The Progress., 1893-02-11

purely human invention. 1t has no
warrant IL The words Of Jesus, nor is il
preached anywhere in the Bible.
Jesus said: In the early part Of my
ministry | did not tell you some things,
but by and by the spirit Of truth viii
reveal them unto you'-that is, Jesus
himself clearly taught that revelation
was progressive; that no age, not even
the apostolic, had compassed 1t al, and
that the fullness of the knowledge of
God was something not yet attained
when he closed his work, but was
something yet to come in the process
of the development of man under
the touch of his Divine spirit. So we
may look at every report Of the races
progress for signs of this completing
kingdom. And from every event thus
marked in our history there can he
found prophetic fingers that point for
ward toward the lines along which Gods
work is developing, Gods life unfolding,
Gods promise being completed.
CHRISTIANITY IS GAINTJG.
believe in the triumph of Christian
itY. / read in our last census that we
have 20,O00,0O0 church members in
America. We have one church member
to every three men, women and children
! in the nation against three that may he
without We have, according to this re
port, 800, ,00O, 900 invested in property
devoted to religious work. During this
past decade the membership of our
churches has increased more than even
the progress of population. That may
not signify that the church as today or
ganized is going to be the church tri-
umphant, but it does signify that Chris
tianity will triumph in the end. But
what sort of Christianity? The Chris
tianity Of tradition, of history, or the
Christianity Of Christ?
believe that the fttest will survive,
that You cannot crush truth, and If you
do it will rise, PhRnixlike, from its
ashes over and over again. For that
reason / am never uneasy about my
creed, about my faith being upset by
any great infidel, or any discovery of
science, or any heresy in the church or
without, because | know that if my
creed does perish it ought to perish, be
cause it would not stand when worlds
begin to crash ON worlds. Why shol !
man nurse his creed with Tenderness?
Il is a thing you want to live and die by.
and if it cannot stand this side of the
grave it will not live the other side. If
an infdel like Ingersoll or "a hereto like
Professor Briggs can destroy your faith,
1o4 nd OF mo-
better. No, Gods truth is as sure to
triumph as that God lives.
As nearly as are can see GOdS fuH pur-
pose defining itself IN history, ,ctat ,cH
be the religion of the tut,TeP
1t seems to me that there are going to
be four characteristics of it. Ii Will be
Uitdl; it will be spiritual; it will be rd-
tiondl; it will be humanitarian. Some
of those words have to a certain class of
minds bad odor in the world of theo-
logical thought. But it is no use to mis-
name things-no use to call spade an
agricultural implement. 1t seems to me
that those four things are already shap
ing themselves before our very eyes, and
that God is bringing them to pass and
showing us the way.
TRUE RELIGION ALWAYS PROGRESSIVE.
First-The religion that survives will
be vital religion, because dead re-
ligion cannot survive Life is the thing
that moves on and makes progress-the
dead go quickly. So it is i'll the realm of
religion. The theology that survives
must be vital one. 1t must live. 1t
must not rattle. 1t must not be the rat
tling simply of bones. It must have
heart of flesh and nerves that feel. Only
the vital part of it is worth preserving.
You may talk theory to q man as much
as you please, but if you want to get hold
of him you must get hold Of him vitally.
We talk about the heather away off, ard
it is hard to get money for them, but
when we talked about Johnstown $2,-
0O0, 900 were poured into that valley of
the Conemaugh, each dollar baptized
with tears.
1t came so close that the people were
perishing within the scope of your own
life. We have been trying to save TIE
heathen by telling people they were GO
ing to be damned by and by. Hard work!
They were not much interested. The
heather world will not be saved until
you can get into peoples minds that they
are damned noic, and that they are in
need Of salvation today. That is what
sent those millions into Johnstown, be-
cause the people were perishing no,o. 1t
was vital, and they responded. So in the
future we will receive responses when
religion is thus made vital, and our
methods necessarily be made vital too.
Napoleon Bonaparte went on the field
of Marengo just before the sun went
down and saw that the battle was lost,
but he looked at the western sky and
said, There is just time enough to save
the day" And then with consummate
genius he sent orders flying along the
lines, and in a short time from defeat
snatched victory and success. In eve~y
crisis of the history of the church of
Christ there is time enough always for
victory being snatched from defeat if
the church is alive and adapts itself thus