The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1893-06-29

work means, first, sacrifice of the tra-
| ditions Of the ages and the intensest per-
sonal convictions on the altar of the sue
cess of the mission. Paul wasa tradi-
| tionalist. He was q pharisee of the
pharisees. Yet he laid aside his precon-
ceived ideas Of church life and church
methods upon the altar of this consum-
| ing passion for the salvation Of men. He
| sunk his personal preferences in his burn
| ing desire to save men at all hazards.
| His education and his training were tra-
| ditional and conventional to the last de-
gree.
The cheapest way of going is the easy
going way, the way of laziness and Of
sacred and of solemn traditions. The
church needs to pray today as 1t never
prayed before, "Lord, help us to bury
our past to slay our own ideas Of sue
cess and lay them on the altar Of today's
consuming needs" The way to con-
duct church affairs is the way that
saves men. The apostolic method of
church work implied in the highest de-
| gree sensationalism and in my humble
| opinion the church that will triumph in
| the city in the future will be a church
| that in the best sense is sensational. /
| do not mean q church that descends to
buffoonery and dog shows and the like,
but do mean church that does not
know what the word dignity means
Dignity is Of the devil. 1t begins with
the same letter. Dignity is the one
devil that is in the way of tho success Of
hundreds of our great city churches to-
I day. The apostle made a sensation
wherever he went. He could not help
it. The gospel he preached was a SEN
sation. He turned the world upside
down. He stirred men up. They ar
rested him, they prosecuted him, they
drove him ont. He preached the truth
as it was in Christ, and the truth in
Christ cuts the world like a two edged
sword.
Jesus Christ himself was a sensation
alist. His methods were sensational,
his life most intense in its dramatic as
poets. Never man spake as this man.
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 q 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 ira
ditions Of the elders. He broke the Sab
bath. He consorted with publicans and
sinners. He reached and stirred the
masses Of tho 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 q world that lay 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 race drift
ing without a compass there was inspi-
ration enough to kindle the great resolve
in his great soul, II will be all things 10
all men if by all means / may save
some." In Greece l will be q Grecian;
in Rome, a Roman; among slaves, a
slave. will preach in the market place.
l will stand on the Acropolis. l viii!
+ preach in the nagogue-anywhere
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,
teal ways. The city lies in debauchery
and weakness and Corruption-the sa,
= loon master practically Of your city life
= 10 suicides week in the city of New
q. York alone; one murder q 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 ch-rch un
= mindful Of its very existence; the sad
p cry Of the city going up before God day
t and night without ceasing; the muflled
roar Of its 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
0 which the spirit will own and bless to-
. day,
| RELIC HUNTERS.
S The trouble is VIC have disowned the
5 spirit of God. We say the spirit is not
1 with us. 1t is true, but it is not because
t the spirit has withdrawn from the world.
, It is simply because we have put our,
selves out of touch with the spirit. The
church must get new baptism of the
spirit-that is to say, it must open the
; doors and let thespirit comein. Wehave
some zeal, but it is zeal with fatal lack
3 of sense. Now and then man rises and
: says, "Lord, let us build three tahernacleS
! one for thee, one for Moses and one fol
Elias" Marvellous zeal, but no sense
| 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
them with relics for the future hunters
of curiosities, when newer and fresheI
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 TRANSPORTATION. We
need institutions for saving men and
women in these closing days Of the nine,
teenth century. We are not adapting