St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-12-03
IS CHRISTIANITY WANING /?
Pastor Holman Denies the Allegation
Emphatically,
AFTER THE CHICAGO. PLAN.
Gods Love the Embodiment Of True
Religion Churches to Be Closed if
This Is Not True.

eGod is Love- was the text taken by
Rev. +. O. Holman for his sermon yes
terday morning before the members of
the First Methodist church. Dr.. Hol-
man discoursed eXtemporaneously, and
thoroughly riveted the attention of the
congregation for three-quarters of an
hour. His subject matter was quaint,
and contained many original thoughts,
''God is love-" the, elderly divine re-
peated several times, and proceeded:
'The sentence is a whole body of diyin-
ity, gospelin miniature. II the whole
Bible were burnt up to-day in some great
cOnfiagratlOn, extending not only to this
city, but throughout the World-H the
universe should be wrapped up. as it
were, in a scroll of fire and these three
words, God is love, only preserved, they
would be sufficient to build up again the
whole grand scheme of Christianity.
II we examine the religion of the old
Greeks or Romans we gain an idea that
they believed in being that had
mighty power. They represented in
their mythologies creator-some giant
Jupiter MaXimus seated
UPON SOME LOFTY OLYMPUS,
with power to create and power to de-
stroy. LII their religion. are represented
certain angelic beings of great strength,
who could pick up mountains and toss
them at each other with the same ease
as you see school boys toss snOwballs in
their play. We find in these old relig-
ions, which were supplanted by
the religion of Christ, recognition of
a Divinity who possessed mind.
But in nc religion, except i'll the re-
ligion of the Holy Scripture, is there
presented for our contemplation a God
of whom it can be said He loves But
when we come to read the words of the
ing's text, but i'll every chapter of his
writings, he speaks of an old religion
a religion which existed from the be-
ginning, religion which declares ever
and ever again God is love- a religion
which has manifested this love-" The
manifestations of Gods love are par
tlcularly emphasized in such exhibit
tons as 'sthe creation of the soul" "cre-
alton of the universe" 'the remedy for
sin. 1.-THE manifestations of the Holy
Spirit" ''the exclusion of those from
heaven who have no sympathy with
Christ" The latter was the grandestteX-
hibition of Gods love. DR.. HOLMAN drift
ed to the now all-abSorbing topic of
Robert Elsmere, about which he spoke as
follows: ''Since this book has been puo-
lished, of which SO much has been said,
written by lady, it has been the desire
of newspaper reporters to show
HOW CHRISTIANITY IS DECLINING.
''Here is my text, which says from the
beginning Christianity is a system of
love-'God is love- Last week, if you
read the Chicago papers. you will see
six or seven columns by which reporters
are going to show that Christianity is
declining. would like to publish it as
a tract to show how it proves the falsity
of all this talk about Christians not
wanting to go down among the poor and
give money on Thanksgiving day to the
poor; Christianity, when the battle is
raging, not wanting to send its men and
women on the battlefield with any
columns upon columns in the Chi
cago papers have been devoted to this,
and | should not be surprised-for it
seems to be the ambition of the st. Paul
papers to be tile ChicagOes-if some
reporter would not come out and show
that Christianity is declining in this
city. Take these statistics of the Chi
cago papers and you will find go men
attended the Second Presbyterian
church in that city and just fifty four
men the most popular Uniyersalist
church. Men don't want that sort of,
religion. They know that they deserve
to be shut out of haven. That old iailer,
all that he could do and say was to come
to Peter, pale and trembling, and cry
out what must | do to be saved" Ii
we don't preach that let us shut up this
Methodist church, shut up all churches,
and let the people goand cultivate those
whose doors lead from heaven "