St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-01-06
"A NATURAL ANTAGONIST.
Antipathy Between the Church.
and the World.

w oftA.
At the Church of Christ yesterday
morning Rev. W. J. Lhamon spoke up
on the "Antipathy Between the Church
and the World" He took for his text:
They have called the master of the
house Beelzebub, how much more they
of his Householder 'Marvel not, my
brethren, if the world hate YOU" and
said: "Antipathy to Christ was fact.
They called him the Nazarene, Belize
bub, the prince of the demons. They
deSpised, rejected and crucitied him.
The apostles were perSecuted; Paul
was called babbler by the Greeks; by
the Jews he was ScOurged; he was
stoned by the idOiaterS. Most of the
apostles suffered martyrdOm; the ca rly
Christians bitterly prosecuted. In the
Paris collections there are coins that
were struck by Roman emperorS to sig
nifty the destruction of Christianity:
Jupiter, the Thunderer, is hurting his
bolts at kneeling form with snake-like
feet. Through all these centuries the
antipathy to Christ has not ceased. The
churches are not altogether to blame
because the masses do not attend them.
The masses are like a mighty sleeping
giant; they do not want to be aroused.
Christ makes demands which are not
pleasing tn the lethergic, the somnolent,
the Self-SatiStied. Tell a drunken man
he is drunk and he reSents it. The
somnolent sinner is insulted by the very
church bells. Anarchy curses the
church because it breathes the spirit of
peace and BROTHERHOOD; AgnoStieism
because it declares much that the lofty
out; Atheism because it is
too proud and rebeIlious to
confess and obey the Father
whom Jesus revealed. Materlalism has
no faith except in its own finger ends;
how could 1t accord with Christ? Fatal
ism knows nothing but law; how could
it agree with love? Mammonism has no
faith but greed; the man who is en-
gagged in nothing else than pulling down
his barns and building greater ones
does not very much love the Divine Be-
ing who says to him pathetically, Thou
fool"
The antagonism between the world
and the church is the everlasting war
between good and evil; the serpent and
the dove have not yet learned to nestle
together: as long as man loves sin he
will hate Christ. There is radicaliSm
in righteousness that is repugnant to
sinful people; nothing short of CONVEX
sion can bring the sinner to love the
saint.
This antipathy is proof that the
church is something more than human
society; the carnai mind is enmity
against God-and His church. There
is no such antipathy between the world
and the social clubs, the political par
ties, the fraternities, and the forms of
amusement. Every man who chooses
Christ as his ideal shames his willfully
wicked neighbOr, and so the war goes
on. If all were content to walIow in
the mire, then all would be dirty alike,
and there would be peace. If all would
wash and be clean then there would be
peace. But all do not wash, all do not
wallow. and the contrast, and with it
the antipathy continues. Cronin was a
martyr, because he washed his hands of
the infamous Catholic Clan-na-Gael.
Christ was crucilied because he loved
what the world hated. The better the
church the less it will be liked by some
people. Yet it must seek to save these
very people,