Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-01-25
GETTING THE START.
Two Great Stumbling Blocks That
Lie in the Path to Religion.
HYP0CRITES IN THE CHURCE
And Feeling of Unfitness, Personally, the
First Obstacles Met.
ANALYSIS By THE. REV. MR.. HODGES
WRITTEN FOR THE DISPATCH,


There are two stumbling-stones which vex
the feet of beginners in religion. I would
there we're no more than two! The whole
way, on both sidesof the gate Of entrance, is
set-about, and narrowed, and encountered
with difficulties. Especially at the begin
ming. By and by, as the habits of the spir-
itual life are formed, and the soul gets used
to facing temptation and climbing obstacles,
and the light OF heaven shines clearer and
nearer along the path, the way gets easier.
But it is hard at the beginning. There are
questions, and problems, and hard lessons
and persuasions of the devil. It is with re-
ligion as with every other habit or knowl-
edge. 1t is begun with the initiation of
difficulty. Anybody who expects to begin
religion at the end is going to be disap.
pointed. Whoever waits to start out in the
religious life with the wisdom of st. Paul
and with the love of St. John, will wait
a long time. Children begin literature with
the primer. not with Plato; and music not
with Beethoven but with scales and exer-
cises. And the primer is great deal harder
at the beginning than Plato is after awhile;
and the notes which takes two fingers are
take ten. The religious Iife-by which 1
mean the conscious and definite living of it,
beginning with the public confession of
Christian allegiance-the religious life be-
giLs amid the stumbling stones.
Two Obstacles at the Outset.
And of these there are two which lie so
close to the beginning that they are even
outside the gate, and the beginner in relig-
ion comes to them almost before he begins, and
sometimes at sight of them, turns back, and
never begins at all. 81 am not good
enough is inscribed upon one of these
stumbling stones. "Other people are not
good enough" is placarded upon the other
Commonly the second of these comes first
The possible disciple is kept back by the un-
Christlikeness of Christians.
want to speak this morning about these
two obstacles. Let US see il we cannot
somehow get them out of the road.
There is no use denying that some people
in the church. are not as good as they ought
to be, and the beginner in religion knows
these people better than the parish priest
does, because he sees them between Sundays
and in their working clothes. The beginner
in religion sees great deal. And, very
often, the little things trouble him more
than the big ones. Little falsehoods; little,
petty, mean cheats and over-reachings and
dishonesties; little ofenses against perfect
reverence and perfect purity; little infrmi-
ties OF temper-these he discovers in the life
of some church-member every day, and the
sight turns him against religion. He
mutters "Hypocrisyr" under his breath,
and has his opinion of the Christian church.
Effect of a Personal Wrong.
All this is emphasized when the outsider
is himself personally wronged, defrauded,
meanly treated, spoken against by some in
slider. He looks out of his window, and one
passes by, serenely and righteously on his
way to church, who on Friday stole a hun
dred dollars out of his pocket by some sort
of smart theft. There he goes to say his
Christian prayers. and to put twenty-five
cents out of that hundred dollars into the
aims basin, and to partake of the sacrament
OF the Lords Supper. The looker-on sits
down and stays at home.
This, however, is inevitable. Again and
again, good, earnest, Jealous men have tried
to found a church to which nobody could
belong but absolutely perfect saints. They
never have succeeded. The sinners have
somehow evaded all the examinations, and
gained membership. The devil has sown
tares among the wheat. Judas was a church
member when there were but twelve in the
congregation, and the minister was the Lord
Christ Himself.
1t is we'll that we should all be mindful
OF the grave responsibilities of church men,
bership. 1t is well that We should often
consider what sort OF lives We ought to live
who do actually, among our acquaintances
who are outside the church, represent to
them the Christian religion. We are
epistles. known and read by all men. We
cannot help it. We are like cities set upon
g1 m mi n 10 ha
We will surely be held accountable for
every soul whom we have kept back out of
the church by our disobe6lence to our Mas
ter. The only dangerous enemy which the
Christian religion has is an unworthy Chris
tian. We ought to think often and seri-
ously about these grave responsibilities.
Not for Saints Alone.
Nevertheless it is true to-day, and will re-
main true till Christ's kingdom comes, that
the Church is composed of Saints" just as
the congregations were at Rome and Corinth
-"called to be saints, but not always an.
swering. 1t must needs be that offenses
come-that is inevitable; though woe 10 that
man by whom the offense cometh.
What shall we say then to him who de-
clares that he would join the church if all
the members Of the church were saints?
We might say to him that he would very
likely be as much out of place in such
celestial company as the rest of us would.
We might remind him that the church is
not. and never has been, and never will be,
club for the spiritual aristocracy, into
which nobody shall be admitted unless he
be attired in all The purple and fine linen of
the garments of holiness. That is not what
the church is for, at all. The church is
meant for the ragged people, too. 1.-The
Lord added daily to the church such as were
being saved" Some of them were, no
doubt, only at the very beginning of saliva
ton. They had just started in their fight
with the devil. Without doubt he would
down them hundred times before they
got him under their feet finally. But the
Lord did not wait for that. All who were
"Deing saved" were let in. The church is
not soldiers home for spiritual veterans
who have been through all the religious
The church is called the church militant"
because it is
Meant to be an Army.
The people in it are supposed to be set
against the evil OF the world, in their own
hearts first. But the church is not an "ever
victorious" army. Somebody is always get
ting defeated. But everybody who is ON our
side, and is willing to help in our crusade
against the devil-we will make a recruit OF
him. The church is sometimes called our
mother" because she teaches us and trains
US. But we are dull and refractory pupils,
q good many OF us. However, ii anybody
wants to learn, wants to be trained to resist
temptation and to follow righteousness,
wants to be instructed in the truth
Of God, he may come in.
The church is really not meant for the
saints, at all. There will be no church in
heaven, such as we have here. st. John
came back from his glimpse into that celes-
,.o,,,rv md raportod that ha oouIJ