The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1896-03-23
JUDGE BALDWIN'S ADDRESS
THE ESSENTIALS OF CHRISTIANITY
DISCUSSED AT UNITED CHURCH..

Interesting Views of q Layman-Altruism
and Human Brotherhood the Basis of
Christianity--Beiiefi in Creeds Not Essen
tial-The Old Testament Not a Guide.
'The Essentials of Christianity" was
the subject of an interesting address
last evening by Judge Simeon e. Bald
win before the Mems club of the United
church. The audience was large one
and listened attentively. Judge Bald
win said:
Il have undertaken tonight to state
what seems to me to be the essentials
of Christianity.
1T has been before mems eyes so
long and so conspicuously that they
ought to be able now to agree on some
just estimate of it.
mo great movement, no new discov-
cry. no new doctrine can be accurately
measured and judged by the men
among whom it first appears We do
not know that we are near mountain
until we are far from it. We cannot
tell its shape until we have viewed it
from every quarter of the horizon.
I'VE are already in the twentieth
century from the birth of Christ, for it
was four years before the date assigned
by the ancient chronology that, as most
agree, that event occurred. The little
band oe disciples that He left behind
Him has spread over all the lands and
has for its successors no inconsiderable
part oe the human race The utter
ances of His public ministry have been
the source of the largest part of the lit
erature of the world. His simple para
bles, His few commands, His principles
of life, have been woven into philoso-
phies, and theologies into creeds and
symbols, almost without number They
have been differently interpreted in diff
ferent ages, and differently interpreted
in very age by different men, equally
intelligent, equally learned, equally sim
cere, equally devout
Subjects upon which men differ, and
have differed since the very first CEN
tury Of the Christian era must be less
important than those upon which they
agree
And happily there is a very general
agreement among Christian scholars, in
this age, at least, as to what may be re-
garded as the foundations Of their faith.
These are laid in the New Testa-
ment. They are laid in the gospels
that is by the words of Christ Himself
ITO understand the essentials of
christianity we must look there first /;
and we must look with all the helps
that the best scholarship of the world
can lend us. We must read the Mas
ters words without forgetting the times
and circumstances in which He spoke,
or the character and necessities of
those whom He addressed We must
throw ourselves into the land of the
olive and the palm; into the channels
of oriental life and thought; into the
hopes and sorrows of a subject race,
yearning to regain their lost indepen-
dence, and looking to a heaven-sent de-
liverer.
Among that people 1900 years ago
there rose up one who spake as never
man spake; but nevertheless, He spake
as a man to man.
mo truth ever comes home to the
human heart except that it is found
in some sort personified.
1--WE think, in terms of ourselves
1--WE form our ideals only by con-
temptation and influence of great char
acters. We demand heroes and leaders.
'It is not enough for us to grope our
way upwards towards an unseen God;
too infinite for us to comprehend
spirit that is to us, as SUCH unthink-
able
1.-THE Jews in Christ's day needed, as
we in our day need, some man standing
forth among his fellows to show them,
by his own example, how to live, at
what to aim. For this Christ came,
and He game once for all. 1t was the
sight ola living example of the divine
in man, not successive repetitions of it
that the world was hungry for.
IF God has given such an example to
men, we may be sure that He has so
given it that it will speak to the hearts
of all mankind. No teaching is divine
that is not universal
"The first and great essential of Chris
tianity then, should say, is to follow
Christ.
And how?
"By becoming itinerant evangelsts
abandoning our homes and families,
and wandering from city to city with
out place to lay our heads?
Good men have done this; great or
ders of religious brotherhoods have
done this, and thought it was the truest
way to follow Christ.
''They have forgotten that the short
three years of His public ministry were
preceded by thirty years of quiet fam
lily life, of work, doubtless at the trade
He inherited from His father, of pa
tient ministry and self-education, and
self-mastery.
"They have forgotten more than this.
We follow not the mode of life of our
hero, but the spirit of His life.
"If ye have not the spirit of Christ it
was said We are none of His. And if we
have His spirit. we are His, whatever
may be the circumstances or opportuni-
ties of our lives.
"In the long years after His fathers
death, when Jesus, in all probability,
was working at His carpenters bench
in Nazareth to provide for the support
of His mother and His younger broth
ers and sisters, He was living as noble
and as Christian a life as when He was
preaching to thousands in the Mount of
Olives. Thirty years of private life and
three years of public life. That was
His record.
THE spirit of His teachings, as of
His life, is, as it speaks to each of us,
to do our duty, wherever we are; to do