Fisherman & farmer. [volume] (Edenton, N.C.) 1887-19??, 1894-05-25

THE BROOKLYN DIVINE'S SUM-
DAY SERMON.
Subject; ga Cheerful Church."

q
maiden signing for her beau. If SO, it is an
| lnclean and 1ebauched utterance inserted
| In tho pure word of God and Is not fit for
| common reading. My opinion is that it is an
| Inspired ode setting forth tho feeling of
| Christ toward the church and of the church
! toward Christ. Christ Is the bridegroom,
| and the church is the bride. The same
| words we can 1tterto-day truth fully, whether
! in regard 10 the church of God In general or
| this church in particular, "Behold, thou art
| fair, my love"
| The past week has been one of prolonged
| congratulation for that we have for twenty
| five years been permitted to associate with
| each other in the relation of pastor and peo-
| pie. When came to Brooklyn, I found a
| small band of Christian disciples who from
| various causes had become less and less until
they stood upon the very verge of extinction
| RS n church, and the question was being
| hgitated from time to time whether 1t would
| be possible to maintain church life longer.
| Indeed. had not those men and women been
| consecrated and earnest, they would have
surrendered to the adverse circumstances.
They marshaled a congregational meeting,
! and gathering up all the forces possible they
east nineteen votes for a pastor, oil Of which
am happy to have received.
! 1t was not through any spirit of personal
courage or reckless adventure that was led
| from one of the Warmest and most congenial
| past tOrates In Philadelphia that q man ever
| enjoyed to this then most uninviting field.
| but it was the feeling that God had called me
| TO the work, and was sure He would see me
| through.
have thought that it might be profitable
to us to state briefly what kind of a church
! we have been trying to establish.
| In the first place, remark that we have
! been trying to build here a Christian church
| -distnctively such-in other words a
| church where we should preach the Lord
| Jesus Christ and Him crucifed. Mytheology
| is all gone into five Ietters-Jesus. Jesus,
the pardon of all offenses. Jesus, tho
| foundation for all structures. Jesus, the
| balm for all wounds. Jesus, the eye salve
| for all blindness. Jesus. the guide through
| all perplexities. Jesus, the hope for all dis
coufagements. Jesus, the reform for oil
| wrongs.
I have faith to believe that there is moro
| power in one drop of the blood of Jesus
Christ to cure the woes of the world than
in an ocean full of human quackery. Jesus
| is the grandest note in any minstrelsy. He
| Is the brightest gem in any crown height
overlapping all height the centre of every
circumference; the circumference to every
centre; the pacifer of all turbulence; the
umpire of all disputes. Jesus, Jesus! At
| His table all nations are to sit. Around His
throne all worlds are to revoIve. He is to
be the irradiation of the universe. Jesus,
Jesus! 1t is that truth that we have tried
to preach in this Tabernacle.
Do you ask more minutely what we be-
never l. Gall tell YOU we 1.-Two no OTyy
withered, juicoless theology. We believe in
God, tho Father Almighty, maker of heaven
and earth, the deIiverer of the distressed,
the home for the homeless, the friend for the
friendless. We believe in Jesus Christ able
to save to tho uttermost, pardoning the
guilty, imputing His righteousness to the
believer. We believe in the Holy Ghost,
the comforter, the sanctiier, cheering up
the heart in life'5 ills and ktndlinS bright
lights In every dark landing place. We be-
lieve that the whole race is so sunken in sin
that nothing but the OmnipOtent arm of God
can ever lift it out. We believe in grace
free grace, sovereign grace, triumphant
grace, eternal grace. We believe in Bible
authentic in its statements, immaculate
in its teachings, glorious in its promises.
We believe in heaven, the abode of the
righteous, and in hell, the residence of those
who are soul suicides-of their own free
choice refusing the di ine mercy. We be-
lieve in the salvation of ali men who accept
Christ by faith, be they sprinkled or inn
mersed, worship they in cathedral or in log
cabin, believe they i'll Presbyterianism or
EpiscOpacy, dwell they under Italian skies
or in Siberian snQwstorms, be they Ethiopian
or American. All one in Christ. One Lord,
one faith, one baptism, on the way to heaven.
We built this Tabernacle for the purpose OF
setting forth these great theories of the gOs-
pei of the Son OF God. Would that we had
been more faithful in the pulpit! Would
that we had been moro faithful in the pew
[ remark, further, that we have tried here
to build church distinctively unconven
tiOnal. Instead of asking, as some people
are disposed to do, how other people do it,
W. have asked the question how people dc
not do it. Imperious custom has decided
that churches shall be angular, cherries,
gloomy, unsympathetic, forgetting that what
men call pious gloom IS imptous, and that
that church has the best architecture where
the people are the most comfortable, anC
that that is the most efficient Christian ser
vice where the people are made most sick o
sin and most anxious after Christ and heaven
And so we called the architects together fo
our first church building and said "Giye u
an amphitheater'-that is, a large family
circle, gathered around fireplace.
For many years we had felt that an amphi
theater was the only proper shape for al
audience room. The prominent architect
Ofthe country said: "It cannot be done
You need church building" And so w
had plan after plan OF churchly building
presented, but in due time God sent a mai
who grasped our idea and executed it. s.
far from being failure, it satisfied our want
and all our three churches were built on tn
amphitheatrcal plan, and scores of churche
all over the country have adopted the sam
plan.
And, my brethren and sisters, we fail i
our work just in proportion as we try to b
| like other churches. We believe that God il
tended every church, like every man, to b
and idiosyncracies and hurting them all tc
ward some good and grand object. In othe
words, no two churches ought ever to be ju:
alike. Here is a church, for instance, who's
object is to prepare philosophers and artist
and critics for heaven. God speed them
the difficult work. Here is a church, on tn
other hand, that proposes to bring only tt
poor INTO the kingdom of Jesus Christ, loo
ing not after the rich. God speed such
church in its undertaking! But there is
IL, 81 H-iyo
in the rich and the poor, the wiso and Il
ignorant, the high and the low, so that knee
ing beside each other shall be the man fariI
sumptuously every day and the man WI
could not get his breakfast. God speed sut
a church!
Oh. nv friends, we need to break awi
from slavery to ecclesiastical custom. '
dare not sing if anybody hears US. We da
3 not preach unless we have rounded off o
4 sentences to suit the criticism OF the Worl
We dare not dress for church until we ha
r examined the fashion plates and would rath
r stay at home than appear with coat or
hat not sanctioned by custom. When W
|. the day of deiverance come to the churcn
God, when. instead of a dead religion la
out i'll state on a catafalque of pomp and l
sincerity, We shall have living, hOundln
sympathetic, glowing Christianity?
I remark, further, that we have tried he
to build and to conduct a cheerful churc
While, as you know, we have not held ba
. the terrors of the law and the sterner dc
trines of the gospel, we have tried In Il
house to present to this people thu idea th
the gladdest brightest, happiest Thing in
the universe is the Christian religion. The
is so much trouble in the world: Buslne
men have so many anxieties. Toil1ng m
have so many fatigues. Orphans have
s many desolations. For Gods sake, if the
be any bright place on earth. show it to the
Let the church of Jesus Christ be the M
!. cheerful spot on earth.
:, Let me say that do not want anybody
q come whining around me about the Christi
n religion. 1 have no faith in religion ma
: up of equal parts of wormwood, vinegar a
red pepper. If the religion that is present
to US be a depression, we will get alo
better without it. IF it be Joy, let 1t shi
out from your face and from your conver