Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1894-09-15
on the narrow road I guess I'll try the
1.,.e,s, Il

on the narrow road / guess I'll try the
broad road"
Francis l 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 disguised with the Christian religion
and say, eff that is religion, l 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 common enemy
coming up the bay, and all the forts
around the harbor began to fire into
each other, you would cry out: INA
tional suicide! Why don't those forts
blaze away III one direction, and that
against the common enemy?" And yet
| sometimes see in the church of the
Lord Jesus Christ 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 have today
disciple left. The Baptists were hurled
out of Boston in olden times. Those
who sympathized with them were i'm
prisoned, and when petition was of
fered asking leniency in their behalf all
the men who signed it were indicted
Has intolerance stopped the Baptist
SliulNu. IC 1ttsD btat1oNlCo LII lCS,tlu W
it showed $4,000 churches and 3,00o,-
900 communicates. Intolerance never
put down anything.
In England law was made against
the Jew. England thrust back tho Jew
and thrust down the Jew and declared
that no Jew should hold official posi-
ton. What came of it? Were the Jews
destroyed? Was their religion over
thrown? Mol 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, Jew. What were
we celebrating in all our churches as
well as synogogues only few years
ago? The enc hundredth birthday ami
versary of Montefore, 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, l want briefly to show you how
we are to war against this terrible evil.
and think we ought to begin our war
by realizing our own weakness and our
imperfections. If we make so many
mistakes i'll the common affairs of life,
is it not possible that we may make
mistakes III regard to our religious af-
fairs? Shall we take a man by tho
throat or by the collar because he can
not see religious truths just as we DO?
In tho light of eternity it will be found
out, 1 think, there was something
wrong in all our creeds and something
right in all our creeds. But since we
may make mistakes in regard to things
of the world do not let us be so 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, I
think, we will do 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.
Brothers Forever.
Perhaps l might forcefully illustrate
this truth by calling your attention to
an incident which took place about 90
years ago. One Monday morning at
about 2 O'Clock, while her 900 passen-
gers were sound asleep in her berths
dreaming Of home, the steamer Atlantic
crashed into Mars Head. Five hundred
souls in 10 minutes landed in eternityl
Oh, what scene! Agonized 1fien and
women running up and down the gang
way and clutching for the rigging, and
the plunge of the helpless steamer and
the clapping Of the hands of the merci-
less sea over the drowning and the dead
threw two continents into terror
But see this brave quartermaster
pushing out with the lifeline until he
gets to the rock, and see these fishermen
gathering up the shipwrecked and tax
ing them into the cabins and wrapping
them in the flannels snug and warm, and
see that minister of the gospel, with
three other men, getting into a lifeboat
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 compan-
ionship in peril, companionship in strug-
gle, eompanionshipi III awful catastrophe
and rescue? Neverl Never! In whatever
part of the earth they meet they will be
friends when they mention the story of
that night when the Atlantic struck
Mars Head. Well, my friends, our
world has gone into worse shipwreck.
Sin drove it on the rocks. The old ship