The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1892-05-18
o1SUNDAY TH0UGHTSbo
#OrI%
MORALS% MANNERS
~ A CLERGYMAN.


listers and in churches about reaching the
masses. The gap between these and those
is deplored in vehement speeches and in
eloquent resolutions.
If the ministers and churches really
wanted 70 reach the people they could do
II easily enough. Where there's a will
there's a way" saith the proverb. How
is it in other directions? The politician
reaches the voters, the merchant reaches
his customers The housewife reaches
the butcher the baker. Livingstone and
Enin Pasha and Stanley reach the most
inaccessible parts of Africa
The truth is the religious classes do not
want TO reach the people except in the
aforesaid speeches and resolutions. The
desire is to be understood in a Pick
wickian sense. Anything like personal
contact with the degraded and depraved
Is shrunk from, although this is known to
be sine qua non. The sacrifices OF time,
taste and money essential to the work are
objected to. The readjustment OF out
grown and antiquated methods is offensive
TO conservative routine. Hence those
speeches are put in the place of acts, and
those resolutions are passed instead OF
practiced. It's so much easier to lament
than to amend.
Jesus Christ found no difficulty in reach
ing the masses. 'The common people
heard him gladly"-such is the inspired
record He went among them-went
down to them in order to bring them up
20 him. Twas brought as a reproach
against him by one OF the bltterest OF his
opponents, later on. that he did thus con-
eort with the unworthy-that he rejected
the good and collected the bad. Origen,
In the name of the primitive church,
solid,y refuted this SANDER True, our
Jesus came TO call Sinners" but it was Ito
repentance; he assembled the wicked.
but it was to convert them into new men
and women. We come to him covetous,
he makes Us liberal; unjust, he makes US
equitable lascivious, he makes US chaste;
violent and passionate. he makes US meek;
impious and profane, he makes US re-
ligiOus."
This. as NJ Claude, the celebrated
French preacher. remarks, is the true
effect of communion with Jesus Christ;
il transforms US into the image, and this
transformation is so essential that II 1t
does not appear in man. we are obliged
10 conclude he is not in communion with
Christ.
II was not without purpose that our
Lord called group of fishermen into the
apostleship and babe them become fish
ers of men,"
Now, to fish well, as one of the most
successful of all modern fishers Of men has
reminded US. lit is necessary to know
more than the science of ichthvology.
What book can tell man about fishing
Us worth knowing, but it is little that
book can do toward making man q true
fisherman. ii a man is going TO fish Tor
6sh he must become their scholar before
ne can become their master; he must go
70 school to the brook TO learn its ways
And to fish for men, man must learn
their nature, their prejudices, their ten
denotes and their courses. man to
catch fish must not only know their
habits but their tastes and
their resorts: he must humor them
according to their different natures and
adopt his instruments TO their peculiar
tiles To sit on a bank or deck and say
10 the fishes: Here / am, authorized to
catch you; come and bite what give
you = is Just as ridiculous. but no more So
as is much of our preaching. The Chris
tians business is not to stand in an ap-
pointed place and say to men: Here l
am; come and take what give you His
business is to find out what men are, what
men want and to take them by what they
will bite al"
We must cultivate sympathy, for men
as men, independently of their accidentals
and incidentals, must see the divine in
the human a possible Mary in every
Magdalen and possible Matthew in every
publican. This is to the saving influence
Dver men what the seed time is to the
harvest, that without which there shall be
tn the autumn an empty barn and an
unprovided table.
May is likely to be known as the Ameri-
ram feast of tabernacles. What with the
great methodist convention in session at
Omaha, and the general assembly of the
presbyterians meeting yonder in Port
land, the devil ought 70 be busy mending
his fences. Whether the true-blues will
electrocute Brother Briggs, and whether
the methodists will let the brethren and
sisters dance will appear in due time.
Prophecy is dangerous We have no
desire to have our prophecy set down in
continuation of DIsraelis chapter ION
Events Which Never Happened" but we
hazard the guess" that Brother Briggs
will go and that at Omaha the objec-
tionable section 242, relating to amend
ments. will be amended. Piety and
Prudery commence with the same letter,
but do not mean the same thing. There
is sometimes more virtue in a dance than
in a sermon, and more morality in a
theaier than in church,
We say to the clergy of the city, live out
in the open as much as possible. Get and
use bicycle. Better still, ride on horse
back. The best thing for the inside of a
man is the outside of horse.
Why should converts in uniting with
the church profess Calvin? Isn't it
enough 10 confess Christ?
Let the mind and the heart swap places
occasionally. so that the heart shall be
high end the mind modest.
The ultimatum OF Nebuchadnezzer TO
the three Hebrew worthless with reference
TO the image of Bel on the plain OF Dura,
is that OF prosecutors in all ages-turn OF
burn.
The snail Is defined in Webster's die
fionary az "any one OF numerous species