The Newtown bee. (Newtown, Conn.) 1877-current, 1891-07-03
THE WORK OF THE CHURCH
AND ITS LIMITATIONS.
One of Rev Mr. Warmers Sermons.
ACTS VI, /:

And in those days, when the number of dis
ciples was multiplied, there arose MUIR
muring of the Grecians against the Hebrews,
because their widows were neglected in the
daily mnistration.
These words and the events that are re-
corded in this chapter bring before us
the practical side of the early Christian
church, but a very short time after the
earthly career of Jesus Christ had ended.
The Apostles found themselves with
large work on their hands. The world
was their field. The redemption of the
human race their theme. The winning
of immortal souls to a knowledge of God,
through Jesus Christ, the crucified but
risen and assembled Lord, was their task.
Their commission read, to go into all the
world and definite commands were laid
upon them to preach the Gospel, and to
baptize in the name of the Trinity. Con-
trast with the scope and splendor of this
duty, their position and requirements !!
Simple and for the most part unlearned
men; men of the people; with no special
vocation or adaptability to their office,
save that they had lived with Jesus of
Nazareth, believed that He had risen
from the dead, received their commission
from His lips and, more than all else,
were solemnly convinced that, as God
had been with Him, so He must be with
them. Their strength then was that they
were not merely the ministers of an earth
ly organization, but stewards of the mys-
of Nn ch
pect that they were anxious, from the
first, to prove their commission; that
they would long to reap at once some
first fruits of the harvests of souls prom
ised them. That would seem, we may
think, to have been the most important
thing in their eyes. For they were in a
hard place; handful against the world {;
running counter, in their weakness, to
the customs of the world. They must
have been anxious to put forth their en-
ergies, to test for themselves and before
the world, which looked on and scoffed,
the power they believed they held in
Christ's name.
And yet, with all this seeming neces-
sity of immediate action, they stopped on
the threshold and turned aside from the
large pattern and dazzling glory of world
prospects, to do such an apparently small
thing as to organize aid and bodily COM
fort for the weakest and least influential
portion of the community, the poor and
needy widows. 1t is an apparently small
thing, l say, to stop the whole grand
of ha of the
world. to arrange for the ministry to the
poor and needy at the gates land yet, Wher
we recall what Christ's ministry to His
generation had been, we see that the care
of mems bodies, the bestowal of aims
the Tightening of physical burdens, the
easing of disconsolate hearts, is an inte-
grail part of the gospel. [ take it, then
that this chapter is read in the services
af Easter-tide to point d significant les
son, lesson which the Church has al
ways put in practice, which it learns and
acts upon more Understandings in every
age and in every cline. The lesson that
the Christian doctrine of the Resurrect-
ion from the dead and ascension into
connected with the resurrection of hui
man lives on this earth from the depths
of pain, want, misery, poverty and de-
spair; the lesson that the vital essence of
Christianity is ministration to need,
wherever need is; the lesson that in
Christ's mind, ''to go into all the world
and teach all nations" means to go and
teach, not theory, but life; Christ's
life in all it's length and breadth, as an
example, as a sacrifice, as an inspiration.
This is purely Christian conception,
| beg you to notice, that God, the Father,
measures our religion, our worthiness to
abide with Him in eternal life, by our use
of this privilege of ministering to the ne
cessities OF not merely the brethren of
our household, but of all men and wo-
men. 1t is purely Christian concept
ion, say, the real brotherhood of man /;
a conception which was so vitality inter-
woven with the Apostolic faith in Jesus
Christ, that the first commissioned SOL
diers of the Cross halted on the highway
into all the world, because alongside the
road were few poor women who stood in
need of care, land the lofty work of teach
ing and baptizing was made to wait upon
the organization of an order of men whose
chief work it should be to serve Christ,
in ministering unto the least of those who
were His brethren. This is notable
mark of the Christian Church, but there
is something quite as notable happening
under our observation every day. This
conception, which dominated the Church
in the first century and which continues
to manifest itself in the 10Th, also domi-
mates the religious world to-day. 1t is not
always in the name of Christ, but it is al
WAYS the yeritable work and influence of
Christ, this century's wide spread, deep
rooted effort toward the amelioration of
the world sorrow, need and pain. There
is no one idea which obtains so freely,
which is exploited so widely, which man
ifests itself in so many forms, as that of
We see it in hospitals and
asylums and homes; we note it in the
number of societies and or
carnations for the relief of hard condi-
tions of life; we trace it in the legislation
which has altered the condition of prison
life; which holds to strict account the di-
rectors of public institutions; which en-
tiers factories to suppress child-labor and
more than all, perhaps, in public opin-
ion which beholds with disapproval any
failure TO administer faithfully
philanthropic or benevolent trusts.
Yet, in spite of all, there is much
work yet left undone; classes
and, oftener, individuals not reached.
Now and again, men are startled by dis
closures of neglected people and of hor-
rors of misery in the midst of the wealth
1f.s.ss.. ~. Won 10