The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1894-09-29

VI bhC bifS hWoJo'
The man on the highway is great
slave compared to the man in the by
way. He has not the freedom of his
common sense. He is bound by GUS
tom, by fashion, by opinion, by what
his neighbor says. 1t is all his life is
worth to go down in the crooked
streets of the by-ways and do good
there. Their ministers dare not do it
either. A parish not forty miles away
made it so uncomfortable for their
minister that he left and went to Eu
rope. He spent too much time in the
by-ways and too little in the high
ways. A certain minister was help
ing a poor drunken fellow who had
fallen into trouble, or rather trouble
had fallen onto him and crushed
him, and the mill-stones of justice
were pretty sure to grind him to pow
der. He went to lawyer to ask a
helping hand. "No, no: O, no, I
won't do anything for him. He got
into it. Let him get out" The law
yer gave reason. 1t was bad. He
gave several. They were all bad. 1t
did not satisfy the minister, much
IS himself. The lawyer had spite,
but he did not tell that. He went to
an editor. mo, no, not bit of it. l
cannot help him." He, too, had a
spite-also bill he could not collect.
But he did not mention those things.
The minister knew it all, however.
After the minister got away the law
yer and the editor happened to meet.
They both felt sore that they had re-
fused. They talked the case over
and came to the unanimous conclu-
sion that it was entirely too bad, for
the minister's sake, that the minister
should undertake to help that poor
fellow" O, what sins the highways
have got to answer for in the judg
ment day!
If the church has failed in its mis-
sion for one reason more than an
other, it is because it has sought the
highways rather than the by-ways.
1t has looked for support to the peo
pie on the highways rather than
those in the by-ways. Universalists
have prided. themselves on having the
highways, on their superior intelli-
gence, on their people being ''bet
ter class" Whatever may be said in
favor of the highways, say that the
by-ways have more people in need of
the church; more who are worth saw
ing, people who are easier to save,
and people who have more gratitude
when they are saved, than the high
ways have, principally because there
are so many more of them.
We all know that the church started
in the by-ways. Christ belonged to
the by-ways, not the highways. 1t
called fishermen, publicans and sim
ners first. Not many high, not many
noble, not many righteous,w were called
then. 1t descended to rescue the
lowest and vilest-the widow, the or
phan, the outcast, the thief, the Grim
inal. It gathered the despised, the
prodigal and the castaway. 1t called
to its bosom the weary and the heavy
laden. It's first declaration was a
blessing,-a blessing for the mourn
err, the peacemaker, the spiritually
hungry and thirsty, the merciful, the
pure hearted and the prosecuted.
The first law and the last, the first
commandment and the last, was love,
love in the by-ways as we'll as the
highways, on earth as in heaven.
The church could do very well with
out the highways. 1t needed neither
it's worldly glory nor lis gil5ed sins.
There were sins enough in the by
ways. 1t asked neither its wealth
nor it's influence. For long time
the church had no churches. The
church was the richest when it was
the poorest. The church had more
religion when it had fewer churches.
When the disciples met in upper
chambers, there were pentecostal
benedictions. When two or three
went up on the mountain top, there
were transformations. And when
one or two went into the chamber
alone with the dead, there were res
directions. The church needed not
the highways; it fourished in the by
ways.
The church never saw such wide
spread nor deep rooted revival of re-
ligion as the Franciscan brotherhood
produced. These simple men swept
the face of the earth. They pene-
trated every nook and corner of Eu,
rope. They ramifed every crooked
path of the by-ways. They set the