The Portland daily press., 1896-07-14
RATHER EMOTIONAL.


nave an lU6A Ol ucdNCn DIS u clUy-a matG-
rial sort of city, with battlements and gates
and streets and mansions.
/ think most of us have come to be moved
away from some material idea of heaven,
until at last probably all of US here would
agree to define heaven as a perfect society
of perfect individuals. No man can be in
heaven alone, mo matter how happy he be
in his individual consciousness. No man
can form a heaven alone.
Our conception of heaven must include
individuals in perfect society. We are told
in the Bible that in heaven there will be
no hunger and thirst, no oppressive
heat, no pain, no disease, no death and no
sorrow, no impurity and no seltishness.
hope in anything that is worth hoping for.
would not want to say that we shall not
be translated to some
PLACE OBJ PERFECT FELICITY
but L do want to say with tremendous en-
phasis that any such conception of the work
of Christ is but a partial comprehension of
His mission, and is not description of the
great purpose of Christ, which did not pri-
marily concern some far-off h eaven.
God sent not His Son into the world to
condemn the world, but that the world,
through Him, might be saved. And there
is a certain sense in which no man living
on the earth can be fully saved until all
those who live about Him are also fully
saved. No man can be perfect alone. No
will be heaven anywhere except there is an
association of men that are living in abso-
lutte unselfishness, and wherever that exists
the kindom will have come as it has al
ready in heaven. | believe it is q place
where our activities shall be devoted in
larger and more effective form to the trans
formation of this world.
do not believe that we. will change our
prayer, but that we will labor that Gods
kingdom may come on the earth las It is
oll1. &c the 6iraof lanOu9Oa of the Mas
ter, and the devil never executed such o
triumph of his art as when he turned the
attention of the disciples of Christ away
from the transformation of this world. To
be Christian is to De labOrer together
with Him who was as Christ reconciling the
world unto Himself.
The very first words that Jesus uttered in
His mission were these: ''The Kingdom of
heaven; repent, for the kingdom OF heaven
Is at hand The conception of the Jews
that it was to be a terrestrial Kindom was a
place in all the Gospel where Jesus refers to
heaven in any sense that might be rightly
Interpreted in the ordinary idea. His call
was call to man to come and help Him in
the establishment of peace upon the earth.
+, do not believe that the church, for the
most part in the first century, had any other
idea tnan that the disciples were called to
work for the triumphs of Jesus in this
world. / even believe that Paul up to a
certain period of his life expected to see the
earth transformed, and the Kingdom of
God fully established before he should be
taken away. The eyes of the Apocalyptic
seer saw the New Jerusalem, the City of
God, descending out of heaven TO abide
upon the earth, and he gave to the people
the great vision almost at the close of his
wonderful book. He tells us that he heard
the voices crying out in heaven and singing.
The Kingdoms of this world are to become
the KINGDOMS of our Lord and of his Christ,
and He will reign forever and ever.
lam not mourning because some old doc
trines are losing their grip over the hearts of
men. can occasionally weep a little on ac-
count of Observation-Disclosures, but never weep
on my account, as see
THE FAITH OF MEN
being strengthened and their conceptions
being enlarged. And while our great con-
ventions are passing their resolutions. the
Presbyterians, the Congregationalists, the
Unitarians, and all the rest, defining what
they mean by the Christian religion, the day
of our Lord is coming as thief in the night,
and the hearts and minds of the people are
being changed into the conception of Jesus
Christ, in such fashion that we will have
to be one under the power of the Lord.
Do you not see that when the old over
mastering passion of the ministry and that
church shall not simply be to defend its
dogmas, but to establish the kingdom of
love, that before we know it we will all be
SO heartily engaged in work for the same
thing we will be practically one? Even
now, when we are engaged in this limited
fashion in practical effort for the uplift-
ing of men, here come men of twelve differ
emit denominations-au Christians-and Join
their hands. For what? Not that we may
lift up any of our peculiar standards OF doc
| trine, but that we may have practical aim
in trying to do something in practical
fashion.
And can conceive that as the spirit of
God goes on difusing this great thought
among men, that we will have to be bound
together. L can see united Protestant
Church, clothed with power and inspired in
such fashion that men shall not think of
what they think, but rather of what they
do; and l can see the Protestant Church
look into the face of her mother, and see the
old Roman Church purified by this inspira-
row, united with the child for this and this
alone, that Gods kingdom may come, and
His will be on earth as it is in heaven.
Further than that, even to the mother of
Rome, can see that old Greek Church,
called out of its slovenly inactivity, by
THE GREAT THOUGHT
of establishing the kingdom of peace-one
united church of Jesus Christ
Back further than that: Turning to that
one that was the mother of all, crying
to Gods ancient people that they may come
and see the Messiah visible in what he
does for men, until there shall be a mighty
union of all the so-called Christians with
all the Israelites; and am willing that they
shall lead us if they will, as we call the
heather world into this glorious fellowship,
until in the darkest corners of the earth the
kingdom of peace shall be established.
Come and let us make a heaven below, into
which the heaven above shall flow until
they both shall he one, bound together in
| the manifest spirit of Christ, the Son of
God.
And / come to say more than that; that |
believe that not only Is this the inspiration
that is availing now and that will avail un-
til the final triumph comes for the purify
ing, unifying and empowering of the Church,
but for the regeneration of society through
the fundamentally of the Church. May it
not be that just such company as are
gathered here this evening, who shall give
| themselves to the answering of the prayer
| that you have heard thousands of times,
| and letting that kingdom come in you as it
| has come in heaven, and in the trade and
| intercourse of our fellows and in our poll
| tics, may it not be that this company might
make of this Capital City of our country and
| of the communities of our homes, cities of
| God, and all cities throughout the nation
might catch the Inspiration, and one nation
| with the spirit of Pentecost might lead every
other nation of the world into a holy fellow
ship of serving Christ.
WILDER Chapman preached from the
following text:
'sAnd we came to Kadesh- Barnea' '-Deu