The herald., 1895-05-04
One Solution of an Existing
Complex Condition
EXPLAINED BY DR.. HEBRON
Church Being Made a Barrier Between
God and His People
Teaching to Learn Right
From Wrong

in Illinois hall last evening to hear the
fifth lecture in the course by Professor
Heron. AS on previous evenings the
speaker made deep impression on ms
listeners and his clear logic and strongly
put points carried conviction in them.
The subject last night was The Christian
Faith the Salvation of the Church, and
was in brief as follows:
rhe power of political faith in Christ
rising amidst the whole political and re-
ligous people as one person is needed for
the salvation of the church as we'll as of
the nation. The attitude of the church as
a whole toward the Christian problems of
our national life, is far from what God
and the people have q right to expect.
Not only is the church in a large degree
Indifferent and ignorant concerning the
nature and real gravity of the social crisis,
unthinking and dangerous antagonism
to the social change, which is as surely
coming from God, as the Christ himself.
Nowhere is there such an apparent want
OF faith in the practicability OF Christ's s
teachings as within the institutions of
religion that profess Christ as Lord. Moth
ing in our politics can be more perilous
to the nation. no social ailment more seri-
Gus, than this practical unfaith of the
church in the righteousness of Christian
unfaith cultivated in the interests of the
ology, ecclesiasticism and the social wor-
ship Of property. Though this religious
cultivation of unfaith be unconscious
rather than deliberate. it is none the less
a betrayal of Christ and an apostasy of
the church. Much of what is taught in
pulpits as Christianity is something less
than the teachings of Je us regarding hu-
man life and relations.
The church, related as it is to indus
- tn
the true Jesus whom the unchurched and
unsocialized people are asking to see.
The commanding institutions that bear
his name stand for religion but not for
Christ's kind of righteousness; they
stand for respectability and prosperity
associating; they stand for benevolence
but not for the justice of the kingdom of
God.
In illustration part of letter from
Ernest H. Crosby was here quoted as say
ing "Even the mad anarchist has some
idea of the wants OF society and in his
perverted manner seeks to make way for
a better era, but the churches tor the
most part are content to jog along In
fool paradise of their own. The true
effort to establish the kingdom of he aven
is almost entirely TO be found outside the
limits of church work.
Only the blind leaders of the blind will
deny that the church is failing to stand
in the great chasm daily widening and
deepening because of the church's failure,
between the hostile social forces that are
filling civilization with dread.
The church it losing its true authority
to which it has right; it is deserving
both itself and the people with the COM
placency and unconscious religious arro-
eance OF institutional selfshness. The
divine life of the church is being eaten
up by the unholy zeal OF its official
classes who make the church an end in
itself. and mistake the numerical and fin
ancial increase of the church for an in
crease Of Christianity and the kingdom
of God. The church has taught religious
ness mere than actual righteousness, and
has separated itself from the great world
conflicts amidst which it ought to be the
solving factor. thus making it to an ex-
tent an end instead OF means OF reil-
gion, which is the essential apostasy from
its true faith and mission. This apostasy
hedges the institutions Of the church
about with fictitious sacredness and its
officials of religion with an unreal holi-
ness. separating the work and people of
the world into one class and the church
and officials into another.
But it was for just the opposite of this
the church was appointed. 1t was not
sent to build up an institution OF religion
that should be more holy than the world,
but to permeate and possess the world.
the worlds people and institutions and
machinery with the holiness OF Christ.
the common life and an idea of pecu-
liza sanctity is added to the Offices Of re-
ligion, then is the church made a bar
rer between God and the people, and
the office of religion. living lie to the
people about God. TO the measure that
mandlng a regard for itself that it con-
ceives does not belong to every occupa-
ton and organization OF man, even SO
does it appear under false pretenses and
becomes minister of practical atheism.
responsible for political iniquity, and
commercial fraud; for the church is not
any more sacred in the divine thought
than the mill or the market.
But the chief and more fatal sin OF the
church is the failure of its pulpit to possess
and be possessed by living inspiration.
Its ministers, who ought to be the messen
gers of God to the living people, are
mainly occupied in deducing religious
sages to a people centuries dead. Not
that all messages of God are not for all
times and always living. but when the
messages of God to a dead people are
allo wed to take the place Of His mes.
sages to living people, spiritual funds
arated from God by the Bible for the in
spired messages to other men are allowed
to take the place of direct communica-
tions, original inspirations and timely
messages Of our own to bear to the peo-
pie. This is why the majority of the peo-
ple do not 90 to the preaching and teach
ing of the church to learn right from
wrong; the wonder is not that so few,
but that so many actually attend the re-
ligious performances OF the church that
knows not what God is thinking and say
ing. concerning the living needs and
problems that cry to the pulpit for
knowledge. Our work is with the God OF
the living rather than with the God of
the dead. The divinely authorized
preacher is simply the bearer of direct
messages from the living God to the iiv-
ing people; and it is only living and
original inspiration from God to ones
own time and crisis that authorizes any
man to preach. Is it likely that God was
any more interested in the politics of the
Hebrews than He is with the politics of
Americans? Is it reasonable to suppose
that He was more concerned with the
Jewish church than He is with the Amer
ican church? Do we suppose that God
has SO exhausted his power as the Father
of men that this human age of divine
opportunity must depend on His messages
to other ages and is to work out it's fear
full problems i'll an uncertain salvation?
The one vehement and insistent COM
plaint which the Hebrew prophets lifted
against their nation was the refusal OF
the people with their religious and polit.
cal leaders to be inspired by the God OF
the living; they were always wOrshi p
ing the god Of the ideal, additionally
and corop,ouiulIv II WAS this sin that