The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1895-12-15

be filed by members or the conference
President Cleveland left by
special train ut about this evening
for home.
INlIY COMPOUNDS ca THOMPSON.
In my dispatches reference was made
to the sermon of Rev. y. r.. Ivey, OF
Wilson, which was pronounced a Very
fine effort. il was not an answer to
Cy Thompson charge that the church
is an enemy OF liberty, but a strong
presentation Of the Bible truths found
ed upon the text: And where the
Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
The W hole sermon would be good read
ing, for it is crushing reply to
Thompson. Rut the conclusion was
SO striking and original give it in Mr..
Iyey's own words. He closed by say
ing;
THE statement made in all ages OF
the world since Christ that the Church
has ever been on the side Of slavery
seems to me a shocking and blasphe-
NOUS statement. 1t means the CON
stant absence of the Spirit from the
Church in all ages of her existence. Il
means that the Spirit Of liberty which
descended on the Day of Pentecost i'm
q shower OF fiery tongues, burning into
the very heart OF the church and MAX
ing glory brighter than that which
shOne above the mercy-seat, plumed
His wings for a final fight from her
affairs and her throne Of power. If the
Spirit had been with her there must
have been liberty, Who viii say that
the Split has been absent from the
Church during all her past? 1t must
be confessed that at times the
Church has not followed the instruc-
tions and Welded to the power cf the
Holy Spirit. But in every Instance
" wherein there las been manifest re-
creancy of trHst on the part of the
Church there has been a strong pro-
test, though it may have been a silent
one. against such recreancy. In the
dark days of the Inquisition, when
lions chariot-wheels were apattered
with blood, there was an earnest out
erv of the great heart of the Church
against the cruelty of an ecclesiastical
oaigarchy How unfair and cruel, then,
is IL to lay the crime of a delirious few
on the shoulders of Christ's Bride
Humanity has been lifted gradually by
a fSpirit-guided Church into the sweet
atmosphere of liberty. Looking at the
immediate surroundings, it is difficult
to realize how high humanity has been
lifted. From the little shire town of
Caldwell county, nesting like a pearl
in a setting of mountain peaks, there
is beautiful furnpike-road of twenty
miles in length to n famous mountain
resort 1000 feet above the level of the
sea. Who that has ever travelled this
road can ever forget it and the sensa-
tions produced? First, an ascent to
the brow of hill, where you are
greeted with the sweet breath of the
white pine and the panoramic picture
of purple mountains swinging their
columns along the circle of
a pearly horizon. Then a gentle de
scent around the brow OF scented hills
to where a pellucid stream rings out
its tinkling music over its pebbly bot
tom. 4 canter on seemingly level
road winding between a singing brook
on one side and gray, moss-coyered
crags on the other. 4 gentle ascent to
where the eye is greeted with revela-
ton of grandeur. A descent, with
granite columns towering above you,
and in your ear the sound of waters
fretting and tuning through a rocky
bed a hundred feet below. Now pass
ing a spot where the sunlight seems TO
linger, then passing its nook, never
greeted with the kiss of sunbeam,
or starbeam. Ascending,
descending, ascending,
yoa arrive at your destination. Where
are YOU? You are told you are 1000
feet above the sea. You cannot realize
it. You have SEEMINGLY gone down as
often as you have gone up. You are
taken to the brow of a rock and told
to look down. It seems as if you are
looking from the battlements of the
skies. You gaze on a hundred noun
tain tops beneath YOU. The forests be-
low look like emerald swards, and the
little cabin on the mountain side can
be carried in your hand. You realize by
looking to the bottom how high you
have come, and you realize that though
at times there may be descent, yet
the whole road practically may be an
ascent.
"The Church of Jesus Christ moved
and guided BY the Holy Spirit, has
been bearing humanity for 1000 years
along the road which leads from slav-
cry to universal freedom. During the
first stage she wandered through the
low grounds. From Calvary she be-
gan to mount with renewed vigor. But
in all her journey has she not descend
ed? Yes The men who had seen the
glory of Pentecost had hardly fallen
on sleep before she descended into the
depths of false Jewish theology. When
Constantine saw in the heavens the
fiery cross, and afterward carried that
cross on his victorious banners, she de-
scended into the corruption of State
Church and an elaborate Christian for
malism. During the travail of the
Dark and Middle Ages she descended
into the awful gloom of pagan philoso-
ply, pagan superstition and pagan i'm
morality. In the eighteenth century
she descended into the depths of a
gross materialism eliminating in the
horrors of the French Revolution. But
has she not also ascended? Yes. She
has never, thank God, descended so
low but that she has risen higher; and
we have only to look at the position of
humanity when Christ walked and
talked on earth and the position of hu-
manity now to see how high in the at
mosphere of liberty it has been lifted
by the Church of Cod"
TIE php, L5sr CotVENrIa~.
Cell Tor the Commits. 'n Meet and