Connecticut western news., 1893-06-29

try of power is 8 ministry of freedom, (
 ministry that thinks for itself and acts
 as led by the spirit of God. The minis
 ter who survives and is of the church
 triumphant will therefore be 8 prophet
 not a priest; a leader, not an echo. Hs
 will be led by the spirit of God, not by the traditions of men. The keynote te his creed will be freedom of thought and progress in knowledge. By their fruits ye shall know them." A ministry that has no fruit Is dead ministry. It may be as orthodox as the recent general as ssmbly of the Presbyterian church, but If 1t bear no fruit it might be as heter- odox as the devil for all that it amounts to in the history of humanity. The or thodox church is the church that saves men. The orthodox ministry is the min istry of power unto salvation, and this ii the ministry of faith which is the true successor of St. Peter of old.
 Second-It is 8 certainty that this church triumphant will be saving pow CT. It will be known as church simply because it saves the world. There are two conceptions of church current to- day. One Is the election idea; the other is the commission idea. The one is an aggregation of saints met together for self edifcation and self enjoyment, gath cred apart and out of the world, not even in 1t. The other is . community army, sent forth in the world, to live in it, to die In 1t and for it. The one means isolation, the other conduct. The one means tradition, the other life. The one that will survive is the one that saves. The church that has no saving quality is good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden under foot of men. "Ye are the salt of the earth" The work of the church Is the salvation of this world, here and now-this whole world, man in his entire relations. And the church which lives in this crowded center of modern life must be a church that touches with saving power every ramiA- cation of life. Man is spiritual being. He Is g moral being. He is physical being. The church must save him spirit, soul and body. If the church of Jesus Christ does not thus touch man, 1t must die and other powers take its place.
 TRADITIONAL ToMBs.
 Its first work must of necessity be . spiritual one. It must stand for and the eternal, spiritual verities and their triumph over matter. It must bear witness to the truth thus-it must present to 8 thoughtless wdfld tho great problem ever fresh. "What shall 1t profit Q man If he gain the whole world and forfeit his hfe?' It must teach with renewed emphasis from day to day that 8 mans life does not consist in the abundance of the things that he may possess. There are plenty of dead churches in our great cities, that are dead because they have preached no such thing, and they died because they did not preach it, and wealth and pride and vanity have taken possession and eaten them up, and the spirit of God has de- parted. The church that lives and sur wives will be one that leeds back to the Father the wandering child. the orphan world. It must be full of zeal for man. It must be full of faith in man as 1t has faith in God. The life of Jesus shows bouniless faith in man. The infidelity that refuses to believe in the possibility of saving men Is as mean and as blas- phsmous as the infdelity that refuses as- sent to the postulate of the Godhead. The worship of God Is the service of man, If Jesus is to be believed.
 The Protestant church If 1t must tri- umph must go back to Catholicism and learn again the lesson which 1t has for gotten, and 1t is that mans spiritual nsr ture Is bound up whether he will or not with his body. We must relearn the fact that there is @ gospel of the body; that the body is an organ of the soul; that there is physical basis even of sal vation; that Jesus healed the sick and fed the hungry; that he came with heal ing in his touch; that he recognized the tremendous power of this work over the soul. The church must have it's gospel of healing. It must build it's hospitals rather than its dismal, traditional tombs with stained glass windows and solemn churches. It needs corps of evangelist physicians consecrated doctors who preach the gospel of Jesus as they heal the bodies of men.
 The church that saves man today must touch the intellectual part of man. Mans reason is an organ of the soul turned toward God, not toward matter. It is here that we appfehend the Bible. It Is here that we reach the full sweep of the deep truths of religion. It Is the work of the church to apply here the simple gospel to every human deed and every human relation. The church must solve some of the mightiest problems of human philosophy and of social science if the church prove the cure all for hu- man ills in our great modern city. It is a hard work to do and do thoroughly. It is hard to tell the truth and make the caustic application ct all times to msn and to society. If the salt have saving power, it must be rubbed in. A disserta- ton about salt will never accomplish the work. An exposition of the theory of 8 mustard plaster will not cure any man 1t must be put on him. So the church that triumphs must be the church that breaches that applies practical gospel of salvation to men as men gre today, to society as 1t Is today, to the city as 1t lies in all its darkness, In all It's sQuslor and wretohedness and sin and crime.
 sENsATroNALIsM.
 Third-Such a church triumphant will be church that returns to apostolic sympathy in method. By this do not mean that we are to wear sandals, as the apostles did. do not mean that we are to copy all their ceremonies or all their forms. But do mean that we are to put into practice In the nineteenth cen- tury the apostolic spirit with the apos- tohc ideal before we can hope for 8 church triumphant. The idea of Paul, the greatest of all the apostles, was simplicity itself. He took the cue from his Masters lips, "Ye shall know them by their fruits" The method of Paul was the method of success, and it is in startling contrast with some modern ideals. The secret of his success is found in this simple statement of his methods: "I am become all things to all men that may by all means save some." That is to say, the apostolic method of church work means, first, 8 sacrifice of the tra- <Q tI,A ns,I <h<l l,,k