Morning journal and courier., 1893-05-16
CHURCH LIFE OF TO-DAY.

CHURCH LIFE OF TO-DAY. p..tor Mitchell of Fair Haven on
 Substftutes for Church Life-Then
 and Now-His View of the Pro.
 prfety of the Execution of Harris-
 Of worlds Fair Closing on Sunday
 -Chicago's Sunday Saloons ana
 Theaters-The True Life.
 A sermon preached by Rev. MT. Mitchell at Grand avenue Congregational church, Fair Haven, Sunday, contained among | other striking and Interesting features | reference to the Harris case and the worlds fair at Chicago. The discourse has interested many people and owing to popular desire, . large portion of 1t is herewith given. The topic was ''Substi' tutes for Church Life," and the text Acts iv, 12:
 Church life once comprised the whole life of the New Haven community. How diff ferent now. No wonder men inquire If there is anything in modern life that is taking the place of the church. What sub stitutes for it are there. The pastor men tioned the enormous multiplication of books and newspapers. Our ancestors listened to sermons two hours long, took recess and went back to hear another of equal length. This was their literary food for whole week. Their minds were not overloaded with the weeks dumping ot books and newspapers.
 To day the only office of the church as instructor is to swiftly and intensely in- sist on the merits of the original word Worship was once entirely rltuallstic
 because men knew so little. I am not sure
 but that it may become entirely ritual istic again, because they knew so much, i. G., we shall always want to worship to- gether, but we may cease to seek instruc- tion in that.
 Socially the substitutes for church life are innumerable. Some of these the pas tor enumerated with caustic and trenchant comment here and there.
 Proceeding he said: "These, however, are but comparatively trifing substitutes for church life. The great substitute is nothing. Men are not even pretending to put anything in place of its life.
 "Around 1t surges great sea of ire sponsible humanity, hating the church be- cause 1t stands for self-restraint and tenn persncs and orderly life. It is fearful to contemplate the Responsibility of people, their sympathy with outragsously loose life. One hundred and sixty thousand people signed the petition to Governor
 Flower for the life of Carlyle Harris, man whose whole career is 8 monument to selfish
 lust. knew men like him in college by | the dozen, men not so skillful or so bold, but men whose conception of the world was jast his-a place for them to roll l around in and have good time, humanity | just 80 much food for their pleasure. No ! matter how much tears and blood and life 1t costs if only they are pampered and gratifed; men without fear of death or
 hell, absolutely without moral sense. Were they fit to mention we know at least five
 fearful crimes, confessed in his self loving | way, for every one of which this hend
 Harris ought to have hung, and the evi
 he did die, clear as plate glass, yet 160, ,00(
 people petition for his life, and they say now "see his final statement with eternity
 staring him in the face" What is eternity
 to man like that or lie in the face o
 that he had not proved himself too smar
 for the whole state, that he was foiled a
 last and his final effort was to still throv
 dust in the eyes of the truth that had beer
 too much for him. Capital punishment
 It is not capital punishment, 1t is capita
 protection. have no daughters or sis
 ters, but for the sake of the men who hav I am glad he is dead. But those 160,00 ) l petitioners-some of them honestly believ
 ing him innocent some of them too tende ; ! hearted, but the most irresponsible il sympathy with his villanies, loving loose ness. Substitutes for church lifel Grim is it's substitute, from the church's ster
 "Thou shalt have no gods bsfore me, from it's straight and narrow way tn 7 world would gladly turn to sin and tr with all it's might to prove sin justi6abls : Such substitutes for her life th church freely acknowledges and aeknow } edges herself unable to fill the place } fill the yearnings of the heart for social joy l for fellowship, for liberty, for eternal lii ) she ought and can, but fill the yearnings
 l the human heart for sin she cannot; if
 is sin, if 1t ,laziness you want, If 1t
 license and the isles of the lotus eaters yo
 ! may turn hence at once, for the truer an
 l broader the church life becomes the fartl
 | CT 1t will be from furnishing you lodgin
 | place within it.
 The worlds fair was closed last Sun da, | It had to bel In any other city than Oh cago nobody would have imagined aft 2 the national protest that 1t could be kel open. In Chicago we feared evasion, an ! | it has finally been evaded, but it was close
 | . | no two accounts about anything connecte with the fair agree, there seems to be [
 doubt but that there was numerous crow
 at the gates themselves, as we'll as vel 2 loud, shrieky at least, protest from Il country at large, and the papers delight telling us how the people who could n, ? get into the fair grounds did not go ! church. Of course they didn't; nobod 2 expected that they would; but went the saloons, theaters and overcrowde
 the Hon. W. F. Cody's Buffalo Bill sho1 Now the point is just here, n' :; that an open worlds fair would have fur : greater evil was done by it's being close T T but the point is that here are a mass 3 people who have no substitute for churc life at all, know no moral sentime,
 I whatsoever. Is it any discredit to u :, ! church that that which men substitute f, 5 her moral teachings is absolute sina Is any discredit to water that men pref :. l whiskeys Shall we compromise with the 7 taste for strong drink by composing drink of whiskey and watera Is 1t in ar sense 8 fair conclusion that because in T moral and non-immoral crowds demand Il Il the church allow a substitute for her nor 9 standards Do you candidly think, for e ample, that if man is such man that
 would spend his Sunday in 8 brothel ar F saloon if the fair is not open, that u fair should be opened for such 8 mana E 9 would go to the saloon and brothel afte ward, anyway. The saloons were all 2 favor of Sunday opening; they knew '. would not diminish their trade. Be tn 2 as it may the church and the brothel a ? not rivals for the hand of man. The are sworn foes, and when yo
 talk about substitutes for church Ii
 save in few comparatively narrow cas- ' | don't know what you mean by it, for tl , great movement toward looseness, immo : ality and sin is not substitute for churc . life, 1t is defiance of church life. Potato are substitute for bread, but morphine
 not. When man hired another to go
 war for him, that other was his substitut
 but when he himself went over to tt rebel side and fought with his country enemies, we didn't call that a substitu P for loyalty.
 Bigotry is bad and looseness is worse, b