Connecticut western news., 1893-02-02

then nave the satlSfactlon of depending on something that comes at first and not at secondhand. Is it not still bet ter and nobler to study for oneself the words of Jesus and SO come in direct and personal touch with Him than to let "cut and dried" and printed regulations stand between the man and his masterP That way was once necessary aud use- ful. "The Law is our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ" Having come to Christ We can dispense with the school master.
 True Christian progress no longer re- quires the old and outward dispensa- ton. Christ said "The kingdom of heaven is within you It has been written cn the mind and heart and henceforth must expand from within the new dispensation.
 And here we may mention in the same way pledges of every kind. If the total abstinence pledge is of real help to tho iuebriate he had better sign it, for here is q low state of existence where the external is necessary. There was a time when the Christian Endeavor society needed their pledge; it was the outward regulation that brought the or ganization into existence; but has not the pledge helped it to that state where it can progress just as we'll and perhaps better without it? One sometimes places prop around small tree to hold it up, but when it has become a lordly oak, the prop remains only in name and is superhuous, and if it be not removed by some kindly hand, the natural expansion of the tree will event ually topple it oyer and cast it aside. The "endeavor" pledge will probably remain, 1t may be best that it should, to stand as u law to those who are weak
 But shall the strongest Christian life come in touch with no outside stimu- lant? We cannot thus conclude, for no life continues without proper external nourishment The tree must be fed with air, sunshine and rain else it die. Christian life must be fed by deeds of love and words of kindness; it must I find instruction in the bible and enlarge its fellowship iu the church. These are external applications that correspond to air, sunshine and rain, and without them 1t would wither and die. The church Is an external organization di- vinely appointed and essential to Chris l tianity: 1t is however sometimes taken advantage of and made to serve wrong purpose When you go into church where 'ceremonialism is predominant, where "vaiu repititions'' are used, Il where liturgies are insisted upon and incense must be waved in the air, then you are in church where is heard an echo of the old Mosaic ritualism. out. ward methods, to which even the Deity once resorted that He might drive for ward crude people, but whose useful ness passed away when Jesus wrote the new law upon the heart. True church worship ascends not from the hand and mouth, but from the heart
 Has this principle of true and false growth been extravagantly applied here to the needs and conditions of the world? The principle is genuine, and as the world improves may be pushed still further. As we become gore like our Father we shall enter more largely into harmony with it's truth, though while the world lasts both outward and inward methods will have their uses and advantages.
 In closing let us make one more ap- plication. Human beings in the world are constructed outwardly and inward ly; half body and half soul, the seen and the unseen. The outward flourish es by means of outward nourishment that is prepared for it; we have to re- ceive food, wear clothes and be shelter ed in houses, these are external applica. tions; the body itself is external, but food, clothes, houses and the body are all artificial in the sense that no one of them are enduring, for each is hnrrying on to the time when it must disappear The inward also has been disciplined and nurtured by external forces and outward appliances, and it still stands in need of some of them; so long as il remains in the world of sense it will depend in part on the things of sense. But these outward helps to the inward life should bring it to that stage where, gradually dropping them, it's best pow CTS and highest development shall come from the life that expands from within. Remember that in all existence outward helps are temporal, outward law is fading, outward helps to the in. ward life are failing. the body, that outward temple in which the soul has dwelt and upon which it has long de- pended must crumble; everything ex- ternal- shall vanish. What remainsf The mind and the soul; the inward life. It must then stand by it's inward nature alone or fall. If it stand it will ever blossom in newer beauty and sweeter fragrance because sustained by the un- seen, inward and immortal Love which Christ has written on the heart