The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1894-02-19
ADVICE TO PYTHIANS
- So
Told 70 Do Their Work
In the Name of Christ
Not Of Their Order.
REV. DR.. HATHAWAY's SERMON
Without Faith There Is No SAL
walton in Works-The Pythians
Present.
REV. DR.. HATHAWAY's SERMON

The Rev. DIR. /. w. Hathaway, pastor of
the Westminster church, preached a sermon
last evening to the Knights of Pythias in the
church at Summit and Magnolia avenues.
About150members of the order were present,
sixteen privates and three officers from
Grant Division No. Is, Uniformed Rank,and
and the remainder from Rathbone
Lodge No. 10. They met at Henn's Assem-
bly, Rooms and proceeded in a body to
the church. Mr.. H~athaway's sermon was
very brief. He did not dwell much upon the
workings of the order, as the members
present supposed lie would, but instead inn
pressed upon their minds that what good
they did to each other should be
done in the name of Christ and not in the
name of the Order of the knights of Pythias.
His sermon was based upon the 9th verse
1st chapter of the Epistle of James, which
reads, t'Pure religion and undefiled before
God and the Father is this, To visit the
fatherless and idows in their affiiction, and
to keep himself lnspotted from the world. y
Among other things the reverend preacher
said
Truth is a sphere; truth is perfect. Here
is a stone that is perfectly round" (holding
up a Geode) lit is found in the bottom of the
Huron River, Ohio, and is one of the myster-
les that biologists cannot explain, 1t is one
of Gods marvellous works to prove that we
can only see a portion of the great truth at
once. We seem to be too small to embrace
the whole truth; some believe one way, some
another: som are Methodists, others are
Baptists, others are Roman Catholics and SO
on, while we all believe in God. hope some
day to see all the different denominations
blotted out and see only one church, The
Church of Christ
LIKE UNTN A CANNON Rail-.
SIT is like unto a cannon ball; when the
ball is solid and in one mass, it can be used
to powerful effect, but if broker up and the
several pieces used separately, you cannot
tell where it is going to strike, and it will
probably do you more harm than good. |
welcome you, brethren, Knights of Pythias,
to worship with US tonight. l know very
little about your order, but / suppose it Is to
exemplify in this world the doctrine of the
brotherhood of man. The myth of Damon
and Pythias, who were friends, is a good ex-
ample of love, but the sum of the law of the
Gospel is to love God and your neighbor as
yourself. Christ had compassion for
the suffering humanity; it made no
difference to him whether it was
friend or foe. He healed the blind, the sick
and the MANNED. You all NOW the story of
how he healed the blind man and the man
with the leprosy without ever inquiring as
to the cause of what brought it ON. The
parable of ssthe Good Samaritan sets us an
example of this great truth. See. how the
priest and the Levite passed the man by on
the opposite side, and then the Good
Samaritan came along, and, although their
races were sworn enemies, yet he had com
passion upon him and took care Of him.
There is an example of the great brother
hood of man, and then again, when Christ
was upon the Sea of Gallilee, and the null
titude stood around about the neck of land
crying for him, his disciples wanted him to
send them away, but He said, Nay, breth-
rem, the poor We have with you always, but
me ye nave not. If we send them away
they may faint on the road; and you now
how Christ fed the multitude then and had
plenty left although his diciples hardly had
enough food for themselves at the time
The poor we have with us today brothers,
and it is that poor that bind you together in
this brotherhood. / am glad to see how the
spirit of the Gospel has reached out in this
world. There are many people today who
are very charitable and nave helped the
poor a great deal in these hard times, and /
commend you before God tonight, as long as
you are bound together in this brotherhood
for helping your own poor.
MUST BE AROUSED TO DUTY.
1.-THE Church of Christ needs to be aroused
to its duty. 1t is lacking in some things,
especially fidelity. Men have fidelity to a
lodge where they have not to a church l
will give you an example of this. A man
once went into q chufch-a stranger. He
went for several weeks, and every Sunday
went home without even shaking hands with
any one. He sat very near a man who was
an old member of the church; yet the old
member never put himself out of the way to
speak to him, or even offered to. shake his
hand. The stranger got out every time be-
fore the minister had a chance to get near
him. No one in that church seemed to nave
any fidelity toward the duty of a Christian,
or else they would have given him
a Christian grip. A few months
later these two men Joined the same lodge,
it happened to be upon the same night; they
met, but only slightly. A week afterwards
they saw each other on the street, and al
though the snow and mud was pretty bad in
the street, yet one of them crossed over to
give the other the brotherhood grip. Oh,
brethren, let us learn a lesson from that.
You, my brotherhood friends, do a great
deal of good in the name of your order,
but brothers, the good you do should
be rooted in Christ. If any of
you are depending upon the good deeds you
do instead of having faith for your salvation,
I will tell you there is no salvation in works;
in the end you will reap only the fruitage of
Heaven except through the cross, We must
be born again. The works you do must be
done In the name of the Master or they will
bear no fruit for eternal life. You must
have love in your soul or it will profit you
nothing, as the fruit must be the fruitage of
the Gospel. Though we command you in
your work, you must do it in the name of
God. I ask you tonight to lift your eyes to
Calvary and behold the Hplifted face of
Christ, through Him by which alone your
works will be commended"