Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1894-09-14

say "I'll go around the block" Now.
men come and look upon this narrow
path TO heaven, and sometimes sea
the ecclesiastical brickbats flying
every whittier, and they say, "Well, I
guess I'll take the broad road; there.
is so much sharp-shooting on the mar
row road 1 guess I'll try the broad
road"
Francis l. so hated the Lutherans
that he said that if he thought there
was ore dro7 of Lutheran blood in
his vei1s lie would puncture them and
let that drop out. Just as long as
there is SO ouch hostility between de-
nomination and denomination, or be-
tween one professed Christian and
another, or between one church and
another SO long men will be dis
gusted with the Christian religion,
and say, If that is religion want
none of IT,"
Again, bigotry and sectarianism do
great damage in the fact that they
hinder the triumph of the gospel Oh,
how much wasted ammunition! how
many men of splendid intellect have
given their whole life to controversial
disputes when if they had given their
life to something practical they might
have been vastly useful! Suppose,
while / speak there were n common
enemy coming up the bay, and all the
forts around the harbor began to fire
into each other-you would cry out,
National suicide! why don't those
fA,t, Il II In 1irantinn nd
that against the common enemY|
And yet / sometimes see in the church
of the Lord Jesus Christ n strange
thing going on: church against church,
minister against minister, denomina-
ton against denomination, firing
away into their own fort, or the fort
which ought to be on the same side,
instead of concentrating their energy
and giving one mighty and everlast-
ing volley against the navies of dark
ness riding up through the bay!
Perhaps might foreefully illustrate
this truth by calling your attention
to an incident which took place about
twenty years ago One Monday morn
ing at about O clock, while her 900
passengers were sound asleep in her
berths dreaming of home, the steamer
Atlantic crashed into Mars Head.
Five hundred souls in ten minutes
landed in eternity. Oh, what n scene!
Agonizcd men and women running up
and down the gangways and clutch
ing for the rigging, and the plunge of
the helpless steamer and the clapping
of the hands of the merciless sea over
the drowning and the dead threw two
continents into terror. But see this
brave quartermaster pushing out with
the life line until he gets TO the rock,
and see these fishermen gathering
up the shipwrecked, and taking
them into the cabins and wrapping
them in the flannels snug and warm;
and see that minister of the gospel,
with three other men, getting into a
life boat, and pushing out for the
wreck, pulling away across the surf,
and pulling away until they saved one
more man, and then getting back with
him to the shore. Can those men ever
forget that night? And can they ever
forget their companionship in peril,
companionship in struggle, companion
ship in awful catastrophe and rescue?
Never Never! In whatever part of
the earth they meet they will be
friends when they mention the story
of that night when the Atlantic"
struck Mars Head Well, my friends,
our world has gone into
worse shipwreck. Sin drove it on
the rocks. The old ship has lurched
and tossed in the tempests of six
thousand years Out with the life
line do not care what denomina-
ton carries it Out with the life boat!
/ do not care what denomination rows
it. Side by side, in the memory of
common hardships and common trials,
and common prayers, and common
tears, let us be brothers forever. We
must be.
One army Of the living God,
To his command we bow;
Part of the host have crossed the flood,
And part are crossing now.
And ! expect to see the day when
all denominations of Christians shall
Join hands around the cross of Christ
and recite the creed: 81 believe in God
the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven
and earth, and in Jesus Christ and in
the communion of saints, and in life