Connecticut western news., 1893-06-29

the same letter Dignity is the one devil that is in the way of the success oi l hundreds of our great city churches to- i day. The apostle made a sensation 1 wherever he went. He could not helI l 1t. The gospel he preached was sen. sAtion. He turned the world upside down. He stirred men up. They ar. rested him, they persecuted him, they drove him out. He preached the truth | as 1t was in Christ, and the truth in | Christ cuts the world like two edged sword.
 Jesus Christ himself was 8 sensation alist. His methods were sensational, bis, life most intense in its dramatic as pects. Never man spake as this man. l They were struck with his word, with his manner. They were thrilled. He spoke not as scribe or pharisee. He spoke with an awful emphasis as one with authority. He spoke as the few prophets of the Hebrew race had spoken, with centuries intervening between their voices. His life was 8 series of sensa- tions between Cana and Calvary; his ministry a series of sensations-the heal ing of the lame, the halt, the blind, the raising of the dead. He broke the tra- ditions of the elders. He broke the Sab bath. He consortel with publicans and sinners. He reached and stirred the masses of the people. He was of them. He lived with them. Even when they deserted him he loved them, lived for them and died for them still.
 TEN SUICIDES A WEEK.
 The apostolic method implies also con- secrated common sense or the adapta- tion of methods to the needs of men and times. The Apostle Paul saw an awful need. He stood in Greece and saw her in her wretchedness and sin and help lessness. He saw world that lazy In darkness. He heard the sad cry of the lost on the mountains bleak and bare, sick and helpless and ready to die-lost in wild speculations about the soul and human life and human destiny. AS he gazed thus into the face of a race drift ing without compass there was inspi- ration enough to kindle the great resolve in his great soul, "I will be all things to all men if by all means I may save some." In Greece I will be Grecian; in Rome, Roman; among slaves, 8 slave. will preach in the market place I will stand on the Acropolis. I will preach in the synagogue-anywher everywhere, that man may be found, may be reached, may be saved.
 The situation with which we are con- fronted today is a situation that damns such an apostolic ideal enforced In prac- tical ways. The city lies in debauchery and weakness and corruption-the sa- loon master practically of your city life; 10 suicides a week in the city of New York alone; one murder week; ma- terialism growing in power and inso- lence; thousands gathered into the whirl- pool of an indifferent and goddess life; the great masses outside the church up- mindful of it's very existence; the sad cry of the city going up before God day and night without ceasing; the mufded roar of it's sorrow can be heard in the distance in the deadest hour of the night, the sick, the helpless, the lost, the de- spairing. the sick in body and the sick in soul. If the church meets this situation, it must be by the adaptation of methods which the spirit will own and bless to- day.
 RELIC HUNTERS.
 The trouble is we have disowned the spirit of God. We say the spirit Is not with us. It is true, but it is not becausS the spirit has withdrawn from the world. It is simply because wo have put our selves out of touch with the spirit. Tho church must get new baptism of the spirit-that is to say, it must open the doors and let the spirit come in. We have some zeal, but it Is zeal with fatal lack of sense. Now and then a man rises and says. Lord, let us build three tabernacles -one for thee, one for Moses and one for Elias" Marvellous zeal, but no sensei Wonderful structures we build today, but they are useless catacombs-good enough for records, good enough for relic hunters in the future. And we store of curiosities, when . newer and freshes race shall roam over our ruined cities. God does not need three tabernacles to- day any more than he needed them in the day of Christ's transhguration. We need institutions for saving men and women in these closing days of the nine teenth century. We are not adapting our methods to saving men. Until we dc the church cannot be triumphant. The moment we do the spirit of God in power reaches the world through us.
 Let me repeat to you part of my per sonal creed on this subject: As for me resolved to abide in this faith. repeat 1t with emphasis. I had rather beat the drum in the Salvation Army to the sal walton of men than stand in frescoed temple and preach the gospel to a hand ful of old men and women, who have professed religion so long and date 1t SO long ago that they can scarcely remembs9 the date of their conversion, and who have heard the gospel so long that they arc stricken with sacred rheumatism. I had rather be 8 human sandwich and walk on Broadway and advertise the gospel unto salvation of the passing crowd than stand beneath Gothic arch and preach into the soft, yielding bosom of pew cushions the most glorious pe- riods at large salary. I had rather wield hot potato, as did old John Pounds of Portsmouth, in the name of the eternal God to the salvation of man than to wear the red hat of cardinal and strut before men. I had rather wield the hot potato of John Pounds of Ports mouth to the salvation of my brother man than sit on the throne of St. PeterAs and wear the tiara of Leo XIII before the assembled pilgrims of 8 world.
 believe in the triumph of the church of Jesus Christ. do not say what be- iievs about the future of the traditional churches that in many cases cumber the ground in the modern city.
 The Duke In the Adirondack.
 NORTH CHEEK N Y Iune 27 -Tha