The herald., 1896-06-22
Rev. J. S. Thomson

Yesterday morning the pastor Of Unity
Church, the Rev. j. S. Thomson, preach
ed sermon on The Foundation of Chris
tian Character, using the text, Whoso-
ever heareth these sayings of mine, and
doeth them, I will liken him to a wise
man, that built his house upon a rock.
Matthew vii, "a. He said in part:
1t is very important to have sure
foundation for house, a bridge, gov
ernment, commercial enterprise, and it
is equally important to have sure
foundation for character. Christ's char
acter was divine and glorious, and He
formed that character by keeping the
principles and laws which He formu-
lated in the sermon on the mount. If
obedience to the religious and moral
laws in that plan, of character produced
Christ's character, then 1t follows that
the same obedience would make our
characters strong and good. If the SER
mon on the mount was sufficient for
Christ's life, we have no need and no
authority from Him to make additions
to it. We have His divine word for it
that whoever keeps this perfect plan of
character builds the structure of his
character upon the rock of ages. His
sayings are not respected by Trinitar-
ian denominations.
The Catholic church makes additions
of creeds, confessions, beads, crosses,
succession and infallibility. Peter,
James, John and Paul were faithful fol-
lowers of Christ, and yet they had no
Catholic creeds, counted no beads, wor-
SHIPPED no crosses, and used no holy
water. The Episcopal church has the
apostles creed, the Nicene creed, the
Athanasian creed, the thirty nine arti-
cles. and the pompous fiction Of apos-
tolic succession, because that church Is
not satisfied with Christ's sayings. These
creeds receive more honor than Christ's
sermon on the mount. The Presbyter-
ian church has it's Westminster confess
sion of faith, and the larger and shorter
catechisms. Christs disciples did not
have these traditions of men, and still
they followedChrist and did great works.
If they made lofty characters without
this baggage of tradition, why should
people burden themselves with these
antiquated commandments of men ?The
Methodist church accepts it's book of
discipline as an addition to the sermon
on the mountain, or as substitute for
it, and 1t thus denies the sufficiency of
Christ's rules of religious and moral
conduct. The liberal churches ignore
the adequacy of Christ's code of morals
and religion as unfolded in the sermon
on the mount. They seek for rules of life
in the Koran, the Vedas, the Zend Aves-
ia, the Kings of Confucius, the writings
Ol ElleTSOH anu NldrClnedu.
No liberal Christian has ever exhaust
ed the sermon on the mount in striving
to form character. The people who be-
long to no church, and who deem it the
best kind of religion to hate all churches,
are victims of dark occultism, or of de-
ceiving and immoral mediums, or Of
wild and morbid theosophy, or of bigot-
ed. touchy and nonsensical Christian
science, or of insane socialism. All these
classes reject Christ's sayings, and they
build their houses upon the sand and
the storms OF life destroy them. We are
making the commandments of God
which Christ revealed of no effect by ac-
cepting the inventions Of men.
Christ has not mentioned anything
about Adams fall. the serpent, the ex-
pulsion from Eden. The Babylonian le-
gend never absorbed his attention. VIII
any church be infidel enough to assert
that a man that has formed his charac-
ter according to the precepts in the
sermon on the mount cannot reach
Christ's heaven? If he can reach that
mansion then all the creeds, confessions.
inventions in and out Of the churches.
are baggage. If man that keeps the
sayings of Christ in that sermon goes to
hell. then Christ was a false teacher:
for he has assured us that obedience to
those sayings Is the rock foundation
which no storms can destroy. If parents
and teachers would study and teach
Christ's sayings in that sermon to the
children and to the young, then we
might expect to see Christian civiliza-
tion.
At present there is no Christian ma
tion on the earth. Our civilization has
very thin veneering of Christ's Chris
tianity upon it. When any teachers
have to get and keep their situations In
the public schools by means of political
pulls, Of bribes Of any kind, can we say
that we have Christian civilization? AS
long as any men in public offices accent
bribes, and are not ashamed, when their