The herald., 1896-02-10
Rev. J. s. Thomson

Yesterday morning the pastor of Unity
church, Rev. j. S. Thomson, delivered a
sermon upon The Worst Thing in theWorld,
According to Christ, upon the text, "Woe
unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypo-
critics! for We make clean the outside OF
the cup and of the platter, but within they
are full of extortion and eXcess-"-Mat-
thew, %: 25.
Christ taught that hypocrisy is the worst
with mercy; but hypocrisy is such sin
that it has no forgiveness in this life nor in
the next. Hypocrisy is the mother of lies
and deception. 1t hates and fears truth as
it's greatest enemy. II calls good evil, and
evil good, to make an excuse for itself be-
fore men. 1t makes long prayers for
pretense. 1t is whited sepulchre, cover
ing dead mems bones. 1t is a viper. a SER
pent, devourer of the property of widows,
prosecutor of its just critics. maligner,
a sinner against the Holy Ghost. The
righteous indignation of Christ agains.
hypocrites is expressed frequently in the
gospels. He was put to death by hypocrit-
ical priests. witnesses, crowds, the time.
serving PLATE, and the conventional saints
of Jerusalem. The hypocrite is an actor;
for he assumes character which does not
beiorg to him, not for the purpose Of in
struction and amusement, but for the pur-
pose of deceiving and injuring lovers and
protestant, a politician, singer, preach
er, a storekeeper, doctor, a lawyer,
Christ declared that the publican who
called himself sinner and prayed for
heavens mercy was better man than the
Pharisee VINO extolled his own convention
al religion. He said the publicans and har-
lots would pass into the kingdom before
the vain professors of popular creeds. The
churches have higher standards of morality
than any other public institution; and
they require that their members be moral
and religious. They claim that their men,
bership is and should be highly religious
and moral The world takes the churches
at their own word; and, when member
becomes hypocrite, or manifests his false
life, the churches are held responsible. A
speck of dirt is easier seen upon a clean
white surface than upon dark dirty SUR
face. So church hypocrite blackens the
church more than member of any other
public institution can blacken it. 1t would
be better. if our churches were schools of
Christ more than they now are. Christ
called Judas traitor, Peter a coward and
a liar. and Thomas a sceptic, into his
school of disciples. He said the tares and
the wheat must grow together till the day
of separation, and that it was dangerous to
pull up the tares, as the wheat might also
be pulled up. If people joined church to
get and to give help, to learn to be and do
right, not protesting that they are saints,
and not accepted as saints, it would be
better for the church and the world than it
now is, when the churches deny member
ship to those who have not attained certain
high standards of life. The churches
should cease to be clubs of saints, and be-
come schools for disciples, schools to
make better rather than the receivers of
saints. At the same time there are fewer
hypocrites in the churches in proportion to
the number of their members than there
are in any other public organic alton. The
outsiders are bitter and unreasonable
critics of the churches These critics as
sumo that they are hoiier than the churches,
for, if they are not better Than the churches
they have no business to be critics. The
secularsts, the socialists, the spirItualsts,
the theosophists. the Christian scientists,
criticise the churches very severely and I'M
justly; but il would be a good thing for
them to ask if they are pure, honest, truth
fui and noble enough to be consistent
critics. Do the secularists and the social
lists pay their honest debts to the baker, the
butcher, the grocer, the landlord, the
tailor Are all the boasting mediums
honest and pure? Is every healer among
the Christian scientists true? Do theoso-
phists carry heavier burdens for God and
man than the churches do? Is it not
claimed that these people are all hypo-
critics; but it is a demand of consistency
thai they should be all free from hypoc-
risy before they oriticcise the Churches.