The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1896-11-27
EACH ONE IS RESPONSIBLE
RIGHT DOING by CORPORATIONS
AND NATIONS.

The True Test of Christian Iiving-Abuses
and Wrongs, Oppression and Atrocities
Sermon by Rev. j. Lee Mitchell at United
Services of Churches In Fair Haven.
The union services of the Fair Haven
churches was celebrated in the East
Pearl street Methodist church at IL
o'clock yesterday morning.
The service was conducted by the
pastor, Rev. Or. Cheney, who intro
duced the speaker of the morning. the
Rev. J. Lee Mitchell Of the First Con-
gregational church OF Fair Haven.
The Second Congregational church
was represented by Rev. Mr.. James,
and St. Andrews M. E. church by ReV'
Mr.. Dent. Rev. Drs. Sage and Dixon
OF the Grand avenue Baptist and Ferry
street Congregational churches, respec-
lively, were unavoidably detained.
DR.. Mitchell took his text from Eph',
iy, l3: It'll we come in the unity OF the
faith and of the knowledge of the Son
of God unto perfect man unto the
measure of the stature of the tuilness
of Christ"
His sermon follows:
The stature of Christ can never be
a fixed or legal measure. 1t is not the
stature of a stake, but of a tree. II
keeps growing and we must grow to
keep up with it. The stature OF a
Christian in the last decade of the nine
teenth century cannot be the stature
| of a, man who was a very toleraple
| Christian in the first decade of the nine
teenth century. The stature of Chris
tian for you and me cannot be even the
stature of John Wesley or Martin Lu-
ther, or St. Paul.
| Now to come at once to the point,
where the stature of Christianity Is
/ conspicuously short to-day is not in
private and individual Righteousness,
but in public and corporate righteous
ness.
There is undoubtedly large room fol-
Improvement in individual righteous
ness. A man who has not spoken tc
his own Brother for years will whip his
children for quarreling with each other
A man will punish his children for tax
ing each others playthings, and then &C
out himself and steal house and lot
A woman will scold an urchin fol
throwing rocks at a, cat and put on hel
bonnet and run round to a friends ane
stone a neighbours into a shameful un
healing bruise. 1t is individual stature
that is short with these people
The stature of a Christian in these ole
goody churches has become the statur
of what is convenient, very convenient
Go into a Sunday school on a day Whei
it threatens rain and there will be from
three to a dozen teachers absent
wasn't just easy to come, 1T Threatened
rain; their lives were not consecrate'
to God, but their clothes were, and yo1
have probably observed that consecrat
ed clothes spot with water a great cas-
} Ter than others. The only real
) weatherproof gown we have here Is tn
whist club gown. 1t is again as indi
viduals that the stature Of Christ
short.
Here is a good man. He never ha
had but one wife at a time. He doesn
drink nor swear, he keeps the Sabbat
day. he doesn't get mad, he never mad
{ a dishonest dollar in his life, his neigh
bors all say so, and when man
neighbors say that you may be prett
sure it is so. But what of 1t? VIVA
has it got to do with the stature of tn
, fullness Of Christ? Not much. Fl
! has forgotten, he has lost sight of til
: great sinew, artery, fountain principl
the spinal cord, the nerve center of tn
stature of Christie give and to groy
e1,,fPo,, oy,d m cro,or;fioka "a faaI and 4
fight
Many of us may go up to the juds
t ment seat and say, Lord, Lord, "
y have been good in thy name, we haS
: never wronged anybody ourselves, v
:. have been kind to those who were kir
to u.s. and the Lord shall say to the
depart from me, I never knew 20
! you lived in an age when conventional
! ity was good, when honesty was know
q to be a money-nlaking policy, whit
domestic comfort required kindness.
never knew you, you never knew mel
I am the fullness of the stature of Il
living Christ. know no man or n
tion working in their own age the wol
of the age that went before them.
A Paul of Tarsus' could find nothing be
IL Ter 10 90 Ill AIllpGiiftt GO-Udy Will II
public sentiment and the ironclads
Christendom back of him, than be sto
= led and cast into prison in my name
I, would not know him either. Depa
= from me, We that work meel1ness VIII
meekness is selfshness, nartyrtlor
= when martyrdons are unnecessary;
: are nothing other than workers of
- EQUITY, Oh Christians, nobs and state
- men towards"
The growing stature of Christ's fl
W ness demands of US public excellen
al consolidated excellence, the same
y tegrity in many men acting togeth
; that we have learned to take as q, ms
ter of fact in one man acting alol
e, Our private character far ahead
le our corporate character, our corpora
Of character is so far behind and SO
ID influences our private character that
bit can hope for vefy little further pl
in gress until we improve our corpora
Y character VIE all know that the
Y. stitution which has borrowed it's ma
from a. social habit, and is technica
known as a corporation, though co
posed entirely of Christian men will
a. things which no one of those Christi
men would dream of doing alone, a
H. which if he did do alone he would
a. repudiated by his brethren for dol
of A curious case spun through the cou
- here awhile ago against the Cons