Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1892-01-31

theless suffer indignity and insult and never
\ raise hand TO strike 4 blow l am per-
sonally knowing to number Of such cases.
| If Christian ministers ever pray TO God 70
give our soldiers success in battler it is
| because they conScientiouSly believe their
cause is right, and not from any bitterness
or hatred towards the enemy.
4. l am ohurchman because the church
reaches and upliftS the masses.
GAY In works of charity and mercy. From
| one side of, the land TO the other we are
met with founding hospitals orphans
| homes, infirmaries for the sick and the
| aged, rescue homes for the fallen, inebri-
ate aSylums and other institutions for the
saving of those that are weak, poor or lost
! Nearly all of these are owned and run di-
rectly by the church, and if not by the
church as such. then BY men and women
whoare devout Christians and ardent mem
bers of the church. Did heatheGism ever
do the hke} Do infidels and free-.hinkers
build such institutional The 'sunchurched
millions, - do they do it,
(bl The church uplifts men mentally
through the channels of education. There
are in the United States 3S4 colleges and
universities for men or for men and women.
OF this humble 29S are owned and equipped
by the church. They are church schools.
That leaves but eigh ty-six others. for the
most part state universities. and they are
frequently manned by Christian professors.
LIS QOGS nut lUC4uut lut very large
Der Of colleges for females only, which are
almost without exception church schools.
/ can do no more than mention these facts;
the reader must elaborate them.
(c) The church uplifts the masses by en-
ightenment through the pulpit and in the
house of God. There is no greater source
of popular instruction and enlightenment
than the preached word. All through the
New Testament there are frequent COM
mands to preach and this Supposes an
audience to preach to. St. Paul saws:
''Forsake not the assembling of yourselves
together - If people must come together TO
hear the word, then gathering place is
necessary, and so churches are built. They
are built costly, first, that they may be en-
during; secondly that they may be attract
i've and suited to the work for which they
are intended, and thirdly, that they may
give some adequate expression of the rev
erence and gratitude that the people feel
towards God. There is education and
training IN stone and mortar aid
pSaltery and music in column. arch and
fresco. The money put into churches is not
wasted, nor is il subtracted from charity.
The people who build the churches are the
ones who build and equip the various
benevolent institutions of the country.
Besides it is great deal better
to gather the masses into q church and
preach to them the gospel of industry,
cleanliness and goodness, so that they
let them alone in their ignorance and sin,
and then seek to ease the conscience by the
toss of dime to beggar on every street
crossing.
(d) A church and ministry that labors thus
for the general good, and that, toe, with
such pronounced success, is worthy OF
support" and the disposition on the
part of discriminating public to extend
financial aid finds its authority in
the words of Christ. His order TO his min
istry is: ''Provide neither gold, nor silver,
nor brass in your purses, nor scrip for your
journey, neither two coats, nor yet slaves;
for the workman is worthy of his meat"
Matt. X, 9, 10.
D. I am churchman because the church
teaches the eunobling doctrine of immortal"
ity. Nor does she degrade the doctrine by
teaching that immortality is conditional
upon becoming q Christian. Immortality
is 4 gift of God, free and irrevocable When
he created man, he "breathed INTO his nos
trils the breath of life" Heidi that for no
! other creature that he made. That '.breath
OF life' was the breath of God; 1t was i'm
mortality, unconditional, and no act OF man
or devil can destroy it. l even question II
| God himself could annihilate the immortal
| spirit that he gave man at the beginning.
am sure he does not wish to do so. Immor-
| tality is fact of consciousness. We all
| know that the self within US is more than
| the body in which we live. That body may
| be cut away lmO by IlmD, untlI every capa-
bility of action or self-help is gone, but the
| self, the ego, remains. 1t is indestructible,
and therefore immortal If man is not es-
sentially and Internationally immortal,
| then he is no more than q beast. Such a
doctrine is dishonoring to both God and
man.
&. I am churchman because the church
| teaches men how to come to Christ and be
saved. Christ died for all men, and he IS
ready to save all who want to be saved.
| But they must meet the conditions Of sal
| walton. These conditions are to repent,
| give up sin and believe on him. He is the
"Spotless One" and will bear our sins X
we come with true repentance and de-
| termine to give up sin forever. But the re-
| pentance must be sincere, and in order to
! be that it must involve PREPARATION for
wrong doing and restoration of that which
has been wrongly gotten. I know of 10
! pulpit that does not insist on this, some
| more clearly than others, but all insist
| on it.
Z. l am a churchman because the Bible
and the church teach the possibility Of
| holy life on earth This is the acme Of the
| Christian religion and the capstOne in the
! edifice of Christian doctrine. God requires
| holiness of heart and life, the blood OF Jesus
| is offered as cleansing fountain and the
indwelling spirit can enable US to resist
temptation. Thus the ruin wrought by sin
| finds q complete remedy in the atonement.
w. +. LLOYD.