The Bossier banner., 1894-10-25
NUMBER 35.

Christian grace for the heart and the
most honey of Christian usefulness for
the life.
Besides that, if you want to build up
any denomination, you will never build
it up by trying to pull some other down.
Intolerance never put anything down.
How much less intolerance accom-
plishes, for instance, against the Meth
odist church? For long years her
ministers were forbidden the pulpit of
Great Britain. Why was it that SO
many of them preached in the fields?
Simply because they could not get in
the churches. And the name of the
church was given in derision and as a
sarcasm. The cfltics of the church
said: ''They have no order, they have
no method in their worship;" and the
critice, therefore, in irony called them
''Methodists."
| am told that in the Astor library,
New York, kept as curiosities, there
are seven hundred and seven books
and pamphlets against Mothodism.
Did intolerance stop that church, No;
| it is either first or second amid the de-
nominations of Christendom, her mis-
| sionary stations in all parts of the
world, her men not only important in
religious trusts, but important also in
| secular trusts. Church marching on,
and the more intolerance against it
the faster it marched.
What did intolerance accomplish
against the Baptist church? If laugh
! ing scorn and TRADE could have de-
| Icfr fha ohr,,,o hou
| to-day disciple left. The Baptists
were hurled out of Boston in olden
times. Those who sympathized with
them were imprisoned, and when a pc
| tition was offered asking leniency in
their behalf all the men who sighnedit
were indicted. Has intolerance stopped
| the Baptist church? The last statis-
tics in regard toit- showed twenty-five
thousand churches and three million
communicates. Intolerance never put
down anything.
In England law was made against
the Jew. England thrust back the
Jew and thrust down the Jew, and de-
clared that no Jew should hold official
position. What came of it? Were the
Jews destroyed? Was their religion
|
minister of England? Who was next
to the throne? Who was higher than
the throne because he was counsellor
and adviser? Disraeli, Jew. What
were we celebrating in all our churches
as well as our synagogues only few
years ago? The one hundredth birth
day anniversary of Montefore, the
great Jewish philanthropist. Intoler-
ance never yet put down anything.
But now, my friends, having shown
you the origin of bigotry or sectarian-
ism, and having shown you the damage
it does, want briefly to show you how
we are to war against this terrible evil,
and think we ought to begin our war
by realizing our own weakness and
our imperfections. If we make so
many mistakes in the common affairs
of life, is it not possible that we
may make mistakes in regard to our
religious affairs? Shall we take man
by the throat, or by the collar, because
he can not see religious truths just as
we do? In the light of eternity it will
be found out, think, there was some
thing wrong in all our creeds. But
since we may make mistaks in regard
to things of the world, do not let us
be so egotistic and so puffed up as to
have an idea that we can not make any
mistake in regard to religious theories.
And then l think we will do a great
deal to overthrow the sectarianism
from our heart, and the sectarianism
from the world, by chiefly enlarging
in those things in which we agree
rather than those on which we differ.
think we may overthrow the severe
sectarianism and bigotry in our hearts,
and in the church also, by realizing
that all the denominations of Chris
tians have yielded noble institutions
and noble men. There is nothing that
so stirs my soul as this thought. One
denomination yielded Robert Hall and
an Adoniram Judson; another yielded a
Latimer and Melville; another yielded
John Wesley and the blessed Sum-
merfield, while our own denomination
Welded John Knox and the Alexanders,
men of whom the world was not
worthy. Now, say, If we are honest
and fair-minded men, when we come
up in the presence of such churches
and such denominations, although they
may be different from our own, we
ought to admire them, and we ought
! to love and honor them. Churches
which can produce such men,
and such large-hearted charity,
and such magnificent martyrdom,
ought to win our affection-at any
rate, our respect. So come on ye hun
dred thousand Episcopalians in this
country, and We five hundred thousand
Presbyterians, and ye million Baptists,
and We two million Methodists-c
on; shoulder to shoulder we will
, march for the worlds conquest; for all
nations are to be saved, and God de-
mands that you and help do it. For
!, ward, the whole line!
And expect to see the day when all
denominations of Christians shall join
; hands around the cross of Christ and
q recite the creed: 81 believe in God
the Father Almighty, maker of Hea wen