Morning journal and courier., 1893-11-20
AN ALL SOULS, CHURCH.

|
mr. meserve at Davenport Church
Yesterday Morning
Luke TX, Ia "And gave them power and
authority ever all devils, and to cure diseases"
Last Sunday considered the question
"What has Christianity generally been
considered good for in the pastT To-day
I ask your attention to this question |
"What must Christianity be good for in |
the futurea" For greater convenience,
both yours and mine, I will follow the |
same channel of thought that we found |
helpful last week. First-Christianity |
must be able to save the SOUL! The idea |
that it can save only few select, well
born, carefully trained, easily won souls
q to be repudiated at once. Christ's
church is "Al Souls' Church" It has no
night latch, and no carefully distributed |
KEYS, for its door. 1t is not an inviting, |
but seeking institute n. It undertakes
the hardest tasks and performs them. |
ANY soul can be saved. And no soul must
be shut out from the offer and privilege of
salvation. And the salvation snail be vis-
ible, radical, mighty, glorious. Moreover,
there snail be many saved, and not few.
God has starred space with uncountable
suns and planets. Surely He will draw to
Himself, If permitted q great number of
immortal human souls. This is cardinal
point in our Christian belief. One of our
religious papers this last week contained a
lament over the asserted decay of the doc
trine of eternal torment. If the assertion
be true there are two reasons for 1t. One
is that the mind of man is such that doc
trines, like other interesting matters, have
their day The other is that tho doctrine
of eternal life is jost now uppermost.
Second-Christianity must be able to
control the thought of man! This cannot
now be done by ecclesiastical authority.
The putting on of the priestly garment that
the people may know that what is about to
be said must be believed Is no longer i'm
pressive, it has become ludiorous. No use
| to appeal to authority at all Men no
longer care what other men have thought
and said. Even the great councils, and
l the fathers, and the commentators, and to
some extent the Bible writers themselves
are put one side. "Give us clear truth,
| we'll proven" is the cry. 1t is necessary
| if Christianity be reasonable she can make
| it with successl God gave us our reason,
/ and His truth finds answer thereinl The
| divine and the blessed, the right and the
| true, are responded to by right reason
at once. Count Tolatoi is now preach
| ing simple anarchy, and the good
sense of the world repudiates it. So it
/
| gion alike. "Ths people are always right"
| q very wise man has said. He meant that
| the great mind, conscience and heart of an
enlightened people will not 60 astrsy. He
| was not far wrong. The new movement in
| Boston, which ia an advance on the part of
certain Universalists toward agnostioism,
! will be repudiated, because it cannot main
/ tain itself in the high court of good Chris
| tian sense. Atheists read the riddles of
life in way very different from ours, and
their way will never prevail, for the same
| reason. Like the voice of the sea along
| the shore Is the ceaseless sound of the
| voice of God in the reasonable soul. 1t is
| the same voice that spsaks ia the scrip
tures-the voice of Jesus Christ.
Third-Not the least in contradiction
| with what has been said. but in entire har-
mony with it, I now add that Christianity
must chow herself able to rule the world.
Not in Nspoleonic fashion, By force. Ar
mics are no good hers. The Moslem dream
and method are out Of dats and dead. The
Jesuit fashion Is IS useless and Intellectual
Diplomacy cannot trick the world into the
kingdom of heaven. The beginning of this
rule Is the won heart. 81 love Thee, !" seys
the won soul to a loving and winning God.
Then begins the divine rule in the soul.
into the family of God, or salvation into
the soul. The Lord will have the heart or
nothing. 81 Iowa Thee" said Peter. and
became the foremost and typical Chriatisn
disciple. This rule, thus begun, continues
by the continuance of the same spirit
"What shall dol" eaid the cong uered per-
secutor. 1t meant utter surrender, and no
shadow of even possibility of recanting.
He arose from the ground devoted man,
for life, r,s and obI forever +. s.. 3D." thss
ceaselsss energy and devotion. She
is not to ask for respect and fear and
awe, as though a supernatural being She
is to minister, might and main. If she has
right to aek the allegiance Of men it must
appear in her conduct. Il want 100 men
to die" ssid Napoleon to brigade. Every
man stepped to the front volunteer It
was magnificent. 1t is the true split of
Christianity. Anything short of it is
apostasy. Contract the great organiza-
| with the few select spirits VINO are utterly
honest and utterly devoted, who are out in
| the worst by and high ways of the world
after souls. Christianity lives in these de-
| voted lives 1t has name to live in the
organizations. And the rule when estab-
lished ia the rule OF righteousness admins
J | tered by love. One of the Lords parallels
tells how man did service because be
| was importuned past endurance, and he
does not have the Masters approval for the
service. 1t ia not enough to rule In the
, name of Christianity. 1t must be done in
} | the spirit of it. Love rules the world when
J., Christ ia its king.
Beginning in the winning of the heart
| and continuing in the love of the devoted
heart, the rule of christianity will eveutu.
: ate In completeness. It stirs the SOU
] nightly to think ahead little to that tina
, when Christ shall be king. There will b.
i IS
has Its two lobes for circulating the blooc
through the body, 80 there will be a free
church and free state in that glad time
for the administration of the affairs of the
9 body polite. We are ashamed of the work
Q ing of our free institutions these days, be
n | cause they are not free, but are in bondage
a | to corruption. They will be free then, anc
| woe to the power that shall try to enslavt
them again. Besides the new politics there
will be a new social condition. The poor m AZ
will climb the rich's mans stoop as friend
8 not as enemy or beggar. Fres circulation
Q made possible by worth or respect, vii
Q bring all classes into fellowship. How ex
8 tsnsive or intimate 1t will be cannot say
but it will be, and that Ia SO different from
q | what we now see that it will be as HEAVIER
, to present conditions. Now We win few
out of the slums, then we will eliminate
the slum itself. Now We fight the slun
maker with quite varying fortunes; ther
. there will be no slum maker, but sn honest
. | man in his place. Just to think of 1t make.
one want to break out into Thanksgiving
+ that the thought is possible to love mar
better than money. Gan sons of our cap
q italists, some of our bosses, some of oul
r brewers and distillers, and gambler.
be made to do ita With Christianity
doing her Lords work in her Lords spirit
: and method it can be done. And, finally
| there will not be truce between science aud
religion, but there will be coming togeth.
or for doing their 30 familiar work in COM
psny. Science must not be criticised fol
seeking truth without regard to accepted
r opinions in any department.. 1t is her
duty. And religion must learn to demon.
strate the truth and power of revelation by
. the production and fruit of spiritual life
an argument forever unanswerable. Both
| together can and will destroy shams, ig
: norance, superstition and sin. God speed
, such view of the duty of the hour as will
make these mighty works Of devil -outoast
ing and curing of diseases possible.
r And now ask if Christianity really il
good for this which We have said she must
be good for. For answer appeal to he,
samples. God has always hao witnesses
of unimpeachable veracity and uudenisble
power in the world. Look at them. There
are a good many Of them alive and at work
to-day, doing as grandly as their fellowa
a ever did who lived and testified before