The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1886-09-15

object and end for which he was created
to glorify God on earth and enjoy him
forever in heaven. Without it no man
can either love or serve God or do any
thing that will be acceptable in his sight,
but the wrath of God abideth on him
continually. He drags out his existence
here IN misery and anxious iorebodings,
tossed like rudderless barque upon
troubled sea, until he sinks out of sight
into blackness and darkness forever.
Without it the family, that ancient and
venerable institute which God organized
at the beginning to become the basis of
all other wise and good institutions, de-
generates into centre of strife, nucleus
of demoralizing influences, and foun-
tain of corruption and crime. When
strife enters the household it deranges
the machinery of government, poisons the
sacred relationships of kindred, binders
cooperation, interrupts honest toll, pre-
vents the education OF children, spoils
their morals, debases their manners, de-
velops their deprsvity, and turns them
loose upon society to trample on Its laws
and become occupants OF its jails and
penitentiaries. The family, which should
be the school of morals and the home Of
religion, where minds and hearts are cul-
tivated purified, and refined, and all the
nobler instincts of our nature nurtured
and drawn out, is turned into pande.
monium.
But the peace of Christ is the peculiar
legacy of the Church and is designed to
equip her for her grand mission of love
and mercy to men When war RACES
within her bosom all her energies are
paralysed, her usefulness destroyed, her
testimony suppressed, her influence for
good dissipated, and she becomes laugh
ing stock In the eyes of wicked and
galnsaying world. 1t is true the Church
is herself militant body. She is COM
posed OF soldiers whose profession is war
and whose duty it is to declare war and
wage war against all the enemies ef God
and truth with determination neither
to give nor to ask for quarter. She must
contend earnestly for the faith once de-
livered to the saints and never lay aside
her armor or retire from the field of bat
tie till truth triumphs and the sceptre
of righteousness is acknowledged every
where and by all. But when war is
transferred from without to lOithin the
Church, when she ceases to make war on
the world, the flesh, and the devil, and
turns her arms In upon herself, and her
members begin to bite and devour one
another, she suffers far worse than she
would from all the assaults her enemies
could infict upon her. She soon falls
an easy prey into their hands. Far bet.
ter for her that all her foes on earth and
in hell should unite in one concerted at
tack and beleaguer her with Gordon of
furious foes than for her to foster dissen-
sion within her own bosom or become the
arena OF strife, controversy, and debate
Strife not only tends to disorganization
but is disorganization itself begun but
not yet complete, and if the demon is
not soon expelled utter wreck is but
question of time. Her members will be-
come discouraged, her services neglected
her zeal in behalf OF missionary and evan
gelistic enterprises will languish, her con
tributions fall of, her light be obscured,
and she will become reproach to her
divine Head.
The greatest evil, however, that re-
suits from war within a Church is that
the Holy Ghost is grieUed and driveya
a,Ooy. He will curse her ordinances
with barrenness, withhold the refreshing
showers of his grace, shut up the clouds
and command them that they rain no
rain upon her until she becomes parched
and dry like desert or as cottage in
vineyard and as lodge in a garden of
cucumbers. That same vine thai ne
brought out Of Egypt and cast out the
heather that he might plant it and pre-.
pared room before it and caused to take
deep root and Eli the land-thst same
vine he will suffer the boar out of the
wood to waste and the wild beast Of the
field to devour. He will take away the
hedge thereof and it shall be eaten up,
he will break down the wall thereof and
it shall be trodden down. He will lay it
waste and it shall not be pruned nor
digged. Psalm Xxx and Isaiah V. That
boar out of the wood, that wild beast
of the field" is the demon Of strife which,
when it gets into the Church, tears down
all the vines, eats up all the fruit, aud
tramples all the beautiful flowers under
foot-wastes, ravages, and destroys every
thing honest, lovely, and of good report.
No Church can endure strife within
her bosom-united she stands, divided
she falls. Pray for the peace Of Jerusa-
lem. They shall prosper that love her.
Peace be within thy walls prosperity
within thy palaces Behold how good
and how pleasant it is for brethren to
dwell together in unity On Jesus. give