Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1892-01-12

tian1ty-A Larger and More COmpre-
hensive View Should be Taken of
Christianity.
Rev. DR.. Newman Smyth preached an
impressive sermon Sunday morning from
the text ''It shall bring forth new fruit ev-
cry month, because the waters thereof is
sue out of the sanctuary" Ez. AZ, 10. The
following is in brief the trend of his re-
marks: This truly is most appropriate
text for the Sunday which this church has
appointed for the review of another year
of its life. This old, prophetic symbol
might fittingly be painted in the coat of
arms of any true church-A tree that
brings forth new fruit every month, be-
cause the waters thereof issue from the
sanctuary. One of the principal objects
for which the Lord Jesus came into this
world was to convert men from the per-
sonal point of view and lead them to take
the larger Christian view of everything.
True Christianity has always been and al
ways will be the newest thing out. 1t is
as the tree which gathereth strength from
the years, bearing new fruit every month.
CHANGING at the Church of England since the
Oxford movement in 1910 we find that there
has been development along two principal
lines-the one theological and the other
practical or social striving to determine
the meaning of Christ's life As applying to
/ the Christian work in over-crowded cities.
The same thing Is observed in our own
country. Both at home and abroad, from
out all the religious turmoil and confusion
of half century, new adaptation of
Christianity to life seems already to be
taken from before mems eyes. Of the
first of these two tendencies a few words
will suffice. The new theology, as it is
sometimes called by those who do not
know how old it is, the real theology, or,
more modestly, the desire to gain for our
selves . real theology, as those who feel the
fresh impulse of it would denote it, has
not been formulated in any creed or COM
pleted in any general confession. It is an
endeavor rather than an achievement, a
motive and an aim rather than dogma
and decree. Its chief passion is Christ,
its sole desire to be led by the spirit.
If ono were to hit with single word the
most marked characteristic of religion in
this country in the first half of the pres
ont century, suppose that the words for
eign missionary zeal, more than any other
phrase, would be true to the fact. Our
Christianity already is becoming known as
mover 80 distinetivsly before under the
name of social Christianity. That phrase,
now coming in vogue, marks, though in
adequately, the new adaptation of life
which tho old gospel is assuming. The
social conception of Christianity already
has created much new instrumentality,
and doubtless it will create more. It was
to be expected that the work of making
social experiments on new lines would be
tried first in England, where the perils of
over crowded cities have been of more
Importance than With US. Yet New Eng
land does not lie wholly without the
shadows of tho sams dark problems,
and adaptations and improvements of
English church methods are already being
introduced into all our large cities. We
are apt to speak of great causes as though
they we're all in tho past and of appeals to
grand duties as though they belonged to
some more Christmas time, to days of pa
triotism and of now impossible devotions,
and yet when one muses. over the work of
the Lord in the century now nearing its
close and lifting his eyes to the works of
faith which many mon and women are
now humbly offering in his name, seeks to
sum up in his mind the measuring
of the whole story of Christian growth
and opportunity, he will feel that now and
hero there is great motive for life, that
there Is something on earth more heavenly
to live for than personal success or private
prosperity.
"a dream of man and woman
Divine, but still human
To which his soul was true unto death,
shall be no longer q dream, but the one
glad universal reality of earth and heaven
when he, too, shall come with the Son of
Gods love at the harvest time to gather
the fruits of the ages.