The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1892-03-30
e1SUNDAY TH0UGHTSDo
AOrI%
MORALS% MANNERS
#O1I#
BY A CLERGYMAN.

There are various conceptions OF the
church which divide Christians up into
| opposite, and sometimes warning. camps
such as the pietistic theory. which
exalts inward states OF feeling and makes
! earth naught anu heaven all the sscerdo-
tai theory, which crowns the priest as a
prince and dwarfs the congregation into
/ subjects; the practical theory, which en-
! phasizes everyday duty and sanctifies
common life, and no end OF others, repre-
senlinG every type OF mind and every
vagary of thought.
Nevertheless there is unity in this di-
versity. All Christians when they stop
! fl.nging at each other brick bats of cOntro-
versy over man-made walls of separation
and think agree that tits their foremost
| obligation to be "Christed into Christ"
! in the strong phrase OF the late Rev. DR..
! Bushnell Under all ecclesiastical theories
| the end proiessedly aimed at is the repro
| duction in each feature OF the Man of
| Nazareth. This simplites the whole issue
| and offers a common platform upon which
| Christians of all denominations can stand
the reincarnatiOn of Jesus in every
! disciple. This means that we are to think
! His thoughts, speak His words. do Ills
| deeds. We are to transfer HIS spirit to
our environment. and embody it not only
! ourselves, but animate with it civilization
at large.
An eminent thinker reminds US that
'the church has no right to allow its enc
mics to outstrip it in the study of the
means by which civilization may be fully
consecrated to the improvement OF hu-
man conditions" And in the same vein
| in
asks: "Why ali this apparatus of temples
and meeting houses to save men from per-
| dition in a world which is TO come while
never a helping hand is stretched out to
save them from the inferno of their pres
/ ent life? Is il not time that, forgetting for
the moment our wranglings about the in
| fnitely little or infinitely obscure, we
| should concentrate all our energies in
united effort to break this terrible per
petuity of perdition and to rescue some,
at least, of those for whom our Founder
| came to die ?"
But while this should be a chief purpose
OF the church, let it be remembered that
tits not its function, to borrow the words
! of Tourgee. "to devise remedies; that is
the function of government the duty of
society. The function OF the church is
/
to exact and purify motive; to incline
men to apply the Christ spirit to collective
human relations" When this is done all
else will follow. Legislation will be
patterned the golden rule.
Possessions like wealth, knowledge and
influence will be regarded as trusts and
| their possessors as trusted. Social prob
lens will DO looked at through the ewes
of Christ and solved in his spirit The
world-old and worldwide questions of
human need and human duty will find a
settlement at last on the only basis that
is permanent and satisfactory that Of
equity interpreted by love. Yes, issues
which have vexed and angered society
ever since the days of Moses and Plato
will be finally and peacefully adjusted
when Christians reincarnate Jesus Christ.
The Christ of Palestine started the revo-
luton. a society of little Christs must
end it and secure the fruits.
IT'S a wise and pregnant saying of
Bishop J. H. Vincent that ones personal
relation to politics where the government
is wholly beyond the reach of the indi-
| vidual, as in the davs of the Caesars, is
very different from the relation BE sus-
tains where every individual becomes re-
sponsible for the character of the govern
ment, as with us.
An interesting paper has just been
printed by DR.. Screiber of Barmen on the
prospects of Islam. He calculates that of
the La, OOO,OOO Moslems 100000 are al
ready subject to Christian powers, and
that it will not be long before the remain
ing 100000 will be In the same condi-
ton. AS q political power Islam has
fallen, and the loss of its political
power is crushing and ruinous. If
Islam is gaining little in Africa among
the negro tribes it is losing ground every
where else. The church missionary
society reports 1000 new converts from
Mohammedanism. the Rhenish society
1000, and in Java there are $4,000 Chris
tians, most of whom were formerly Mos
| lens. Mohammedanism had a mission
the destruction of polytheism. This mis-
sion it has performed over wide terri
tory. The world is now ready to go on
and up from monotheism TO Christianity.
MANY Christians who bear the loss ola
child or the destruction of their property
with Christian fortitude are quite van
| ouished by the breaking of dish or the
blunder of a servant, and show such an