The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1893-03-23

ont inp OOIlUOit anu Elius Il uOI IlllUh
it IL. Idon't SEQ anybody with umbrcl.
las" She raw not 40 much what was be.
fore her eyes as what was in her mind,
and her mind was projected out on a
barren sea- So men SEQ theolOgics aud
project them on tho surface of the Bible
Theology belongs 20 the realm of intel.
lect, not TO tho realm Of heart and prac.
tice.
A preacher was preaching a sermon
20 the inmates of an insane asylum in
jufralo somo time ago, ana he at last
came tiresone The patients began
TO get restless. Even the attendants
got restless and yawned To no purpose;
he went on. Presently one of the pa
tients, leaping TO her feet, pointed her
finger at him and said, "You have
preached long enough, sir, long enough"
One Of the attendants came up and quiet
ed her, and he continued his sermon. Ho
said afterward she must have been re.
markably crazy woman, but the attend
ants never could decide whether she was
improving and that was an indication of
IL, or whether il was n relapse. To him
she was entirely crazy because she came
in contact with his point Of view.
A difference in point Of view is diff
ference intellectually and does not touch
the essential principle that lies at tho
basis of real Christianity and true reli.
gion. II that were not so, then you
could save n boy by teaching him theol.
ogy. | was talking with father the
other day about his boy in this town.
The boy had been through all sorts Of
dissipation, and the father said he bad
thought and prayed over him-and this
man was not member of any church
either-and he said, I'VE have come TO
the sad conclusion that there is but one
thing that can lift him out of all this
whirlpool of hell and dissipation, and
that is supernatural power that shall
come in and in spite Of everything, alb
solutely by miracle lift him out"
He was right. You take that boy that
goes his round Of dissipation, and the
fundamentals Of whose character have
been crushed and whose heart has been
eaten out by sin, and preach to him the
ology, tell him about the fathers, this
theory Of John Calvin or that of Angus.
tine-teach him all the science Of theol-
ogy until he can repeat it by heart-and
you will leave his heart where you found
it, and you will not have touched the
real man. But breathe into him the vital
breath Of the spirit Of God, and he may
not know the five points Of Calvinism
from the five points Of pitchfork, but
he will belong to the kingdom of God.
Orthodox Christianity is possessing the
spirit Of Christ. If any man have not
the spirit of Christ, he is none Of his. A
child sat down one day and drew with a
pencil picture Of a dog for the little
brother toddling by her side, and she
said, "See the picture | drew out Of my
head" And the little brother said: mo,
you did not saw it come out of the
end of the pencil" And he said, "There
must be more dogs in the pencil" Why,
yes, that is true. If real Christianity
can consist in historic continuity of
forms and ceremonies, then the child's
supposition is entirely correct. But if it
is something greater, and forms are but
the expression of a life within, then you
must find the secret Of the artist not in
the point Of the pencil, but in the heart
that beats within and takes form in that
way.
RELIGION A GROWTH.
Christianity must be contin-
uous growth. The kingdom of God is as a
seed cast down upon the earth. The his
tory Of revelation, then. must be the his
4-,,, 90 q ,r-ov-tl,- ,-.C,,,tl, i, +ho I.,,C,,,1
edge Of God from the first lesson taught
the children in the morning Of life as
they halted on their way with their
feeble steps on down through the ages
until the full conception Of the Christ
and the kingdom Of love burst from the
cross Of Calvary on an astonishcd world
All the way, these 1000 years, through
this history God is leading and teaching
gradually the world. The morals of this
book are found in the final morality Of
Christ, and it must be, therefore, a
growth.
Our religion has been in the past a
growth. There is a song in the Old
Testament that you and Icannot repeat.
1t is prayer Of praise for the triumph
over Sisera, when through treachery nail
| was driven into his head. Why, my ideal
is not the ideal Of the war song of tri-
umph over Sisera and the hosts of Jabin,
| and he who would profess to be a fol-
! lower Of the Christ cannot profess that
| his code of morals is to be found there,
but in the full development Of the full
light and truth in Jesus Christ. So Abra.
ham could not live his life today; so Da.
vid could not bear the light of this age
so the old patriarchs OF the past lived uI
to the best light they had But they were
not held up to the ideal you and are
held to, because we have made progress
and because the world has through those
ages grown in the knowledge of God and
his truth.
To stop anywhere in your development
of this seed means death. The moment
the development of that seed stops eithel
one of two things will happen-the houl
Of the harvest has come, when with ont
foot On land and one on sea the archan
gel shall call the world before the judg
ment bar Of God, or else, if you have ar
rested its development before its frui
| ton, there is but one result-death il
proportion to its arrest. If you say yoI
must accept these forms absolutely anC
forever, that means death. You hay,
said to a seed, arbitrarily, stop growing
1t must not stop growing until the har
vest time, and then the master cometl
and reapeth the seed.
Bad theology e responsible for mucl