News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1894-09-13


broad rOadv'
Francis so hated the Lutherans that
he said that if he thought there was one
drop of Lutheran blood in his veins he
would puncture them and let that drop
out Just as long as there is so much
hostility between denomination and de-
nomination, or between one professod
Christian and another, or between one
church and another, so long men will
be disguised 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 him
der 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 a common enemy
coming up the bay, and all the forts
around the harbor began to fire into
each other, you would cry out: ma
tional suicidc Why don't those forts
blaze away in one direction, and that
against the common enemy?" And yet
l sometimes see in the church of the
Lord Jesus Christ a strange thing going
on-church against church, minister
against minister, denomination against
denomination, firing away into their
own fort, or the fort which ought to be
on the same side, instead of concentrat-
ing their energy and giving one mighty
and everlasting volley against the navies
of darkness riding up through the bay!
Dangers of Intolerance.
What did intolerance accomplish
against the Baptist church? If laughing
scorn and TRADE could have destroyed
the church, it would not haveAoday a
disciple left. The Baptists wer6 hurled
out of Boston in olden times. Those
who sympathized with them were i'm
prisOned, and when a petition was Of
fered asking leniency i'll their behalf all
the men who signed it were indicted.
Has intolerance stopped the Baptist
church? The last statistics in regard to
it showed %, 900 churches and 3,000,-
900 communicates. Intolerance never
put down anything
In Engla, | a law was made against
the Jew England thrust back the Jew
that no Jew should hold official posi-
ton. What came Of it? Were the Jews
destroyed? Was their religion over
thrown? No! Who became prime min
lister of England? Who was next to the
throne? Who was higher than the
throne because he was counselor and
adviser: Disraeli, a jew What were
we celebrating in all our churches as
well as gynoGoguos only few years
ago? The orc hundredth birthday ami
versary of Montetiore, the great Jewish
philanthropist Intolerance 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
DS ItGllZlllS our OWL W GdtNutSS anu bitl
impcrfcctiong. If we make so many
mistakes in the common affairs Of life
is it not possible that we may make
mistakes i'll regard to our religious af-
fairs? 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 CT eternity it vii he found
out, l think, there WIGS something
wrong in all our creeds and something
right in all our creeds. But since we
may make mistakes i'll regard to things
of the world do not let us be 50 egotis-
tic and so pulled up as to have an idea
that we cannot make any mistake in re-
gard to religious theories. And then, !
think, we will do a great deal to over
throw 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.