The Newtown bee., 1895-08-09

'iSceS 0I larger honor ana more con- aauding usefulness where they may 1 lave the fullest chance to quit themselves ike men. Religion does not mean fetters | tnd handcuffs it means opened doors and | gates.
 AAll things are yours, "says Paul. What i ,hings? Well, let us take the inventory If the Christians possessions as Paul give it to us. All things are yours, he says, whether Paul or Apollos or Ceph- as. Those were the Christian teachers of whom the Corinthian Christians had heard, they represented the religious of that day. They are all yours, Paul would say, We have all diff ferent gifts; it is not given to us to pro- claim the unsearchable riches of Christ in the same way. I can best plant; I have more talent in organizing, in start ing the church, and Apollos can best water,
 CAN BEST NOURISH
 and tend the organization that has been fully set on it's feet. make better preacher than Apollos, and he makes a better pastor than I but whatever tal- ents we both possess are at your dispos- al, they belong to. you"
 If Paul and Apollos and Cephas repre- sented the religious teaching of that day, the text unfolded to modern congrega- tion would point to the religious teaching of this day. That is, Paul would say to us, all religious teachers are yours-all ministers, all priests, all bishops, all el- ders, all Sunday school teachers, and all who in any way break to others the bread of life; and all religious denomina- tions are yours-the Baptist, the Pres byterian, the Congregational, the Epis- copalian, the Lutheran, the Protestant, the Roman Catholic-all are yours, and with 80 much wealth of religious instruc- tion at your disposal you are foolish to shut yourself up to any one of them; if you do, you lessen just so much your re- ligious privilege. Would any one say that his denomination, no matter how good it was, held all the truth and cer- tainly he would not be so narrow and bigoted Cat least, he would not wish it said that he was) as not to desire all the truth.
 l admit that it may be necessary for different portions of Gods great army to enlist under different leaders, to be con- trolled by different codes of discipline, to fight under different flags, to serve in different regiments; but these portions ought never to forget that they are DOT tons-that is all-they still belong to one great army, and they are enlisted to fight common foe, not to fight each other. These various regiments in the army should never forget to sing: "We are not divided, All one body we,
 One in hope and doctrine, One in charity.'
 have said that nothing is so expan sive in it's influence and broad in it's view as the entrance into the Christian life and yet it may be just the opposite-nar. row and contracting in the extreme That one furnishes us pretty good ex ample of this contracting process WHO SHUTS HIMSELF UP in his own denomination, waves about his head as halo of glory his own de. nominational flag, and says emphatically by his actions 1 am so glad that I am just where I am; but am so sorry fol you, because you are not of this fold See. have all the truth and you stumble in error; see, have all the warmth at the ffreside of Gods love and you shivel in the cold, because you are not an adopt. ed son." l rejoice heartily in the fact that the barrier walls between the differ. ent denominations are tumbling down beaten to fragments by the battering rams of generous thinking and of 8 broad Christian love. I rejoice that the mortar of seetarianism in these walls is becoming dried up and useless through the wither. ing flame of holy enthusiasm for the uni. yersal spread of Christ's kingdom, and that before the last of the rising genera. tion has passed away the world may look upon these things as products of the barbarous past.
 There is some truth in every denomi- nation that l want, that must have, to make up the body ot Christian truth which is the priceless possession that God has giv- en to me. The Calvinist declares that God is an absolute sovereign, that He holds and shapes all things as He will, that our destinies are entirely in His hands, that we are but the clay and He is the moulding potter. The Arminian asserts that we are sovereign in the con- trol of our life's purpose and end, that what we shall be is as the wet clay and in our hands are the mould and the shap- ing tools, that our record is ours to make, and whether we are to be among the saved or the lost is a question we must settle. Well, want the ideas of both Calvinist and Arminian; I do not wish to gaze only at one side of the shield of faith; want to put the whole breast plate of truth on and see, so far as can, God in His marvellous many y-sidedness and man in his relation to God. I want the enthusiastic feryor of the Methodist,
 THE QUIET PIETY
 of the Quaker, the glorious truth in the doctrine of election emphasized by the Presbyterian, and the Uniyersalist's con- ception of the unbounded limit of free grace. The Roman Catholic believes in