The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1895-07-09
HIGH CHURCHIsM VS.. CHRIS
TIANITY.

~ON 1A4S 4GOL4AS Dl4OAS III &NSW
York says he will start a new church
whose only creed will be, Believe In
the Lord Jesus Chsist." If people
would believe more in the life and ex
ample of Christ and conform their lives
to q Gkecours9, the world would feel
the power of living Christianity. Con
professors of Christianity has been g
chief aim and pride, while thousands
or helpless souls are perishing for the
simple gospel illustration of practical
living Christianity.
Mr.. Dixon says Il believe it to be a
more important part of my life work
to lift many men out of the ditch, than
TO spend my time in making a few men
Baptists,' and he is right. "-Exchange.
The above from the press sounds
well. We say hurrah for Tom Dixon
in his new role. Carlyle says: This
is not what 1 call religion, this profes,
sion and assertion, which is often only
a profession and assertion, from the
outerworks of the.man, from the mere
argumentative region of him, if even so
deep as that. But the thing a man
does practically believe-that is his re-
ligion." 1 am aware that in discussing
the subject, High Churchism VS..
Christianity, I subject myself to So
we're censure from a number Of people.
It is significant that Rev. T. Dewitt
Talmage and Tom Dixon, two of the
most famous preachers in the United
States, have lately left the denomina-
tional questions and boldly struck out
into untried fields upon grander and
holier grounds-the broad fields of hui
mainly. This world is too big for men
to waste their time and talent on minor
matters like creeds, when there are ten
thousand strings of virtue in the human
heart that have not been touched and
sung into melody. It is delicate thing
to define the intricate line which marks
true churchism from false churchism.
I hold that truth is truth, that facts
are facts, that right is right, no matter
whether they are the tenets of any hui.
man organization OF not. Because GER
tain things are in certain creeds is no
evidence that those things ape true. 1
hold that there are aShousand false
hoods, a thogsand evils, a thousand
prejudices and shams intermingled
with the high churchism of today. I
hold that as wheat it covered By chaf
and has to be threshed before it is ready
for use, so truth oftentimes is shielded by
falsehood, and it ought to be the bust
ness of humanity to keep the threshers
Of thought and wisdom ever going,
dividing the false from the true. We
admit that the abstract aims Of all
churches were for the betterment of
mankind. But alasl Alas! the tares
that have been scattered in them all
down the centuries, until to day we
often ask where is the wheat. I be-
lieve in having common ems and ca
son in religious matters-in looking at
things in a logical, a poor mans way.
a proposition that on it's face is con,
trary to common sense, to common
reason, to all its attributes of our
nature, must be false somewhere. l
claim that deep down in the human
souI-down next the spring of life
down far away from the pillows that
on the surface-there dwells
a conscience this link in a chain which
extends to heavens mans truest
guide. When the conscience is at
peace all is well, and it is this con
science which points ever, somehow,
some way, to life's better destinies.
There are people who put creeds and
churches above ven their consciences.
They never ask whether a thing is
true, whether it is right, whether it is
reasonable, whether it grieves the
bird of the soul, but all they want to
know is, is it in my church discipline,
is it orthodox. II it is there, then I'll
swear by it; if not, I'll renounce it.
There is a kind of orthodoxy which
was born in hell. The devils are all
orthodox devils. I'd rather be a slave
to a tyrant than a slave to a false the
ology, built up by some half mad brain.
1 wouldn't give a cent for all the null
tiplicity of creeds and dogmas of hui
man manufacture that have ever en-
gagged the mind of the world unless
they teach what is true, unless their
influence tends to make life happier
and better and to lead frail mortality
towards Heaven. I say away with
this worshipping of man-make creeds
that change with every season because
the germs of truth are lacking. am 6
business man, and 1 am looking at this
subject from a business standpoint. L
takes only a moments thought to con
vince n unprecedented mind that {
GREAT part of the ceremonies and be