Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-02-23

good fruit. Nevertheless all that was said
about the helpfulness Of the earth, and the
sun, and the rain is true. They did fail,
somehow, to make this particular seed grow.
There is no denying that. Perhaps it was
the farmers fault, or perhaps it was the
seeds fault. 1t may have been bad seed; IL
may have kept all the helping influences
out. Still, we keep on planting seeds and
adding souls to the Church. And the seeds
grow into grain, and the souls grow into
closer likeness to Christ, and there are .
good many more successes than failures.
And it is true, in spite OF the
widest and most discouraging eita-
ton OF hard cases, that the one reasonable
thing for anyone to do who wishes to live
more worthily is to bring himself within
reach of all those influences which help
toward spiritual growth, which we include
in one word and call the "ehurch."
We may be entirely sure that help lies
always in the direction of obedience TO
Christ. The Master in the spiritual life
knows better than we know what is best for
us. Nothing can be more evident than that
Christ chose to have His truths preached
within an organized society. He came to
help men, and He deliberately ordained
that His divine help should be ministered
to all who needed 1t by means Of an organ
lied society. He was careful to provide
A FITTING INITIATION
into this society, in the sacrament Of bap.
tism. He gave also an appropriate ser.
vice for the meetings OF this soci-
ETY., in the sacrament Of the
Lords Supper. He said Of the first
OF these saeraments that it was to be admin
istered to all who should become His dis
ciples the world over. He said of the second
that it was to be done in remembrance Of
Him. As to the truth of these statements
there can be, 1 think, no question.
II is equally true, then, that anybody who
is really disciple Of Christ and is honestly
trying to lead Christian life and has not
been baptized, is. leaving out something
which Christ meant should be brought in.
He is not obeying Christ.
1t is true also that everybody who II
Christ's disciple, and is trying to shape his
life according to the will of that Master
whom he really loves, and vet is not a par
taker in that service Of which He said "Do
this, is emitting something which
Christ deemed important. There are many
good men in every Christian congregation
to whom this applies exactly. Their
Straightforward, helpful, manly, honorable
and upright lives put us to shame. But
one thing they lack. When the time comes
for this Christian service they go out. Here
their obedience fails.
NO ONE Is PERFECT.
Nobody is good enough. The best man
knows that best. Every one of US is q long
way below his ideal. Not one of us can
emphasize the spiritual life too much, or
get too much help in living it. Christ set
His church in the world in order that every
man who wants spiritual strength might
add himself to the church, and so put him
self in the way of getting it.
When we read here that these peopIs
added themselves to the church it does not
mean that they singly came about once Q
week to hear the apostles preach, or that
they took pew in the church, or that they
were very kind about giving money to help
in the parish charities. 1t means that they
added themselves TO the church. They came
into the church by the initiation Of baptism;
they associated themselves with the church
in the bonds of the holy communion; they
came into the church heart and soul, and
brought their money with them, and their
friends with them-as many as they could
and their energy and their entire allegiance
and their whole selves. They were added to
the church. There was a complete identif-
cation throughout between these people aud
the church. They brought themselves into
the right relations with every helpful spirit
ual influence. And therein they set some
people very good example.
GEORGE HoDGEA