Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-07-12
THE REST WE NEED.
Doctrine Of the Holiday as Laid Down
In the Scriptures.
WORKING SEVEN DAYS PER WEEK.
The Saturday Halt. Holiday and the Regu
lar Summer Exodus.
HOW GREAT GOOD COULD BE DONE
WRITTEN FOR THE pIsPAroH.J

WRITTEN FOR THE DIsPATCH.J
"Come ye yourselves into desert plac
and rest awhile"
That Is, into deserted place. When VI,
hear the word "desert" We begin at once t,
think of sand; we think of the Desert o
| Sahara, or of that waste tract in Colorad,
which Is just now being SO singularl,
/ changed into lake. But the word her,
means deserted place. There was no lacl
of grass in it, the trees grew there, the hill
lifted their green heads into the sky; bu
nobody lived there. Christ wanted the
disciples to have holiday, and His idea O.
holiday was not to get into a crowd, but
to get out of it. He proposed that they
should go into q place where they could
be alone.
The disciples had Just come back from 6
missionary journey. They had been going
about among the villages of Galilee, preach
ing the new gospel And they had come
again that they might give an account Of
their good work. They gathered themselves
together unto Jesus, and
They Told Him All Things,
whatsoever they had done and whatsoever
they had taught. All the discouragements,
all the temptations, all the successes and
the victories, they rehearsed to him. And
when they came to the end of their en-
thusiastic story, Jesus said, Come now, and
rest; come ye yourselves into desert place
and rest awhile.
The disciples were as busy as a parson
and doctor put together. There were so
many coming and going that they had no
time, not even for their dinners. And
Jesus saw that they were tired.
Our Lord was notably attentive to the
needs of the body. When he saw people
hungry he wanted to give them something
to eat. When the wine gave out at the
wedding he provided more. That, you re-
member, was the first of the miracles, and
need not tell you how it was followed by
innumerable others, all with that same in
tention-to make life brighter and happier.
He went about doing good. He was all the
time making sick people well, and driving
away pain, and giving smiles for tears
And these blessed deeds were not done.
just
For the Sake of the Soul.
They were not meant only to persuade
to win faith, to get congrega-
ton. They were not like the bell which
they used to ring about the streets in the
old days to attract hearers to the sermon
Very often there was no sermon. The
Masters heart was overfowing with divine
compassion. He wanted everybody to be
well and happy. He did not care so much
for the soul that the body was of NO conse-
quence to Him
1t is plain. and most significant, that the
greatest part Of Christ's teaching related
not to the next world, but to this world.
He said that the whole duty of man is
summed up in two commandments-that we
love God, and that we love our brother also.
And he spent the most of his time teaching
the second of the two. Take the Sermon
on the Mount. How little there is in it of
the science of God, and how much
Of sociology, the science of society; how en-
tirely it is taken up with the divine task of
making this life better, leaving the next
life till we come to it. 1t Is q sermon about
conduct, about the art of living with others,
about the social virtues, about brotherly
love. And then consider the parallels and.
the miracles; see where Christ put the
Emphasis of His Blessed Teaching.
The purpose that he lived tor was to make
this planet better place to live in. He
came to save us from our sins; that Is, to
help US out Of our vices, and our ugliness,
and our tyrannies, and our meanness, and
all our unbrotherliness, and to make US
pleasanter people to live with, now. You
know the list He gave of examination ques-
tions for admission into heaven-not one of
them containing even a mention of theol-
ogy; have you fed the hungry? have you
visited the sick? have you cared for the sin
ner2 That shows what Christ considered to
be the biggest and best part of Christianity.
He founded the Christian Church that it
might count the kingdom of the devil into
the principality of the Son of God He
meant that Christians should be known not
by their doctrines about theology, but by
their ministrations in society. He said
that if heaven is ever going to begin for a
man, this is the place and now is the time.
Behold, how these Christians love one an
other" That is what Christ wanted every
body in the world to say.
Heresies of the Seminaries.
Christ, I said, taught sociology rather
than theology. That proportion is reversed,
I am afraid, in most Of the theological
seminaries. The very name shows it.
have never heard of sociological seminary.
The ministers of the Christian Church are
trained in divinity schools-notice the name
again-not in humanity schools. They are
taught score of dead-snd-buried heresies.
They become familiar with a ghostly COM
pany of obsolete isms. They are made at
of ancient Oriental Synods.
And then they come out into a world
where the most urgent of all questions are
those which concern the relations of living
men in modern society. And they are about
as well fitted to pronounce as they ought
upon the ethics of these vital questions,
and to bring light into the darkness as the
Seven Sleepers Of Ephesus would be quail
fed to vote upon the tariff There ought to
be chair of sociology in every institution
where men are being trained to carry on
Christ's work in the world. That would
help to put the Christian emphasis where
Christ put it
A Chance for Rich Man.
The endowment of such chair would be
,ne of the most helpful uses 1 can think of
for rich mans money. Christianity means
the bettering of common life. 1t has inst
as much to do with business as it has with
religion, and six times as much to do with
week days as it has with Sunday. 1t is con-
cerned with prayer books, yes; but not any
more than with pocketbooks
And yet, listen to this: 1.-THE complaint
made by American workingmen against the
churches is that they fail to influence con-
duct, that they fail to impress their funda-
mental principles upon those who give |
direction to the practical affairs of life in |
the counting room, in Legislative halls and |
On the bench, although these men profess
Christianity. Laboring men do not feel |
that it is better for them to work for a |
Christian than for one who denies the obli- |
CATION of Christianity-the outcome of ex-
perience has not taught them that such is
.he case; they do not believe that church |
membership on the part of their landlord |
nsures just and considerate treatment for |
his tenants. they do not flock to the mer- /
chants who acknowledge Christ as their |