Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-10-18

| CHRISTIAN community. Iney love GOd Win
all their hearts.
There are other saints who love God with
all their souls. To them the central fact in
human LITE is the fact of sin, and the su-
preme blessing is the blessing of salvation.
Christ is pre-eminently the Savior. Chris
tlanlty is founded upon the atonement. The
gospel is the good news of pardon. The
chief concern of Christian is about his
soul. The most important part of the pub
lie service of religion is that which addresses
the soul. The emphasis is upon the sermon.
The most serious of all questions is: What
shall do to be saved? The soul is that
part of us which lasts, which goes on
through the grave and gate of death into
the mysteries beyond. They who love God
with all their souls, and love Him as the
Savior OF their souls, think a great deal
about this
FUTURE OF THE SOUL.
Every man stands every day, separate
and alone from all his fellows, in the plain
sight of God, actually and absolutely re-
sponsible to God for all that he does and
says and is. And by-and-by is the judg-
ment, when all souls shall meet the Judge,
and there give solemn account of themselves
to Him.
Sin, salvation, responsibility, judgment,
v,
thoughts in the living and praying of peo-
! pie who think of religion in that way.
You see the difference between these two
phases of religion. They who love God
with all their hearts look up to Him, adore
Him, and seek His blessing with all His
other children in His church, in His ap-
pointed sacraments. They who love God
with all their souls, look in at their souls
before they look up, are conscious that they
stand each one by himself in the presence
of that Supreme Judge who has the final de-
cision of all human destiny, and who hates
sin; and they lay hold with all their might
upon the hand of their Savior, that He may
assist and deliver them. 1t is the difference
between the Catholic and the Protestant
elements in our modern Christianity; the
difference between the devotion of st. John
and the penitence and faith of ST. Paul.
THE SEEKERS AFTER TRUTH.
Then there are still other Christians who
love God with their minds. They are de-
voted seekers after truth, and count no dis
covery so desirable as the discovery of truth.
They seek truth in all parts of this great
universe of God Some in the sky, some in
the rocks, some in the living creatures with
which God has peopled the planet, some in
the growth, the struggle, the achievement,
the manifold experience of man. All truth
is revelation of God. All nature is God
made partially visible to His children. All
history is the record of the work of God in
the betterment and instruction of the race.
All study is the study of theology. Every
search after the reason of things opens a
window into the infinite, and gives the
seeker glimpses of God. All the good books
were written by the finger of the good God.
Some people get closer to God by getting
closer to their fellowmen. They do not be-
lieye that God is up above the clouds, nor
that He is shut in by the doors and windows
of all the churches. They think that who
ever wants to find God will find Him
quickest where He has set His image and
breathed His breath, in the midst of the
great family of His human children.
DOWN AMONG THE PEOPLE
The parish priest
OF Austerlitz
Climbed up in a high church Steeple
To he nearer God
SO chat lie might hand
his word down to his people.
And in sermon script
He daily wrote
What he thought was sent from heaven;
And he dropt this down
On his peoples heads
Two times one day in seven
In his age God said,
"Come down and dieF'
Andhe cried out from the steeple,
"Where art Thou, Lord?"
And the Lord replied,
"Down here, among My people!'
Many who have learned that lesson hold
that working is q better part of the love of
God than praying, that practfcing is more
acceptable to God than. preaching, and that
man owes his supreme duty, not to his
own soul, but to the helping and the COM
forting of the soul of his less fortunate
brother. They like to remember how
Christ said: ''Inasmuch as We have done it
unto the least of these my brethren ye
have done it unto me-" And so they apply
their minds to the solution of the vast
problems Of poverty and pain and sin.
They account that the best OF all truth in
this present hour and place is economic
truth. They are religiously interested in
sanitation, in temperance, in socialism, in
manner of reform and betterment. And
they think they can show their love for
God in no better fashion. They love God
with their minds.
THREE KINDS OF CHURCH PEOPLE.
1t has perhaps occurred to you already
that these different ways of loving God rep
resents those different temperaments which,
as often say, have always had their place,
and will always have their place, in every
company of Christian people. There must
always sbe "high" churchmen, who love
God with all their hearts; and Glow"
churchmen, who love God with their minds
1t is hard, many times, for one to under
stand the other. The low churchman thinks
that the high ehurchman is given over to
ceremony, and the broad churchman to
scepticism. One of the most difficult things
in the whole world is to understand and
appreciate people who differ from us, espe-
cially those who seem to differ in the whole
trend and spirit of their thinking But
there are differe mt kinds of people, and
even different kinds of saints. And an
other Christian may be unlike us in almost |
every particular, and yet love God as much,
and be Just as good Christian as we are. |
The best plan is for each one of us to be the |
very best Christian he knows how to be, and |
let his brother take his own path into the |
great four-square temple of the love of God. |
Thank God, God knows us all!
LOVING WITH STRENGTH.
Finally, there are people who love God |
with all their strength. That ought to take |
in every one of us. We love God with all |
our strength when we do our work for Him;
for Him to see A man who breaks stone |
in the street and breaks it well, and cares
even more to have that stone well broken |
than to have the overseer notice that it is |
Ill bro-on 1oros God with bio r+ranrtb |