some eyangelists, and some
pastors and teachers for the perfecting OF
the saints Tor the work of ministry, for the
edlfylng OF the body of Christ, till we all
come in tine unity of the faith and of the
knowledge of the Son of God unto perfect
man until the measure of the stature of the
fullness of Christ" Men outside of the
church, that is men who have been led by a
partial view of science into relinquish-
ment OF the church and into an antagOnis-
tic position To the church after a certain
amount OF experience, begin 10 say:
well, there will be n church." What is
going 10 be? We'll, the church of human
ity;" but the church of humanity is a
pocket in the everyday clothes of the true
Christ's church. IL is a mere little bit of
thing. mere fragment which belongs to
the ever glorious whole. If a man should
pick an oak leaf and put it into his pocket
in order to explain to his children after he
gets home how tree looks he would not
be more foolish than man who should pick
up one single element of that aud organize
imaginatively church of the future on it.
n pf iafis-a 4
not hold true to the apostolic description
OF it. knowledge. " he says, speaking To
the Greeks. Well. l will invert it,
LOVE BUILDS; KNOWLEDGE PUFFs.
Or. to take IL as it is written. knowledge
puffeth uD; love buildeth up" The final
and grand end of the Christian church. as
Paul taught us, is to represent Jesus Christ
TO the world, and this is To be done by
bringing tine individual members into that
state in which they reflect substantially the
qualities OF the divine nature, and it is done
by bringing them together 50 that their rel
ative superiOTities and differences shall sup
plant each other, that their counterpart in
the church shall go TO constitute the gen
eric idea of the full Christ. There is no
man big enough to do il, but hundred
men, If you can only organize them
together, 50 that over against each mans
weakness there is another mans strength;
over against each deficiency there is another
mans supply; and then hold them together
in community of love, that they shall rep
resent one body and the various gifts and
attanments of all put together and that
they will all throw out on the world an
idea which shall really stand for Christ
We never saw vet a church of that kind but
we shall if we live long enough. / have
known it pretty near. That is to say, I
have known dozen men and women look
ing out OH the destitutiOn of neighbOrhoOd
saying to themselves Let us open a school,
Sunday school," and they are
FORTUNATE IN THEIR SELECTION
of each other, and say: Let us have a
hall, and we will contribute each one to it, ,"
and they pay for the hall themselves, and
give their time and work, and together
they learn to value each other and see
their work prOspers, and one man serves
here and another there, and they hold
together with a tenacity that makes the
most blessed experience of their life, for
when their fidelity has been so rewarded
people come to them and say: "YOu are
doing well, now; you ought to have a
church" and they say: ''IeS, we hope we
shall" Then the devil comes. They must
have q good site, and they must have
fine church, and they begin to
look around and see who they
can get. That man is rich. He says: Il
will come in if you will have things to suit
me-" That other man will come in and
bring his moneybags if you will have
minister to please him; and so the world
joins with them and quenches them. That
earliest period in the formation of Chris
tian church oftentimes is the cOnsummatiOn
of it. While it was small, coherent and
httf
for reputation, not for advancement, not for
influence, but for dear love of Him that
loved them, so long as there were a dozen
grouped together, that was a church no
matter whether it had been organized. That
is the ideal church and in that neighbor-
hood 90 around and ask. What is your
idea of real goodness" and you will hear
them say: ''Well, / don't know. There
are
GOOD MEN HERE AND THERE,
but there's set of fellows who get together
every week down here that have reformed
the drunkards and got the ragged children
in the schools, and 20 around and see them
at the houses and really seem to take an
interest in them, and are living for them.
tell you | have never seen such cluster
of workers as they are" An, the great
marble churches may be tombs, and the
great cathedrals may be empty and void,
but church made up of hearts that are
filed with love TO God, and show that love
to each other, they are scarce, but where
yOn meet them you can almost hear the
bells of heaven ring. Membership, then,
in a Christian church is not to be
regarded as a warrant of salvation,
and if. that be so. what are you doing in the
church, my brother and sister? Are you
growing? Is there any change from year
to year, and if there is, does anybody see
it? And TO those outside of the church l
appeal, not for my sake, not even for your
sake though there is eternity in your cases,
but for ChriSt's sake and for this poor.
grCaning and staggering world. 1 appeal
to every man and every woman. On which
side are you in this mighty conflict that is
going on in heaven and earth, and on which
side are you going to be? Choose We, and
choose this day. which side you will take,
and may God help yOu in the choice.
The prince of Montenegro, who is visiting
Paris incognito. yesterday called upon NJ. De
ErRvcinpt- AdViceS from Hainhonor cax thor