Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1894-09-21
who is bigot. It is the man who thinks he


but they did not walk around It. One man
looked at one side, another 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 rank
quarrel about the color Of that obelisk. one
man said it was white. another man said II
was green. another man said it was blue,
and when they were in the very heat of the
controversy a more intelligent traveller came
and said: ''Gentlemen, I have seen that
obelisk, and you are all right, and you are
all wrong Why didn't you walk all around
the obelisk?"
Look out for the man who only sees one
side of a 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 a btgot fnevitably-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 moth
ing that will so soon kill bigotry as sunshine
Gods sunshine.
So have set before you what consider
to be the cause of bigotry. l have set before
you the origin of this great evil. What are
some Of the balefui effects? First Of all, it
crppIes investigation. You are wrong and
l am right, and that settles it. No taste for
exploration, no spirit OF investigation. From
the glorious realm OF GoIs truth, over
which an archangel might fly from eternity
shuts himself out and dies, blind mole un-
der cornshock. 1t stops all investigation.
Another great damage done by the sectar-
ianism and biSotry of the church is that 1t
hisgusts people from the Christian religion.
Now. NV friends, the church Of God was
never intended fo- = war barra3k. People
are afraid of a riot. You go down the street
and YOU see an excitement and missiles fly
ing through the air and you hear the shock
of firearms. Do you, the peaceful and in
dustrious citizen, 60 through that streett
"Oh, no" you will say "Ill go around the
block" Now, men come and look upon this
narrow path to heaven, and sometimes see
the ecclesiastical briczbat flying every
whittier. and they say ''Well, guess III
take the broad road. There is SO much
sharpshooting on the narrow road L guess
I'll try the broad road !"
Francis 50 hated the Iutheran5 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 denomination, or between
one professed Christian and another, or be-
tween one church and another, so long men
will be disguised with the Christian religion
ant say, ''If that is religion, I want none OF
it."
Again, bigotry and sectar;anism 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 a common enemy
coming up tho bay, and all the forts around
the haroor began to fire into each otaer, you
would cry out "Nationai suicide! Why
don't those forts blaze away in one direction,
and that against the common enemyT And
vet | sometimes see in the church OF the
Lord Jesus Christ Il strange thing going on
church against church, minister against
minister denomination against denomina-
ton, firing away into their own fort. or the
fort which ought to be on the same side, in
stead of concentrating their energy and CIV
ing one mighty and everlasting volley against
the navies of darkness riding up through the
bay!
the Baptist Church? II laughing scorn and
TRADE could have destroyed the church, 1t
would not have to-day disciple left. The
Baptists were hurled out of Boston in olden
times. Those who sympathlzed with them
were imprisoned, and when petition was
offered asking Ieniency in their behalf all
the men who signed it were indicted. Has
intolerance stopped the Baptist Church?
The last statistics in regard TO it showed
25. coo churches an1 5000, 900 communicates.
Intolerance never put down anything.
In England q law was made against the
81 IL
thrust down the Jew and declared that no
Jew should hold official position. What
camo of it? Were the Jews destroyed? Was
their religion overthrownT No: Who be-
came prime minister of England? Who was
next , the throne? Who was higher than
the tsrOne because he was counselor and
adviser? Disraeli, Jew. What were we
celebrating in all our churches as well as
synagogues only few years ago? The one
hundred1h birthday anniversary Of Monte
fore, the great Jewish philanthroPist. In
tolerance never yet put down anything.
But now, my friends, having shown you
the origin of bigOtry or sectarIanism, and
having shown you the damage it does, L
want briefly to show you how we are to war
against this terrible evil, and | think we
ought to began our war by realizing our own
weakness and our imperfect1ons. Ii we
mako so many mistakes in the common al
fairs of life, is it not possible that we may
make mistakes in regard to our religious
affairs? Shall we take man by the throat
or by the collar because he cannot see re-
lgious truths just as we do? In the light OF
eternity it will be found out, | think, there
was something wrong in all our creeds and
something right in all our creeds. But since
we may make mistakes ill regard to things
of the world do not let US be SO egotlst1c and
so puffed up as to have an idea that we can
not make any mistake in regard to relgiou:
theories. And then, l think, we will do a
-
our heart and the sectari2nism from the
world bv chiefly enlarging in those things il
which we agrea rather than tcose Il whlcn
we differ.
Perhaps might torcefully illustrate this
truth by calling your attention to an Incl
dent which took place about twenty years
ago. One Monday morning at about z
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 scene! Agonized men
and women running up and down the gang
way and clutching for the rigging, and the
plunge of the helpless steamer and the clap
ping of the hands of the merclless sea over
The drowning and the dead threw two contl-
nents into terror.
But see the brave uuartermaster pushing
out with the lifeline until he gets tothe rock,
and see these fishermen gathering up the
shiDwrecked and taking them into the cab
ins and wrapping them in the hannels snug
and warm, and see that minister of the gos-
pei with three other men, getting into a
lfeboat and pushing out for the wreck, pull
ing 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 companionsn1p in
peril companionship in struggle, compan'
iOnship in awful catastrophe and rescue
they meet they will be friends when they
mention the story of that night when the At
Iantic struck Mars Head. Well, my friends
our world has gone into worse shipwreck
Sin drove il on the rocks. The old ship ma:
Iurched and tossed in the tempest OF 6UU
wears. Out with the lifeline! do not car
what denomination carries it. Out with the
lifeboat! DO not care what denomination
rows it. Side by side, in the memory G
common hariships, and common trials, an
lie brothers forever. We must be.
And expect to see the day when all de
nominations of Christians shall join nand
around the cross of Christ and recite tn
creed : 81 believe in God, the Father A!
mighty, Maker of heaven and eartn, an
| saints. and in life everlasting. Amen"
| This Years Salmon Catch.