Connecticut western news., 1894-09-13

deal of it comes from wrong educate in the home circle. There are parents who do not think it wrong to caricature and jeer the peculiar forms of religion in the world and denounce other scots and other denominations. It is very of ten the case that that kind of education acts just opposite to what was expected, and the children grow up, and after awhile go and see for themselves, and looking in those churches and find ing that the people are good there, and they love God and keep his com- mandments, by natural reaction they go and join those very churches could mention the names of prominent minis ters of the gospel who spent their whole life bombarding other denominations, and who lived to see their children preach the gospel in those very denomi nations But it is often the case that bigotry starts in a household, and that the subject of it never reoovers. There are tens of thousands of bigots 10 years old.
 think sectarianism and bigotry also rise from too great prominence of any one denomination in a community. All the other denominations are wrong, and his denomination is right because his denomination is the most wealthy, or the most popular. or the most infiuen- tial, and it is 'our" church, and "our" religious organization, and tour" choir, and -four" minister, and the nian losses his head and wants other denomi- nations to know their places.
 It Is great deal better in any com munity when the great denominations of Christians are about equal in power, marching side by side for the worlds conquest Mere outside prosperity, mere worldly power, is no evidence that the church is acceptable to God. Better a barn with Christ in the manager than a cathedral with magnificent sharmonies rolling through the long drawn aisle and an angel from heaven in the pulpit if there be no Christ in the chanoel and no Christ in the robes
 Bigotry the Child of Ignorance.
 Bigotry is often thec child of ignorance You seldom find a man with large in tellect who is a bigot It is the man who thinks he knows a great deal, but does not That man is almost always Q bigot The whole tendency of education and civilization is to bring a man out of that kind of state of mind and heart There was in the far east great obelisk. and one side of the obelisk was white, another side of the obelisk was green. another side of the obelisk was blue, and travellers went and looked at that obelisk, but they did not walk around it One man looked at one side, an other at another side, and they came home each one looking at only one side, and they happened to meet, the story says, and they got into a rank quarrel about the color of that obelisk- One man said it was white, another man said it was green, another man said it was blue, and when they were in the very heat of the controversy 8 more in- telligent traveller came and said: "Gen- you are all right, and you are all wrong. Why didn't you walk all around the obelisk?"
 Look out for the man who sees only one side of religious truth. Look out for the man who never walks around about these great theories of God and eternity and the dead. He will be bigot inevitably-the man who only sees one side. There is no man more to be pitied than he who has in his head just one idea-no more, no less. More light, less sectarianism- There is nothing that will so soon kill bigotry as sunshine Gods sunshine.
 So have set before you what I con- sider to be the causes of bigotry. Ihave set before you the origin of this great evil. What are some of the baleful ef- fects? First of all. 1t cripples investiga- tion. You are wrong, and am right, and that ends it No taste for explora- tion. no spirit of investigation From the glorious realm of Gods truth, over which an arohangel might fly from eter- nifty to eternity and not reach the limit, the man shuts himself out and dies, a blind mole under a cornshock It stops Ill investigation.
 Wasted Ammunition.
 Another great damage done by the sectarianism and bigotry of the church is that it disgusts people with the Chris tian religion. Now, my friends, the church of God was never intended for a war barraok. People are afraid of a riot. You go down the street, and you see an excitement and missiles flying through the air, and you hear the shock of firearms Do you, the peaceful and industrious citizen, go through that street? "Oh, no, you will say; "I'n go around the block. !" Now, men come and look upon this narrow path to heav- en, and sometimes see the ecclesiastical brioibats flying every whither. and they say Well, guess I'll take the broad road. There is so much sharpshoottng on the narrow road guess I'll try the broad roadP'
 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 professed Christian and another, or between one church and another, so long men will be disgusted with the Christian religion and say, "If that is religion. I want none of it '
 Again, bigotry and sectarianism do great damage in the fact that they hin 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 usefuli Suppose, while l speak. there were common enemy coming, up the bay, and all the forts around the harbor began to fire into each other, you would cry out: "Na- tional suioidei Wly 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 strange thing going on-church against church, minister