Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-11-29

OF them as he could persuade to follow him
into new 'tchurch." Along with this
went, in some places, forsaking ofthe Ten
commandments, and, in other places, re-
Jectlon of the Christian creed. Men pro-
posed to have no authority over them what
ever. The standard of faith, the standard of
morals, was to be new-constructed by every
individual, out of the Bible. All the old
traditions, the old ways. the old interpreta-
LIONS, were to 60 for nothing. The Chris
tian rellgion had been asleep or dead for
I,ooo years. And now every man was an
apostle. The old despotism was followed
Dy the dismemberment of Christandom; the
old superstition was followed by the new
skeptlcism. And these evils continue to the
present day.
Thus the Christian world was divided, and
IS divided still, into two opposing camps,
Protestant and Catholic, each of them repre-
sentlng one OF these contending ideas of re-
I1glon. The underlying principle of Prot
estantism is the exaltation of the brethren
above the brotherhood; the underlying
principle OF Catholicism is the exaltation OF
the brotherhood above the brethren.
Catholic and Protestant Churches.
Both are right-and wrong. Each needs
the other. The love of the brotherhood
divorced from the love of the brethren will
always lead to superstition, to an undue
reverence for forms and customs, to some
sort of tyranny. The love of the brethren
separated from the love of the brotherhood
will always minister to foolish division, 10
confusion OF faith, to ecclesiastical anarchy.
Catholicism is not the right religion; Prot
eStantiSm ia not the right religion. We
ought to be Catholic Protestants and Prot
estant Catholics. We ought never to be
satisfied until We are just as Catholic and
just as Protestant as St. Peter and st. Paul.
h0 mil Low 1id arh
said also Glove as brethren" st. Paul,
whose characteristic doctrine of justifica-
t1on by faith Is the great doctrine in the
Protestant creed, had more to say than any
other New Testament writer about the
Church.
We ought to love the brethren. Religion Is
for men. The mission of the Church is to
help everybody who needs help. There is
constant need of humanizing the work OF
the Church, that is, of emphasizing this SUI
preme purpose for which the Church exists
to make the world better. The test OF any
method, of any custom in the Church, Is not
its age but its actual usefulness. That min
1stry, for example, is q valid ministry wnich
succeeds in saving souls. That organization
is the best which can show the best results;
In the Church ,as everywhere else, the proof
OF the tree is in the fruit.
The Church of the Future.
We ought to welcome every innovation,
every new idea. in proportion to its attrac-
tive influence. The Church is meant to
bring the life of Jesus Christ to the knowl-
edge of every man in the world. The Church
is set to teach the great truths that He
taught, and to get all the people to believe
them. Every endeavor to make that life
more real, and that truth more true to men
has right place in the Church. The Church
ought to be big enough to take in all the
brethren. There ought to be no need for
anybody who loves the Lord Jesus Christ
and wants to lead others into the light of
that love to go out of the Church to do ir.
the future, every sort of worship, every
variety Of ecclesiastical organization, every
kind Of man, will have a place. There will
be room in it for the mistaken people. There
will be room in it for the men of one idea.
There will be room in it for all the brethren,
and for all who love the brethren. The only
people who will have to stay out will be
those who are not good enough Christians to
tolerate differences. In the Church of the
future, in which men will care more for souls
than they will for systems, and in which the
love and service of the Lord Jesus Christ
will be the beginning and the middle and
the end of all religion, there will be great
deal of affirmation but great scarcity of
negation.
No Effort to Force Faith.
People will be content to set forth what
they actually believe, without pronouncing
condemnation on those who believe other
than that. There will be no effort to force
faith. There will be such thorough conf
dence in the divinity of truth that truth will
be left to prevail in its own way and in its
own time, without the assistance of in
tolerance.
On the other hand, while we ought to love
the brethren, we ought also to love the
brotherhood. 1t is Christ himself who
directs us to ''hear the Church." The GUS
toms of the ancient society, the ways of the
Church ought not to be readily laid aside.
The probability is that the brotherhood is
wiser than any of the brethren. The
established order is the growth Of long
experience. 1t is the result of dealing for
centuries with human nature. These ways
have been found helpful. They have been
tried and proved. The chances are that
they are the best ways that can be dis
covered. Welcome, indeed, all new ways, if
they are better ways. Let us not be so coc1-
mitted to a system as to decline all possibility
OF bettermenE To get good work done is
what We want. not to get it done in any
Nevertheless until the new has shown its
superiority, the old is better.
The Customs of the Church.
We ought to be loyal to the Church. We
ought, as st. Peter says, to love the Church.
The customs of the Church ought to be as
dear to US as the customs of the family. We
ought to try to learn all that we can about
the Church, its history, its interpretations
of doctrine, its ways of helping people, its
place in Christendom. am sorry for any
body who belongs to a sect whose member
ship Is in little, narrow, exclusive religious
society which was established for the en-
phaslzing Of some one fragment of Christian
doctrine, or for the sake of protesting
against some old departure from the truth.
am sorry for anybody who cannot be en-
thusiastic about his church, who does not
honestly believe that it is the very Church
itself, that Christ was the actual founder of
it, and the apostles its first ministers. and
that there is room in it for the whole cir
conference of Christian truth, and that all
Christians of all names can find in it all that
is best in each of their denominational posi-
tions, and great deal more. Something is
the matter, either with the Church or with
the Christian, when the Christian does not
love the Church. GEORGE HODGES.