Morning journal and courier., 1893-07-10
CHRISTIANITY PROGRESSIVELY

pr. Wilbur G. Williams, Pastor of ! the First M. E. Church, Trenches an Interesting and Instructive sermon on the Prosressfveness of Chrls- tianity.
 Rev. Wilbur s. Williams, pastor. of the First M. E. church, preached an interest ing and highly instructive sermon yester- day morning to large audience. Ills subject was Christianity Progressive" and he took for his text, "I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which Is and which was and which Is to come, the Alnighty"- Rev. I: 8-9. "And the word was made flesh and dwelt among us (and we beheld his glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Fathsr), full of grace and truth" St. John I: IA.
 The following Is resume in part of the sermon: ''The scriptures certainly teach that the religion of Jesus was meant to be a religion. for the race. One of the great est facts about Christianity is its power of progress end adaptation to each particular stage of the races civilization. The best book on the evidences of Christianity is l that one which exhibits and illustrates this Bible is to be believed because 1t finds | man at every point of his need and provides for the truest wants of | his soul. The historical paragraph of | Christianity, now nineteen centuries long. is one continuous illustration of the pro- gressive and adaptive power of Christ's religion. From the lowest barbarism through all the rising grades of civiliza tion it has shown its fitness to change the 1 life of the individual, the community and | the state. AS at the beginning it con- ! quered alike the heart of the proud | Roman and the fierce Barbarian, so to-day it wins its way to the heart and secures the allegiance of the most cultured scholar ! and the humb1est peasant. It finds" the learned and the ignorant, the virtuous and | the degraded and breathes the same God | spell" on them both.
 But it must be noted that this is done by ! the virtue which is in Christ himself, through the divine life in Him which is in the world, and not by the formulas and | creeds which men have framed about Him. souls and saves men cannot be put into 8 | definition or shut up in the limits of log ! ical statement. We might as we'll seek to bottle up the sunlight as to express all of Christ in creed. Creeds and systems are | good as helps. They are ladders by which | we climb, staffs on which we lean, but they ! cannot last forever, for Christ is too big | for them; they cannot hold Him. As | men advance, as soul and brain | expand, the religion of Jesus over- flows the old vessels, and hence new statements arise. We should not be alarmed at what are called "new state . 1e T, Sae kI,r truth" we should welcome them as the rising of the day. They are but history repeating itself, but one more in the series of new statements which have accom- panied the growth of the race from baby. hood toward manhood. The world may grow till man can touch the stars, till mar is very microeosm of God, but the es sential religion of Christ will still minister to him. That divine life in Christ Jesul will still be his crown and his glory.
 The secret of this perennial influence lie1 in the perfection of Christ's humanity ant in the vital greatness of His truth. Man' highest moral conception is of perfec humanity. Beyond that he enters vague ness and distractions. So God has inter preted Himself to us in the perfect human ity of Christ. With Christ before us W
 have the highest ideal and the stronges appeal God could make to man. Likewis
 of His teachings. Nothing trifing or in
 significant did He ever mention. It is tn Iquestions of the soul, God, immortality destiny, accountableness. These natura
 themes of mans soul Christ made tn
 themes of His divine teaching.
 But the great and practical lesson fo
 each of us to learn is that this gloriou structure for mans soul which the Fathe
 has provided in Christ Jesus can only
 known as we take our place within it. On | of the saddest things is to see those wh
 admire Christianity, who praise It's sut
 lime principles and examples, yet the
 have never themselves seen the insid, AS though one should bs content to SC
 the outside walls of the cathedral, to at
 mire it's turrets and towers but never to 2
 in to look upon Divine beauty of tl
 Raphael decorations. As though oonte,
 to admire the wood and finish of the hal
 and never strike its strings
 evoke the music which after all Is the fin
 cause of the harp. So Christ and His T
 ligion are not meant for spectacle. E
 is in the world to lead the individual so
 to righteousness. He Is here for the pra
 tical saving of persons. Let us with O,
 own hands strike the strings of the Divil
 Harp, let us put our own hearts and liv
 under the outpour of this divine life whit
 God has sent to fill the world and save
 even unto the uttermost.
 The subject of his evening discourse "
 "The Final Evidence of Christianity"