The Progress., 1894-05-19

that that is the most efficient Christian
service where the people are
made most sick Of sin and most
anxious after Christ and heaven
And so we called the architects
together for our first church building,
and said, Give us an amphitheatre'-
that is large family circle, gathered
around fireplace. For many years
we had felt that an amphitheatre was
the only proper shape for an audience
room The prominent architects OF
the country said, 1T can not be done.
You need a churchly building.' And
SO we had plan after plan Of churchlv
buildings presented; but in due
time God sent man who grasped
our idea and executed it. Sc
far from being a failure. it satisfied
our want, and all our three churches
were built on the amphitheatrical
plan, and scores of churches all over
the country have adopted the same
plan.
And, my brethren and sisters, we
fail in our work just in proportion as
we try to be like other churches. We
believe that God intended every
church, like every man, to be individ.
ual, gathering up all its peculiarities
and idiosyncracies, and hurting them
all toward some good and grand OBJ
Ject In other words, no two churches
ought ever to be just alike. Here is a
church, for instance. whose object it is
to prepare philosophers and artists
and critics for heaven God speed them
in the difficult work Here is church.
on the other hand, that proposes to
bring onl y the poor into the kingdom
of Jesus Christ, looking not after the
rich. God speed such church in it's
undertaking! But there is a larger
idea that church may take-bring-
ing in the rich and the poor the wise
and the ignorant, the high and the
low; so that kneeling beside each
other shall be the man faring sumpIu-
ously every day, and the man who
could not get his breakfast God
speech such church.
Oh! my friends, we need to break
away from slavery to ecclesiastical
custom. We dare not sing if any body
hears us We dare not preach unless
we have rounded off our sentences to
suit the criticism of the world. We
dare not dress for church until
we have examined the fashion
plates, and would rather stay at
home than appear with a coat
or hat not sanctioned by custom.
When will the day of deliverance come
to the church of God, when. instead
of dead religion laid out in a cata-
falque of insincerity, we shall have
living, bounding, sympathetic, glow
ing Christianity?
| remark, further, that we have
tried here to build and to conduct
cheerful church. While, as you know,
we have not held back the terrors
of the law, and the sterner doc
trines of the gospel, we have tried in
this house to present to this people
the idea that the gladdest, brightest,
happiest thing in all the universe is
the Christian religion. There is so
much trouble in the world; business
men have so many anXleties; toiling
men have SO many fatigues; or
phans have so many desolations
for Gods sake, if there be any
bright place on earth, show it to
them. Let the Church of Jesus Christ
be the most cheerful spot on earth
Let me say that do not want any
body to come whining around me
about the Christian religion. | have
no faith in religion made up of equal
parts Of wormwood, vinegar, and red
pepper If the religion that is pre-
sented to us be depression, we will
get along better without it. If it be a
JOY let it shine out from your face,
and from your conversation If a
man comes to my house to talk
Of religion with luguhrious counte.
nance, and manner full of sniffie and /
dolorousness, | feel like saying to my
wife, You had better lock up the sill.
yer before he steals something." |
have found it an invariable rule that
men who profess faith in the Lord .
Jesus Christ priding themselves at
the same time on their sanctimon-
ousness always turn out badly.
never knew an exception. While
those who are the most con-
'istent, the most useful, and the most
'onsecrated have perfume in their
and heaven in their
ace.
The happiest Christians that have
'ver known have been persons from
20 to so years of age. By that time
people get over the shams and pre-
enses of society, and have no longer
my patience with anything like i'm
posture in religion 0 Christian!
low dare you be gloomy? Is not
iod your Father? Is not Jesus Christ
'our Savior? Has not your path all
through life been strewn with mercies?
IRE you insensible to the fact that there
We glories awaiting you in the better
Of celestial worship,
ternal chorals, fearless eyes, songs