The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-11-28
THE Y. NJ. C. A. BASIS
COMPARED WITH THE DOCTRINES
OF SWEDENBORG.


Rev. Mr.. Billings of the Park New
Church Discourses Upon the Similar
Character of the Principles Held by
the Disciples of the New-Church and
and Those Upon " hich the z. "a. o.
A. Is Based.
! Rev. F. NJ. Billings, pastor Of the New
/ Church, preached last night at his church,
comparing the Young Mems Christian Asso-
citation basis with the New~Church beliefs.
and maintaining that the latter are evan
gelicaL The sermon was called forth like
the one last Sunday by the fact that Mr..
Billings had been refused membership In
the pastors association on account Of the
doctrines Of his church. which other pastors
contend are not evangelical.
The speaker referred to the statement of
Paul, 'Ye are the body of Christ" He said
there is more than one way in which we
may understand this. All degrees of life in
man, physical, mental and spiritual, are de-
pendent upon the one divine Lord. The
most degraded men, those with the very least
approach to genius, have something of men,
tai life, often much Of physical life, and
even something of spiritual life. Known or
linking all men to the divine man. Man
cannot love OF reverence an unknown,
There has been much talk by the nineteenth
century philosophers about the unknow-
able, but we see everywhere at work
the substitution Of the worship of the
known, manifested God, the Lord Jesus
Christ, for the misty deity of the philoso-
pher or the theologian.
In further illustration OF the truth
affirmed by his church and by the Young
Mems Christian Association that the Lord
Jesus Christ is the only means of salvation,
he quoted several passages from Sweden
borg's works. One Of these he gave as fol-
lows: THE Lord himself says, All power is
given unto me, in heaven and on earth,
In respect to all power being given to the
son or man, both in the heavens and on
earth, it should be known that the Lord
had power over all things in the heavens
and on earth before he came into the
world, for he was God from eternity. and
Jehovah,-as he himself plainly says in
John. And now, o father. glorify thou me
with thine own self. with the glory which
had with thee before the world was" and
again: Verify, verify | say unto you, before
Abraham was l am. For he was Jehovah
and God TO the most ancient church which
was before the flood, and appeared 10 the
men OF that church, and he It was whom all
the rites of the Jewish church represented
and whom the members of that church
worshtped.
The speaker believed 1t impossible after
this and other statements to doubt that the
New Church is evangelical according to the
Young Mems Christian Association stand
ard as regards its teaching concerning the
Lord, namely that he alone can save.
Another Of the clauses of the Young
Mons Christian Association runs thus:
That he is the only begotten of the father"
This was accepted with the added thought
that that one son of God was born Of Mary,
and not from eternity, as some of the creeds
wrongly assume.
The last portion of the Young Mems
Christian Association creed dealing with the
Lord says: THAT he was made TO be siu
for us, bearing our sins In his own body on
the tree" This was accepted literally, the
sins being the whole evil tendencies
of the human race, the bearing Of
which by receiving them first from
the mother and then by oonquering them
one by one, afforded the only possible means
by which the divine power could bring or
der into humanity all but destroyed by sin.
Mr.. Billings did not refer to the other
parts of the Young Mems Christian Associa-
tion's statement any further than to say that
the New~Church accepted the holy script
ures as the infallible rule of faith aud
practice; and that they beloved that in this
life character is formed, and that after it,
it cannot be essentially changed
In conclusion he said: HithsFto our sub
1ect has been with the oreeds, the beliefs
that limit and separate. Turn now to the
great uniting elements. Chiefest among
these is usefulness. Whatever be our ability
or inability to follow the woadrous story Of
redemption, TO see in history the hand of
the Loving heavenly father, who never
leaves men totally in ignorance
of his care, who ever brings
them some measure of orderly
happy life, at least until they refuse ii at
his hands. however strange our views may
bs-strange as are those Of the New Church
to some-there should still be something for
US to do and somewhere to do it. All honest
labor brings US nearer to the center of
things. Men OF all beliefs, or of no present
belief, who are willing to work together fer
the secular or moral good. should do 80.
In the Christian world to-day there are
many dlvisions Nothing will be gained by
ignoring the necessities OF belief; much is
lost by doing so. But let us not overlook
the places where we oan work together,
where our differing thoughts can supple
ment and broaden one another. In this way
we shall be preparing for that varied but
still unanimous life in the many mansions
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