The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1892-05-14

1.-THE preaching that kills." according
70 the ChTiStadn AdUocdte (Meth.) OF
Nashville, may be, and generally is,
orthodoX: dogrnatically, inviolably ORTIZ
odox. we love orthodoxy. 1t is good.
1t IS the best. 1t is the clean, clear-cut
teaching OF Gods Word, the trophies
Won by truth in its conflict with error,
the levees which faith has raised against
the desolatIng floods of honest or reckless
mlsoelleI or unbelief; but orthodoxy,
clear and hard as crystal, suspicious and
militant, may be but the letter Well
shaped, well named and well learned, the
letter which kills. Nothing is so dead as
DEAD orthodoxy, too dead to speculate,
TOO dead to think, to study, or TO pray.
Inc preaching that kills may have IN
sight and grasp of principles, may De
scholarly and critical in taste, may have
every minutiGe of the derivation and
grammar of the letter. may be able TO
Trim the letter into its perfect pattern,
and uIume IT as Plato and Cicero may
be lllumined, may study it as a lawyer
studies his textbook to form his brief or
defend his case, and yet be like frost a
killing frost Letter-preaching may be
eloquent, enameled with poetry and
| rhetoric, sprinkled with prayer, spiced
with sensation, illumined by genius, and
! yet these be but the massive or chaste,
costly mountings. the rare and beautiful
flowers which coffin the corpse"
Religion has nothing to lose, but
everything to gain, by the breaking
| down OF creedal and dogmatic barriers"
! says the Christian Register (Unit.) of Bos-
ton. The very limitations set up to pro-
| tect religion have proved foes to its de-
VeIopment. They have established In
! the church boundaries of sect which have
/ separated men instead of bringing them
! together. 1t is one office Of religion to
| break down the barriers of custom, race
and tradition, which have separated men,
and to establish the free and unbroken
reign of human brotherhood. With the
| breaking down of arbitrary walls OF sep
aration the natural and spiritual atiinities
/ OF men will still operate, but without the
| intolerance, prejudice and bitterness
which have distinguished the dogmatic
and polemic eras. When Christian life
and aspiration are made the basis OF aftlll-
alton, minor matters, such as the intel
lectual and esthetic aspects Of religion,
viii drop TO their appropriate place IN the
| background"
at is not necessary for those who be-
| lleve in Dr.. Parkhurst to approve every
detail of his work. remarks the New
\ DIRK Examiner (Baptist), 'but those who
criticise may well be asked to remember
that the cleansing of these Augean stables
is necessarily a filthy business. Those OF
us who would shrink from undertaking
such a work ourselves should Tor very
shame hold our hands when tempted TO
cast a stone at the man who has been
brave and self-Sacriticing enough to do ii
for us. y clergyman of this city, APP
parently envious of DR.. Parkhursts
notoriety, and anxious to share it, made
public proclamation on recent Sunday
of his method OF dealing with vice. lie
has begun a crusade, with Bible and
prayer book, against the haunts of vice,
and because he was heard with respect
and Il few maudlin tears were shed,
imagined that he had wrought refOrma-
ton. His bOastful tale was soon demol-
ished by few newspaper reporters. Not
a life has been altered, not den has been
. closed, as the result of his work. This is
the sentimental method of dealing with
hardened law-breakers. One might as
well try to put out a Chicago fire with a
squirt filled with rose water. Nobody
has done so much to justify the methods
Of Dr. Parbhurst as DR.. De Costa"