The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-10-08

most OF us condemn all wars for glory or
all believe the Christians sacrament
should really mean. a. the word sacra-
rnenlum did originally, soldiers oath OF
| loyalty. Not for funeral meditation OH
ment. but 10 renew our oath Of loyalty to
the living Christ. and to receive his bat
! tie orders.
NEW WORLD OPENED.
| To what new crusades does he call us
\ In the closing hours of this nineteenth cen
tury? As he opened q new world TO Co
lumbus in the closing years of the fifteenth
century, so In new light upon the old reve-
| lation He Is now opening up TO us the
new earth of a ChristianiZed society,
| the kingdom Of heaven. that IL. the doing
! Of Gods will as in heaven so on earth:
| the holy city let down from God out CT
heaven, the city into which the heavenly
customs of altruism shall come down.
As in the closing years of the eighteenth
century came the beginning Of prison re-
form. emancipation. Sabbath schools. tenn
pcrance and missions, SO in the closing
hours OF ehe nineteenth century he Is
calling Us 10 make moral reforms Part
of church work.
"Raitch me the Bible. wull ye. Modera-
/ tor" said pioneer advocate of foreign
missions century ago. when, having
/ urged that the church should take up for
eign missions as part of Its work. he
was suppressed as a fanatical innovator by
the Moderator's interruption: "Sit down.
When the Lord wants to convert the hea-
! then He will do 1t without your help"
! The Moderator having reluctantly yielded
: 10 his demand for the Bible, he read: Go
ye into all the world and preach the Cos
pei to every creature. The Reformation
{ churches, busy with doctrinal contrOver-
I sizes and the struggle for existence, had not
so much as heard there was any mission
AIRY commission in the Bible. preach the
! Gospel applied, in common thought, only
needed it least. But such appeals to the
Bible as | have quoted slowly opened the
/ church doors to missionary work on a
( systematic plan with denomnational and
interdenominatOnal organizations. regu.
! lar collections and the monthly concert OF
! prayer.
There are multiplying signs that the
churches Will at the end of this century
do for social ethics what they did CEN
tury ago for foreign missions. namely,
will discover that social reforms are part
| of the Gospel we are commissioned to
preach. and so will make them. little by
little, as this discovery spreads. a part of
our regular church work. with organiza-
tions as complete. collections as regular
| and az large, as those devoted to foreign
| missions. and with monthly concert of
prayer for Christian reforms to promote
! the study of the problems involved as well
as for Invocation of that divine aid with.
out which the watchman waketh but in
/ vain.
SIGNIFICANCE NOT KNOWN.
! When Caroy sailed for India in 1899 as
! the Columbus OF foreign missions. the
world, even the church failed TO appreci-
ate the vast significance of that, forward
movement Nor has the world or the
church appreciated that the Presbyterian
Temperance Committee. of which l was u
, member while residing at its Pittsburg
headquarters. although 1t is less than the
least OF all, the church boards Is the
pioneer OF another great missionery fleet,
devoted to a new branch OF missions.
whose aim is TO prevent the heathenizing
Of Christian lands: The support of this
Temperance Committee Is so small as only
to make visible the neglect of such contri.
buttons, but nevertheless this Committee
so far as l know. In the first permanent
reform committee ever appointed by q
church court with provision for its sup
port by the church. with an Office. treas
urers report and paid secretary. In the
twentieth century /! have no ~ubt this
"Cemmittee" will have grown to be a
Board Of Social Reforms second to
none IN honor and support, cooperating
with like reform boards of other denomi-
nations in a national federation devoted
TO that newly. discovered hemisphere Of
ehmrehwork. the saving Of society.
has had penniless Temperance commit
tee for few years, has just taken second
place In this new missionary fleet. by vot-
ing-not unanimously-to permit collec
u
its admirable proposal that a temperance
committee should be esta blished In every
local church. | think The Introduction or
| this ana other kindred reforms, such as.
the crusades against impurity, gambling
and Sabbalh-breaking especially. Is more
likely TO come up from the local churches
than down from church courts II Is as
amazing as 1t Is true that these reforms
are are scarcely more more rseognized in the
''plahks" Of party platforms. When the
conservatism Of a church court or of a
local church delays the establishment
of an official board" or Committee" ac-
zion like that of the recent United Pres.
byterian Assembly should at least be
taken. namely, recommending collections
for worthy existing organizations Of in
dividual Christians, who are promoting
reforms on Christian basis. In this case
the collections recommended were for the
National Reform association
WISE PLAN IS SET.
A wise plan would be for each denoInina-
| tion TO Set apart one column in Its
FORMS which would be a constalt
reminder that every church should
take at least one collection a year
for Christian reforms. found il good
plan In my New York pastorate to devote
every year, to Anthony Comstock's de-
frnse of purity, with collection as well
as conference; another "monthly concert"
TO the National Temperance society's
work among the negroes: another 10 local
prison REFORM" These prayer meeting
collections for the sociological hemisphere
Of Christian work in no way lessencd the
collections given to the regular boards on
ferenceS.
am especially amazed that the church.
es do not take up the defense of the Sab.
bath. never so imperilled as now. il only
D t,t 1.lf 1nf VA.
quate motive hut should be a sufficient
one. If the Sunday Slavery" Of the toll
ers and the decentralization of society does
not suffice 10 arouse us. Permit me to
remind You OF the fundamental relation
of Sabbath reform TO the regular church
boards. One of these boards raises mone:.
to educate ministers. another to support
them as home missionaries. another to
erect churches in which they may preach.
A moments thought will show that the
money contributed for these objects loses
half of its due efficiency if through neg.
iect OF united effort for Sabbath reform
in the home missionary field, large por-
tion OF the population is not free on the
Sabbath to attend the churches you build
and hear the preachers you educate and
support. Mr.. Puddefoot. of the Congre-
gational Missionary society, tells me ii
Is literally true that there are frontier
churches where the communion has to BE-
rostpcn"d from sabbath morning until
evening "because in the morning the dea-
cons are all down In the mines"
NUMBER Is INCREASING.
Even in our eastern churches, for lack
Of united. persistent action of the church
eS and other friends of the Sabbath in its
defense. rapidly increasing number are
shut away from the culture of conscience
which the church affords and which the
state needs. Nothing less than feder-
alton OF churches constituted by joint COM
| mittees officially appointed in each city.
each state and each nation. allied with
like committees OF labor unions and civic
societies. can save the Sabbath from foes
whose fierce attacks existing Sabbath
associations can hardly delay, much less
defeat. In the whole country today there
are but ten persons giving their time as
salaried workers to the defense OF the
Sabbath, smaller force than is EN-
ployed to shepherd the churches of an
average village Of 5000 people. Fedora
tions OF an Christian and humane organi2-