The herald., 1897-10-18
Burt Estes Howard Scores
the District Attorney
A MOST PITIFUL SPECTACLE
THAT WHEEL OF FORTUNE
"oPINIoN" PILLoRIED
The Place of the Church in Society.
Should Be an Organized Con-
science on Public Questions

terday morning the Rev. Burt Estes
Howard preached from Matthew
xviii, 1920, "And Jesus spake unto them
saying All power is given uc'to me in
heaven ard in earth; go ye, therefore,
and teach all nations teaching
them to observe all things whatsoever
/ have commanded you, and 10, am
with YOU always Amen"
Hitherto, said Mr.. Howard, specula-
tive theology has everywhere meant di-
vision, and sectarianism has flourished
at the expeese of the religion that is
pure and undefiled. There has been an
almost immeasurable amount of benev-
oaent work done by churches each work
ing along its own denominatioral lines;
but the waste of energy has been tre-
mex1dous, and the mass OF Ia terf force
that has been allowed to lie for years
undeveloped is lamentable. Each sect
has been striving to moropolize the
fielc before, and to the exclusion of, all
others. The result has been a conges-
ton of churches in little hamlets and a
wilderness of he'll in our cities.
There is a crying need for us to come
to some open vision of the Church of
Jesus Christie understand that the
thing God is looking for is not the
disciplining of all nations to Calvin. or
Wesley, or anybody else but Christ, and
his kind of righteousness. That re-
ligion is matter of the adjustment OF
life after divine ideals, ard therefore
cannot be comprehended by the ex-
p1nifatinn nf Sectariar r. rivalry
There are millions and millions of
men and women today who call them
selves Christians and who profess to be
at least interested in the same things
auxd purposes that Jesus Christ was de-
voteS to, and yet in all our communi-
ties it is exceedingly difficult to find an
organized community conscience on any
moral question-and yet all questions
pertaining to the development of the
Mfe of a community are moral ques-
tions.
1t Is not only rot the fact, but it does
not seem to be expected that the
churches of any city or commonwealth
shall present solid front on any ques-
tion of sae1itation, housing of the poor,
better sewers, better schools or in fact
any of the practical reasons for making
better conditions in which to develop
better men and women. These things
are regarded as lying outside the prov
ince of the church and the range of the
gospel.
The trouble is that we have been
Theological to death. We have gotten
into a state Of ecclesiastical stra bismus.
We are morally cross-eye6 We have
been Calvin-ized ard Campbell-ized and
Wesley-ized till we have become gal
vanized The over-emphasis of theo-
logical formulas has led us to think that
religion is made up of chapters and Sec
tions, in creeds ard confessions.
This was we'll enough, perhaps, for
the conditioC.s shat gave rise to those
dogmatic controversies but the times
have moved on and the conditions have
changed The church in its old lines of
theology, and it's old narrow conception
of itself as a mere organization for the
promotion aC,d perpetuation of forms of
public worship-the present anG past
methods of church works not ade-
Quate for, and cannot meet the neces-
stiles and demands Of the present day.
The exigencies of the case demand,
first OF all, that we change our ideas
of the place of the church in our life.
instead of a place for occasional wor
ship, a fictitious acdi theoretic unity
and brotherhood in each local church,
spasmodic and stereotyped efforts at
conventional church work, as missions
and bepsvolences, and a contribution
now and them to some local need, 1t
must stand for a large and potential
factor in the more divine life of the
city or community. 1t now stands as
a serene and quiet retreat, rather than
dynamic element making for righteous
ness between man and man in. all our
varied life.
The Institutional church is making an
effort to get over in the Christ side of re-
lgion, /. e., the working side-but ii
does not go far enough; it does allevi-
ate some conditions, but treats symp-
toms rather than causes. The great
social conditions that lie back of misery
and wrong and poverty and crime it
does not much affect; it is on the right
track but it has rot reached, the goal.
The church should be vast practical
business = the living incarnation Of
Him who made it His business to go
about doing good.
Mills says: "The mission of the
CHurcQ JeSdIU dS 10 lIvS
mission of. Christ who was sent into
the world, not to condemn IT, but that
it might through him be saved. The
church is not to save some Of the
world, but to supply the spirit that
shall cause the farm and factory, the
store ard office, and the home to be
administered on the principles of the
Kiug dom of Heaven"
During his sermon the reverend gen
tfeman paid attention to the authorized
revival of gambling in this city and
scored the officials who have counte-
narced. it with splendid sarcasm.
Mr.. Howard, in illustrating his poin.
that the church is not, as it should be
an organized conscience for public ques-
tions-since every public question is a
moral question--recited the instan0 of
the wheel of fortune, which was re-
ported as running merrily Saturday
night at Fitzgerald's, the place full of
men and boys al the time, and the
sheriff OF the county present and gazing
calmly on the scere. When asked why
1t was permitted, the sheriff. holding OUT
his hands said: "The district attorney
has bound me hand and foot, by declar-
ing that the wheel of fortune is not a
gambling device" ''If the. administra-
tion OF Justice" said Mr.. Howard, "an6
the Interpretation of the law are to be