Los Angeles herald., 1893-01-08

been revelations of great spiritual in
sight, as well as an intuitive sense of
Justice. What was the most striking
utterance from all those who looked
upon Calvary? The exclamation of the
Roman soldier, hard man of the world:
"Surely. this man was of God" Who
performed the most significant service
afterward? A man who had not been
openly one of the disciples, but whonow
gave for the entombment the costliest
and most sacred possession of the Jewish
household-the family mausoleum. Who
had unfaltering faith and visions of i'm
mortality, when no partisan follower OF
he Master could see anything but disas-
ter and failure? The woman, who with
simple love and faith in that Christ who
had come into her home and her life as
friend and brother, saw more than
all the rest, even the angel of the Lord
in the place where the body had lain
the first true vision of any who had
been with Him.
We look upon the religious question
of today, thus briefly limited at, as alto
gether the most interesting and i'm
portant one we are all called upon to
consider. Men talk about the church OF
the future, as if the future had some
new thing in store for us in the way OF
consensus of doctrinal belief. They
look upon the conflicts now going on as
if some new solutions of the differences
NAV be found. To US this does not
seem likely or possible. Standing in
the midst of the terrible convulsions of
the French revolution, Burke, in calm
and stately phrase. declared that mo
new principle in political government
could come of it, or ever be eet forth In
q platform. 1t was only the conflict be-
tween the assumption of the few and
the deep, honest and intelligent convic-
tions of the many" To US this exactly
states the case of the religious contro-
versies of today. There is no new de-
vice, no new principle in sight or to be
hoped for, or needed. The world will
come to its own sometime, and that is
the natural and happy solution of every
conflict in growing age. The majority
of men among us are neither scoffers
nor doubters. They do not make any
warfare upon the churches, bat, on the
other hand, help in almost every
work in complete harmony with them.
They do not belittle or undervalue the
church, but they hold to larger faith
and try to save it for the uses of their
race forever. 1t is the faith that builds
into civilization and into individual life
the things given us to use. 1t ls that
faith that makes US CO workers with
God in every stone we hew, in every
acre we reclaim and till, in every joining
of our labor with the capital of his
providence, and, more than all, in the
interpreting and adopting and assimilat-
ing into our characters and lives the
plain and unchanging elements of good
that make us grow on the spiritual and
| immortal side. We must build up and
not down. No man ever attained to an
enduring and symmetrical Christian
character by beginning at the theolog-
| ical end and no church can ever lay
saving plan of salvation for men if it
does not stand in their midst and build
their faith, their hearts and their hopes
into it. There never was deeper and
worthier religious inquiry and tendency
| than now. If the teachers who are now
mere makers of phrases would become
saviors of men, they would find their
own and the church's work done at the
| same time. For this demand of life, for
this blessed policy of Christian teach
ing, for this incarnation Of belief we
want q union of faith ard endeavor.
He ie not an honest-minded nor
fair-minded critic who can say that the
theological schools and teachers are do
ing work SO united and unselfish as to
meet either the requirements of the
Christian standard or the needs and
longings of the great world that was
never in 80 susceptible and reverent a
mood as it is today. There has never
been time, since Christ ministered in
| the midst of the common people, that
they have heard of him more gladly
than they dc anywhere, everywhere to-
day.
Oh! that the church would broaden
Its plan to Christ's plan, whose work
was done for all mankind in the name
| of all mankind. The world will not
even now antagonize the church, but
would nightly help it then on the plan
OF honest and common belief and along
the highway of duty and destiny. The
church would gather the multitudes in
stead of the few, and hold them not by
the hangman's whip but by silken cords
of love, and the world would rejoice and
stand together in the light of Gods
great purpose, and on the common plane
of manhood, for whose help and saliva
tion were all things made.
TREMENDOUS efforts have been made
to prove that there is active strife be-
txuoa, tha ,,ros;J ar{.alaok o,J ro~o,,a