The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1894-11-10

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when the silks and diamonds of her
rich neighbor are needlessly, not to
say contemptuously, Haunted in her
facet Say what we will, friends, we
have not had the faith of our Lord
JesusC Christ, the Lord of glory,wit re
spect to persons. We have said to the
man in goodly apparel, "Sit thou here
in a good place." and to the poor
man, "Stand thou there, or sit here
under my footstool."
The result is that as ministers and
churches we have been judged by an
alarmingly large number of people
as partial in our regard for man, as
unsympathetic; even hard-hearted
and cruel, and as un-Christian.
In this way we have assisted to
make the warfare now being waged
between the poor and the rich, the
bitter and the relentless thing it is.
Instead of inculclting the principles
of peace and right living in the lives
of each when we had the opportunity
to do so, we were unmindful or neg
lectful of the duty and responsibility
resting on us.
The one thing to be effected now
is. the establishment of the proper
bond of sympathy between man and
man; and / know not where this
thing is to be begun and ended if it
is not in our churches. The mere
talk about universal brotherhood
must cease, and the thing itself have
place. The fact of mans solidarity
must be exemplifed, and only the
love of Christ revealed in us can do
this. 1t follows as matter of course
in a work like this that the poor will
have the Gospel preached to them.
The church must know no rich nor
poor, but only man. 1t must reprove
and instruct the one when necessary
as well as the other.
2. Do we heal the broken hearted?
There is scarcely anything which
tells for more in the ministry than the
service to the sorrowing. 1t is an
open way to the most blessed instruc-
ton. The aim at such times should
be to give inspiration rather than
comfort. Comfort, when properly
understood, is but the vision of
larger reality. Truly speaking, no
man can give comfort, -only God can
do this. But man can insist with all
the persuasion and gentleness within
his power that the afflicted one shall
look up and not down. Of course
the minister is put to the test in this
matter. Sorrow is not always as sim
pie and ingenious thing as on the
surface it appears to be. Some peo-
pie like to have funeral. They en-
ioy the sensation and excitement of
such an occasion; and then they can
go and put flowers on the loved ones
grave as other people do. Dove not
know those who attend every funeral
service they have in the community,
and yet whose characters are none
the less sordid and unworthy for all
this? Sorrow may be way leading
to the depths as we'll as to the
heights. 1t may be cloak hiding
the grossest moral and spiritual de-
formity as we'll as the evidence of a
pure spirit and broken heart.
But trusting to the ready sense of
the minister to make such distinc-
tions as are necessary in special cases,
we say in a general way that his Office
here is one of leading the way to the
abiding life. To do this successfully
he must have entered into this life.
He must have risen and assembled
with Christ. 1t is not enough to say
Christ rose from the tomb and hence
man is immortal, but there must be
the personal experience of this i'm
mortality. God must be felt SO near
and his love so great that it is impos-
sible to drop out of his hand through
death. In one of Edwin Booths let
tiers, quoted in a late number of The
Outlook, find this sentence confirm
atory of my thought. These are his
words: "There is light which sorrow,
cannot quench; which guides us
through the darkness of the grave;
which reveals to us the secret of his
mysterious works-the secret door,"
And again he says: ooh, l feel such
an intense love for God when sorrow
touches me that I could almost wish
my heart would always ache-I feel
so near to him; I realize his love so
thoroughly, SO intensely, at such
times" Surely the Comforter-even
the spirit of truth, had come to this
man. But the greater poets as well
as much of the sacred literature of
the world teaches this same truth;
and it is everywhere manifest with its