The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1897-12-05
On the Life and Labors of Rev. William Gloss, D. Be-
fore the Historical Society,"

Henderson, n. c., and there await the
music of the trump Of God. AS it is
impossible to describe any Of the great
movements in the worlds secular his
tory without giving the history of in
diyiduals, so likewise the history of re-
Egon and the church cannot be wrtteR
without giving the history Of individual
men and women; and for this reason we
greatly regret the absence of historical
fact concerning DR.. Gloss.
Mr. Emerson says that all great move
ments are born from a single thought
issuing from the mind Of some individ-
ual man or woman. This is simply @
truism, but worthy of note 10y the
thinker, since no great things are ever
originated by masses of man. The
greatest religious movement since the
reformation was the result Of a single
thought conceived by John Wesley; and
the bright particular stars that hOls
this dome to its Immortality of fame
are almost innumerable: Susanna Wes-
ley, John Wesley, Charles Wesley, Coke,
Asbury, Watson, Clark, and so ON down
through the years, to the army of the
present and the recent past; embracing,
besides those mentioned, statesmen.
poets, law-givers, governors, presidents,
scientists, mechanics, labOrers, ana
philosophers-stars, the light of whose
shining will never go out, and whose
orbital motions embrace the cycles Of
eternity-and characters thNt have given
to history its best philosophy, and glori-
fed the pen-point of a George Eliot in
the best lessons Of fiction.
What is written truly of DR.. Gloss,
and what might be written if we had
the data, is but a seS< ent of the great
circle of religious truth and life during
the century in which he lived. The re-
suits of his God-given vocation to preach
the gospel are cumulative, and are NOV
ing ON as inevitably as the obedience OF
the planets to the law of gravity:
He has not toiled in vain;
Cold, heat. and moist and dry,
Shall foster and mature the grain,
For gamers in the sky"
DIR. Gloss and myself were quite ini-
mately associated, and he talked Wits
NE often and freely. / shall therefore
ask you to pause a moment while | give,
as briefly as possible, his views touching
some problems of to-day, and then pass
on. lie believed that the church Of
God and the phrase, Kingdom Of
heaven" were diviuely Intended to be
Synonymous phrases in religious termi-
nology. And it is manifest that this
ought to be true, since Christ declared
that his church should seryive all the
attacks of wicked councils, because
built upon eternal truth. 1t matters net
what name the church may bear, or
how it may change its form of external
organization. it is the church of Christ
if ii has these two essentials: First, all
that may be truthfully stated as
involved in st. Peters declaratlons
''Thou art the Christ, the Son of the
living God,"-thus making fundamental
the golden rule-and secondly, such Or
ganization as insures life and therefore
growth, and the due administration OF
His word and sacraments.
The peculiar form of infidelity which
has been Matching for the last twenty
five years amongst some So-called Chris
tian reformers, has in the last few years
broken out with the declaration that
there is no necessity for the church; that
the church hampers and impedes Chris
tan progress; and the most deplorable
folly is that just as soon as some one
strikes a new ism, he and his followers
turn against the church, and abuse and
denounce it because it will not adopt
their crude and unscriptural views.
The author of the little book, "The Mind
of the Master" strongly hints his belief
that holiness could go on covering the
earth without the organized church. This
is the same thing as saying that the
soul could go on attending to this worlds
affairs without the body; that a diamond
could show itself best without any seta
ting, and that no organization, but every
man for himself, is the best method in
war. How true is the saying, that lit
tie pathOs bereft of logic and philosophy
is often dangerous thing. l dwell upon
this because this is a day of heavy taxa
ton upon the alphabet to find letters
enough to name the numerous outside
societies which propose to do the work
which Christ intended the church to do,
and which the church is doing, and
which the church alone can do. The real
church of Christ may not move fast
enough to suit some half-mile dashersI
They would regard Enoch as too slow
because he only walked with God. They
go with jumps and bounds, and propose
to convert men in masses. Such zeal
without knowledge cares nothing for
the ineness of the grist if the mills of
God will only grind faster! And &c
seems that time is wasted upon such
people in trying to convince them that
all hasty development and rushing for.
ward is not real progress, and that such
zeal smacks more of the sin Of Uzzak
than of the spirit OF Christ.
DIR. Gloss was a profound thinker, ana
had faith in Christ as the head OF a
living organism. He believed religion
to be life, subjective in character and
objective in citizenship, and not an Inc
ported something to he put on or off at
pleasure. or to be charged in IT'S nature
by human enactment. His clear view Of
the philosophy Of the subject taught him
that the church OF God in the world was
not. and could not be, merely nruden-
tial arrangement to be taken down at
will and laid aside when the rrecious
thing it carried seemed to be able to 90
alone
Let us think moment. ms touching thA
necessity for the organized church of
Christ in the world. IF this necessity IL
shown, then n definite statement Of IT'S
faith is also necessary, since without this