The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-03-12

have been if you had had better fruiterer
But | am not unwilling to compare witt
others the men and women that have grow
up in this parish-their development in no
bleness-their cheer-their hopefulness-
their courage-their kindness-their Iowa
bleness and their self-denial, which cease
TO be self-denial because they learn to low
working for others. | think am not ap
TO be proud, but | may thank God that
have the test before me in these results tina
souls have been blessed, not simply by thu
hope of their final salvation-but by theil
present growth to higher, statelier, nobler
more beautiful Christian lives.
IF one should ask me as to the causes OF
this successful work for Christ, l woulc
have 10 hesitation in saying: There is {
personal cause; it is the people of this par
ISL Coming from every rank in life
! brought up under every form of religious
training, separated in their social life by a
dozen different degrees of affinity-there is
one place where they have stood together
and worked in perfect harmony-in the
work of st. Johns parish. Here they have
stood in unity of spirit Here they have been
| responsive to every appeal in behalf
of any good caCse. Here they have labored
together among the poor; here they have
done the missionary work of the church
here they have taught and educated the
children of the Sunday school; here they
have consulted together and beautitied the
! chancel OF the church; here they have
worked early and late, purchasing a home
! for the rector of the church, and here they
are now working amid much discourage
ment to give to the city of Savannah an
other church, and to the hundreds of Epis-
copalians like sheep without a shepherd, a
rector of their own. and place where they
may worship God without the necessity of
| pew rents.
A CONGREG OF w0RRFPg
~ believe there never was a congrega-
ton of this size with so many workers.
The people work and the people give-can
| say anything more. Yes, and the people
| love. From many an act of kindness done
| to me and mine in these happy ten years,
| 6not0 that they can love. Hear me-hear
me frankly. Surely upon this day, l may
| be allowed to say--in no idle spirit of COM
! pllment, but in perfect frankness-that the
| people of this parish have been kind and
| patient towards him who has been placed
| here as their rector. As | look back upon
| this decade of years, there have been times
| when such kindness conveyed balm and
healing to a much troubled spirit-days in
| my early ministry when | was accounted as
| Decentralization | was charged with teach
! ing things | never taught, and of being dis
| loyal to this church, which is as dear to me
as life itself; charges and countercharges
! fell thick and fast upon one who was a
| stranger in your midst, but whether the
| people of this congregation agreed with
their rector or not, they threw over him the
| Rgis of their protection and the mantle of
| their sympathy. Thus sustained, he was
| able to continue his work undaunted and
undismayed, until in Gods good time his
teaching came to be better known. And so
| from the first day of his work unto this
| hour, there have been on the
part of his congregation, patience
with his shortcomings-read appreciation
of his slightest deeds-sympathy in the
sacred hour when death invaded his home /;
defence against false charges-kind words
for every day, and deeds more kind for
every hour of his life: bear glad and will
ing testimony to these things. L hold back
no tribute of praise. | freely testify to all
k0m proud of the spirit that has animated
this parish. | say to everybody who speaks
of the work done here, ''it is the people of
ST. Johns, the men who have guided the
destnies of this church, the women who
| have devoted themselves so molly to its
| work.
| THE CHARACTER OF THE TEACHING.
"There is another cause, and this one
wish to speak of impersonally. 1t relates
to no man, it concerns no person. for the
man in this solemn matter is simply the
messenger of God. One great cause of the
attraction of this church to men has been
| the character of its teaching l know this
from hundred different sources. | know
| that many persons are held here today
upon that ground. Now out of the numer-
Gus occasions of public teaching in these ten
years is it possible to draw out the lines
| that characterize that teaching! Yes, it is
SO simple, that the substance of those adj
dresses can be characterized in few words
The great purpose has been to make re-
ligion living vital thing to every
one; in order that men and women
might build up purer, sweeter,
nobler and more lovable lives The great
method has been to appeal for all truth to
the human reason and conscience of men,
teaching that while the Church was the
witness to truth, the faculties within the
breast, planted by God himself after His
own image, and though liable to err like all
human judges, we,e yet the supreme Judge
and arbiter OF truth for that man. In a
word, have not been afraid to trust man
while warning him of the danger attendant
| upon a perverted use of his diviuely-given
! faculties. The great central truth taught
! under this method has been the fatherhOod
! of God over every child whom He has
made, and tire great struggle has been to
make men realize that the central idea of
religion is, not that they belong to a church.
or to a creed, or to 2 set of ideas, or TO a
body o law but first and primarily that
they belong to person. Working on this
| central thought. to make the Christian dis
cipleship a relation OF personal affection
! between Christ and their own soul. From
! this relationship has been drawn, in a
thousand varied forms, in all of its great
attractiyenesS that one supreme motive,
! the love of Christ consJraining the love of
man.
SIN A PERSONAL THING.
Gas essential elements of the indi-
vidual Christian life, l have to make
men realize that sin is a personal,
| positive thing not derivation
| from Adam; that righteousness * an
actual, absolute thing acquired by their
! own work and the a. istance Of Gods holy
/ spirit, not an importation from Christ; that
| heaven is a state Of the pure and holy soul,
! struggling after good not some distant con-
! dition Of bliss after death; that hell is
! present remCrse of conscience and penalty
! Of natural laws, working now and here,
and not an endless thing through all eter-
| nifty. When tine question came to instru-
mentalites. while | have freely taught that
| God is larger than his laws, and his grace
| wider than his ordinances, yet ! have not
| scruplad to say that Tie church and its ordi-
nances are ms appointed channels of grace
laid down Tor wise purposes for Use by all
+ his children. and their reception by men is a
test of their obedience which is a test of
their love aud of the sincerity of their re-
pentanco, and the sure and certain method
Ct receiving the divine blessing. In a word,