The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1894-04-07
misleading and trespassing on dangerous
ground

: will have to be careful, or with some OF
them the Epworth League will become
the church. These are all mistaken
ideas, all erroneous and tend to evil.
speak Of the church as a whole, and
/, devotion to the church ought to be gen
f uine not affected; constant not accidental;
fervent, not transcient. We have the
idea of this devotion expressed by the
Psalmist in the olden time when he
, said s'If / forget thee O Jerusalem, let
my right hand forget its cunning; let
my tongue cleave to the roof Of my
mouth, if prefer not Jerusalem above
my chief joy" And st. Paul, in the
lesson that ] read gives us the idea that
Jesus Christ loves the church as the
!, husband loves the wife. and that the
) intensest and closest relation exists be-
tween the church and its founder, and
that we, as members of the church, are
to make the church supreme. s'But, y
you may say, should not Christ be
supremey' OF course Christ should be
4 supreme. He is the Lord, and it is for
; that very reason that l urge the church,
just as | am urging it now. for be found
ed the church and commanded us to
, work in it: and 10 say that something else
is better is to take issue with him, and
violate his law and go astray and lead
others, over whom we exert an infu-
ence, after US.
Now, I use text in this, the final ser
mon of my pastorate here, that brings be-
fore us the church in it's real character,
and in the perils that environ it, and in
our obligations toward it. 1t brings be-
fore us the church in the sacredness of
its character. have no time to spend in
dealing with the difficulty that co1nmen-
tators find in it. Whatever may be its
true construction, we know that the
church of God is the church that Jesus
Christ founded, and we have Christ him
self loving the church so well that he
died for it. And as Christ founded the
church and died for the church, the simi-
larity of that spirit of broad, wide reach
ing devotion belongs to every Christian
disciple.
The perils of the church are also indi-
Gated by the Apostle Paul. "Take heed,
therefore, unto yourselves, and to all the
flock, for I know this, that after my de-
parting shall grievous wolves enter in
among you. not sparing the flock. y
There are dangers in the way. There
were dangers to the church at Ephesus
at that time. Paul saw that the griev-
Gus wolves would enter in He saw that
out Of their own selves men should arise
speaking perverse things, to draw away
disciples after them, and he warned
against them. Take heed unto your
selves" f"
l believe that as Christ loved the origi-
nal church and gave himself for it; he
loves the church of to-day and as there
were dangers which threatened the
church at Ephesus in those days, there
are dangers threatening our churches in
New York and throughout all the country
to-day.
And then the position of responsibility
Of the members Of this church is also in
dicated ''Take heed, therefore. These
men who We're addressed were not
ministers; they were laymen. They were
called elders of the church and were
charged with certain official responsible
tiles. They exercised certain oversight
over the church of caring for it and
guarding its interests. There is no man
il hy bhe fbagFfb bF5Ff6rY YhR Ree Q4R really % %sa one A@ 81
the large number of members of the
Morristown Methodist Church is in it,
not simply to receive, but to give; not
simply to have others devoted to him
but to be devoted to others; not simply
to be one of the many with no mission,
but to exercise the mission of caring for
others and guarding them and helping
them.
Now look at what our church has as
its workers. Our official board numbers
more than forty There are sixty
teachers in our Sabbath school who have
classes committed to them. There are
300 young people in our Epworth League
who are charged with specific duties;
and there are many places for work and
responsibility for Others, and if you are
not in any of these positions it is because
you have not accepted them when
offered. It may be that the man who
seeks mere office. and cares only for that,
may not have chance, but this is un-
worthy of q Christian disciple. 1t is
when we get the spiritual idea that the
whole matter becomes worthy of the life
and energy of great souls. Where one
wants to do good there is no lack of
opportunity.
Hear the voice of Jesus calling,
Who will go and work to-day I?
Fields are white, the harvest waiting,
Who will bear the sheaves away?
Loud and long," making his appeal
to the church and to the members of the
church to take part in this work. Let
L
Send me! Send mel"
In the five years past, we, who are
here this morning, or most Of us, have
been united together in church work,
working along the lines that Christ has
indicated to us so far as we understood,
and irving to do Christ's work; and the
idea of it all has been the church Of our
Lord Jesus Christ and its building up
and its advancement. We have not been
seeking our own glory, only in just so
far as we have been seeking the good of
the church and the glory of God through
it, and seeking its advancement not only
in the salvation of souls, but in the build
4 ing up of the Christian character of
those already following the master; and
/ we have been engaged in the manifold
activities of the church which demand
our time and energy.
I want to give you few facts and
statistics this morning as being appro-
/ pirate for this occasion. In doing so l
have to speak of myself more than | like
to, but that will be forgiven. My re-
marks may be egotistic in form, but
hope not in spirit.
My pastorate of five years in this
church has included $50 Sabbaths. De-
ducting 20 Sabbaths for vacations, IL
for exchanges, 10 for other absences
usually when preaching elsewhere), 3
for physical disability, and IS for occa-
sions when the sermon was omitted on
account Of communion or other special
service (which, if not strictly accurate
estimate, is a very close approach there
to), 1877 Sabbaths remain on which have
filled the pulpit myself, delivering not
less than 1894 sermons.
There have been the same number of
prayer meeting nights as of Sabbaths !;
and have been absent from the weekly
meeting less frequently than from the
Sunday service. If we deduct 20 alb
sences for the summer vacations, and
twice that number for ether occasions,
we shall certainly cover the ground
This leaves 200 regular prayer-meetings
that I have attended, and to these must
be added not less than 100 extras Cat least
20 for each winter during revival SER
vices), making 800 in all. It is a mod
crate estimate to say that | have made
L Il