The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1894-05-14

has the best architecture where the
people are the most comfortable. and
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 mphitheatre"-
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, .sIt 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. So
far from being a failure, it satisfied
our want, and all our three churches
were built on the amFhitheatrical
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-
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
church. for instance. whose object il is
to prepare philosophers and artists
and critics for heaven God speed them
in the difficult work. Here is a church,
on the other hand, that proposes to
bring only the poor into the kingdom
of Jesus Christ, looking not after the
rich God speed such church in its
undertaking. But there is a larger
idea that church may talxe-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 sumptu-
ously every day. and the man who
could not get his breakfast God
speech such a church,
OH my friends, we need to break
away from slavery to ecclesiastical
custom. We dare not sing if anybody
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 a 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 a
living, bounding. sympathetic, glow
ing Christianity?
1 remark, further, that we have
tried here to build and to conduct a
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
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 l do not want any
body to come whining around me
about the Christian religion. l have
no faith in a religion made up of equal
parts of NORWOOD, vinegar. and red
pepper If the religion that is pre-
get along better without it If it be
joy. let it shine out from your face,
and from your conversation. If a
man comes to my house to talk
of religion with lugubrious counte-
nance, and manner full of sniffie and
i feel like saying to my
wife, You had better lock up the sill
yer before he steals something" L
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-
L never knew an exception. While
those who are the most con-
sistent, the most useful, and the most
have perfume in their
conversation, and heaven in their
face
The happiest Christians that have
ever known have been persons from
60 to so years of age By that time
people get over the shams and pre-
lenses of society, and have no longer
any patience with anything like i'm
posture in religion Christianl
how dare you be gloomy? Is not
God your Father? Is not Jesus Christ
your Sa-'or? Has not your path all
through l fe been strewn with mercies?
Are you insensible to the fact that there
are glories awaiting you in the better
land?-doxologies of celestial worship,
eternal chorals, fearless eyes, songs
that resound under arches of strength,
and hosannas that clap their hands at
the foot of the throne? Is it nothing
to you that all the hills of heaven