The Portland daily press., 1896-04-27
THE CHURCH APOSTOLIC.
Sermon by Rev. F. A. Leitch Yester-
day.

| DIScnufCneu.
a large congregation listened yesterday
afternoon at the Congress Street
NJ ethodlst Episcopal church to sermon
delivered by Rev. +. A. Leitoh, of the
West End church, in reply to the sermon
by Rev. Dwight Galloup, of st. Lakes
church, last Sunday. In that sermon Mr..
Galloup strongly denied the right of the
other churches to exits apart from the
Historic" meaning the Episcopal church.
Presiding Elder Palmer. was present
and offered prayer. The we'll known
| hymn:
''Zion stands with hills surrounded,
| Zion kept by power divine:
| All her ices shall be COMPOUNDED,
Though the world in arms combine.
Happy Zion,
| What favored lot is thine.'
was sang the audience joining
Mr.. Leitch took for his text John
XVII: II am the vine ye are the
branches. He that abideth in Me and |
in him the same bringeth forth much
fruit.
He said that the inspired writer's found
in the trees of fhe forest a symbol of the
life of man. The psalmist said "The
Cody man is like a tree planted by the
rivers of waters, that bringeth forth his
fruit in his season. His leaf also shall
not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall
prosper" and when he sought for a
symbol of the care of God for his people
he said "Thou hast brought vine out
OF Egypt. Thou hast cast out the heather
and planted it," And when the great
Teacher would through analogy teach the
world the most profound truth ever pre-
sented for careful consideration he says,
II am the vine and my Father is the
husbandman" and to his disciples be snid,
6 am the vine. ye are the branches. !"
He that abideth IN me and I in him the
same bringeth forth much fruit. For
without me ye can be nothing"
Those migrated into Christ the true
vine are the living branches of Christ's
true church. But when spiritual power is
lost of the church as well as of the soul
Christ says, "If q man abide not in me
he is cast forth as a branch and is
withered, and men gather them and cast
them into fire and they are burned
The demonstrat ion of true churchhood
is the presence of the spiritual lift; the
life OF the church, its progress and power
is seen in it's activity; its zeal in going
to the help of the needy. The life of
Jesus Christ, His spirit and love flow
through the branches bringing forth the
fruit of righteousness. Tho power of
great spiritual reforms flows far beneath
changing systems and pretentious organi-
cations. 1t lives this year or thousand
years. The true church of God brings
forth the fruits Of holiness, meekness and
love from generation to generation so
that with dead branches pruned out, and
with fresh shoots grown it maintains it's
productiveness from age to age. What
are we to look for led by the light of
Gods word?
A personal religious experience
wrought through repentance, the witness
of the Holy Spirit, the new birth, life
what generation the true child of Goti
must find the divine spiritual life rivor
over flowing. We must remember that
the individual Christian may loose this
life, and be cast forth a withersd branch.
"A church may live beyond the spiritual
life of it's members, and may appear to
live when the individual bers NAV
have all lost their piritual life, for as of
the individual SO of the church, and NAV
be like that at Sardis, of which it was
said: II know thy works. Thou hast q
name, that thou llvest and art dead -
God chooses men because of their LOYALTY
to him.
How yain and pretentious are th
claims as DIR. Carman says ''of the his
toric episcopate that Gods connection
with His church through the centuries is
ms ohrnno1nnioo1
credentials of the people Of God must
come ont of the calendar and almanac
What an absurd claim to say, "We ar g
the true church, the only true church be-
cause we date our visible organization in
the first century from Peter or from the
Pope of Rome"
How often has God broken the line to
divine power? How often has man
broken the line in his taithfuless and
shame? Dead roots and dead branches
ara burned. 1t is a poor tree that cannot
send up vigor enough to sprout limb to
limb in the upper air. A strange vine
indeed that lifts but one stem, trunk it
may be but without branch or flower.
Yet this is the high ecclesiastical as-
sumption. 1--WE are the only church of
God because we alone begin at the begin
ming, and alone preserve tho unity and
continuity Of our beautiful limbless,
brsnchless, fruitlsss shaft through the
centuries. There can be ITO off shoots
from the one true church." What de-
thronement of Christ, and an enthrone-
mens of the church in His stead Is
Christ then dead? Did He not live before
Abraham? Was He not the foundation
of the prophets? Is He not living todayp
A living Christ i'll a living church is tie
biblical conception, and shall not dead
church be pulled up by the roots and a
living church find root by living waters?
Christ was with His people in the wilder
ness, and He is with them today. The
true church proves it's connection with
Christ by bringing forth fruit. How
vain to boast "the church of Christ are
we," and then with spirit of assump-
ton, tyranny ard pride, crush and
grind the masses in ignorance, super
sutton and vice. How unlike Christ who
came to lift up and to save. This has
been the spirit of those who CRY, ssthis
historic church is the door. If We climb
up any other way you dissenters are
thieves and robbors. There can be but
one church Catholic, one unique shaft
standing in its historic loneliness
through the ages, no branches, no fruit,
the only and original keystone of the
episcopats historIo.' Christ said, 81 am
the door, by me If any man enter 10 he
shall De saved and go in and ont and find
pasture.
Saved through faith in Christ, going in
nTrf HFldt