Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1895-12-06
A MANS DUTY TO HIS CHURCH.

Kew. +. b. Leavitt gave at the Unitarian church
last Sunday evening the fourth discourse in his
series Of straight talks" on Christian citizen
ship" His theme was "a mans duty to his
church, Mr.. Leavitt said, in substance, that
while men willingly admit that they have duties
TO their bodies their minds their homes and
their country, many are in doubt whether they
owe anything to the church. but tn e church has
its function which is just as necessary to q peo-
pie as homes or a system of government. II the
church does her duty she is as much entitled to
support as is the state. Her function is twofold-
to provide worship and opportunities for worship,
and to care for the helpless, the fororns the un-
successful the sad md the SHINING. Every church
ought to raise up within its walls scores of unor-
daned priests and of unprofessional sisters of
charity who will by personal friendness and at
tention TO individual cases of want do hat moth
ing but personal intercourse can do. In a word,
the church ought TO De a given number of indi-
viduas doing together what Christ did alone.
Many men and women stand aloof from the
churches because they the cant the unrealitty,
professionalism and secta rianlsm of the churches,
forgetting what is the real thing for which the
churches stand and who and what was the real
Jesus whose work on earth they are set to do.
The change Of front which is going on I'm the the
oogy OF the churches makes their attitude seem
confusing, ii is true, but the who thinks this
change is sign of breaking up is shortsighted
and mistaken, that is all. The church is found
ed upon God, upon man and upon righteousness.
Nothing else is necessary, nothing else is eternal
The confusion of doctrinal beiiet and staten ent
which seem to many like coming disruption is not
assign Overwhelming and DEATH but a sure sign of
life. The church finds itself trying TO do battle
clad in the old heavy armor OF helmet and greaves
of the middle ages, and it is gradually throwing
them aside This is an age of guupOwder, not of
battle axes. And so in theology in we
must use other weapons The Old type of piety
approved in former centuries has become we'll
nigh impossible. IL smelled of the tomb. II was
blind to a perpetual revelation of God in reason,
and taught man 10 LOOK Tor the law of life out
side of life itself.
II we ask where man is TO keep his religion
we may as well ask where he keeps his bodily
health. His religion is the health Of his being
To be real and vital it must be in himself. II
must be the spirit which inspires his life else he
hold the kingdom of Go1 is within.you.
In conclusion the preacher found three funda-
mental principles which must be insisted on a
true mans duty to the church under conditions
as they now exist. LIST, recognition and assertion
of the permanence of the religious life. Of reli-
gon as the great fact OF God Ia human history
I'd, upon this religion as necessary part of every
terfect, rounded complete human life; Sd, that the
scientific method is the only method of determin-
ing what our religious creed shall be, the method
by which everything that is real must be judged
and measured and the method by which we must
test all bibles, all creeds, all religious claims
corning this world or any other world. Last and
most of all it is duty to insist upon the great
fact that the outcome of all religious activity is
the creation of character. the development of
men and women, the production of the div inc
and spiritual life in the soul of man.