The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1888-05-12
.,9eu Qualifications.
CHRISTIAN FACTS AND FORCES

This latest work of Rev. Newman
Smyth published by Chas. Scribner's
Sons), consists of twenty thoughtful,
compact sermons, all but one preached
in his New Haven pulpit during last
years ministry. Zion's Herald makes
the following extracts: The first is
from the discourse on "The Honesty
of Jesus y
And if we have any doubts as to just what
this real Gospel is, there is one sure way in
which we can learn it. Take the New Tesla
ment, and learn of what spirit, and what man.
ner of man, Jesus Christ was. Only remem-
Der that to do this is no light thing. 1t means
reading the Gospel of Jesus Christ with will
ing mind. Have we will enough to take some
single word of Jesus, and carry it with us in
our hearts as commandment through the
livelong day -. Real Christianity ia not
owning a pew in church, and renting
building to the devil. Real Christianity is
not contributing farthing to missions, keep
ing carriage, and paying fifty cents on
dollar. Real Christianity is not saying,
"Lord, Lord" and leaving the mass of suf-
fering humanity to take care of itself go.
Real Christianity is not protesting to love the
brethren, and indulging in suspicious and all
uncharitableness. Real Christianity is not
sitting in Moses seat, and binding upon men
heavy burdens, and grievous to be borne.
Real Christianity is not-but we know too
we'll these spurious, beggarly and hateful
things which Christianity is not. What it is,
something most human and divine, we see
and own whenever disciple shows Christ in
some TRANSPORTATION of character to us. 1t
is Christ-Ohrist loved, chosen, obeyed, as
Master and Lord. 1t means for you and me,
not only following Jesus in grateful memory
along His way of mercy through Galilee and
Judea, but following Him in glad service up
| and down these streets.
The sermon on STANDING in the
Truth" John s 44) contains the fol-
lowing explicit teaching
We cannot stand clear-eyed, confident, and
| illuminated souls in the truth of God if we
are false in thought, word, or desire, toward
any man, woman, or child on Gods earth.
When person is thinking hateful thought
he does not believe then in God. There ia no
| God in his heart at that moment. Though he
should be making an argument to prove that
there is God, no man with an undivine
| thought in his heart could believe in God.
| He is living in that thought or passion in a
| Goddess universe. He is an atheist in his own
SOUL denying the very essence and glory of
| God, though he be saying, "Lord Lord -
And it is of no avail for any>man of us to try
| to believein God or Immortality, or the whole
unseen universe, simply by thinking about
them, or discussing the natural probabilities
| for these beliefs, unless we are first willing
and eager to have some truth of God in our
selves, living and pulsating in the heart of
our life, and so by the truth within us finding
that we stand in the divine truth of the world
What it is to be a disciple is told us
in the discourse on 1.-THE Beginnings of
Discipleship'' Matt. 1S: 81
To be disciple To become Christian
1t certainly does not mean to become per
feet at one leap. 1t does not mean at once,
and as if by magic, to be a saint. But it means
no little thing. 1t requires real moral de-
termination. 1t is religious decision. 1t
means for the school-boy or girl to learn the
next lesson as though God who made the
mind had set the task, and try to do every
thing as child of God, whom Jesus would
bless. 1t means for the young man or woman
to do the next thing which youth may find it
in its way to do, out of the purest motive and
from the hottest love in which by Gods grace
a soul may go free and glad, yet dutifully,
upon its life's course, as upon an errand to
which it is sent from the Father. 1t means
for the mature man or woman to give up the
false habit and to forsake the sin which may
have wound itself around the life, and at
any cost to do the right thing in Gods sight.
1t means courageous repentance, and the
most manly affirmation of the living soul
and its conscience, and sense of immortal
destiny, of which in the power of the Holy
Ghost we can become capable.
In his sermon on personal Power"
John IL: 54) the author emphasizes
the personal element in the propagation
of Christianity
While the world was perishing in its sins,
Jesus took time to deepen and to intensity
the personal life of His disciples before He
sent them forth finally into the world as His
disciples. Renewed and inspired personal
tiles were to be the Lords means of grace to
the world. The method of Christianity is
personal influence. The world is not to be
saved by institutionalism. Human society
is to be redeemed and glorifed by the per-
sonal lives, full of light and warmth, which
shall strike through and illumine it. Divine
grace is not an impersonal property-a sa
Ornamental magic, or a governmental provis-
ion-an intermediate something between the
soul of man and the Spirit of God it is the
love of God concentrated and incarnate in