The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1898-07-27

ueVOLlOnal ASPIRATIONS. One is just as
good as the other. Every man fully
persuaded in his own mind"
George Whiteield was going over a
Quaker rather roughly for some of his
religious sentiments, and the Quaker
said: George, 1 am as thou art; /
flgl for bringing all men to the hope
of the gospel; therefore If thou will
not quarrel with me about my broad
brim, 1 will not quarrel with thee
about thy black gown. George, give
me thy hand"
In tracing out the religion of Sec
tarianism, or bigotry, l find that a
great deal of it comes from wrong
education in the home circle. There
are parents who do not think it
wrong to caricature and jeer the pc
culiar forms of religion in the world,
and denounce other sects and other
denominations. 1t is very often the
case that that kind of education acts
just opposite to what was expected,
and the children grow up, and, after
awhile, go and see for themselves;
and, looking in those churches, and
finding that the people are good there,
and they love God and keep his COM
mandments, by natural reaction they
go and join those very churches. 1
could mention the names of promi-
nent ministers of the gospel who
spent their whole lives bombarding
other denomination and who lived to
see their children preach the gospel
in those very denominations. But it
is often the case that bigotry starts in
a household, and that the subject of
it never RECEIVERS. There are tens of
thousands of bigots ten years old.
Bigotry is often the child of ignor-
ance. You seldom find a man with
large intellect who is a bigot. 1t is
the man who thinks he knows great
deal, but does not. That man is al
most always bigot. the whole ten
dency of education and civilization is
to bring a man out of that kind of
state of mind and heart.
Look out for the man who sees only
one side of a religious truth. Look
out for the man who never walks
around about these great theories of
God and eternity and the dead. He
will be bigot inevitably-the man
who only sees one side. There is no
man more to be pitied than he who
has in his head just one idea-no
more, no less. More light, less sectar-
ianism. There is nothing that will so
soon kill bigotry as sunshine-God's S
sunshine.
So l have set before you what I con-
slider to be the causes of bigotry.
have set before you the origin of this
great evil. What are some of the bale
full effects? First of all, it cripples in.
vestigation. You are wrong, and
am right, and that ends it. No taste
for exploration, no spirit of Gods
truth, over which an archangel might
fly from eternity to eternity and not
reach the limit, the man shuts himself
out and dies, blind mole under q
corn shock. 1t stops all investigation
While each denomination of Chris
tians is to present all the truths OF
the Bible, it seems to me that Goo
has given to, each denomination ar
especial mission to give particular EN-
phasis to some one doctrine; and Sc
the Calvinistic churches must present
the sovereignty of God, and the
Arminian churches must presen
mans free agency, and the Episcopa
churches must present the impor
tance of order and solemn ceremony
and the Baptist churches must pre-
sent the necessity of ordinances, an(
the Congregational churches mus
present the responsibility of the indi
vidual member, and the Methods
church must show what holy enthusi
asm, hearty congregational singing
can accomplish. While each denomi
nation of Christians must set fortl
all the doctrines of the Bible, fee
it is especially incumbent upon eacl
denomination to put particular EN-
phasis on some one doctrine.
Another great damage done by tn,
sectarianism and bigotry of thu
church, is that it disgusts people will
the Christian religion. Now, m,
friends, the church of God was neve1
intended for a war barrack. Peopl,
are afraid of a riot. You go down tn,
street, and you see an excitement, ant
missiles flying through the air, anc
you hear the shock of firearms. d.
you, the peaceful and industrious citi
zen, go through that street? Oh, no
you will say, 'I'll go around th
block" Now, men come and lool
upon this narrow path to Heaven, ant
sometimes see the ecclesiastical brick
bats flying every whittier, and the,
say, "Well, guess I'll take the broaC
road; there is so much sharp-shootinl
on the narrow road, l guess I'll tr,
) the broad road!"
Again, bigotry and sectarianism. d,
great damage in the fact that the.
hinder the triumph of the gospel
Oh, how much wasted ammunition
J How many men of splendid intellec
have given their whole life to con
: troversial disputes when, if they hat
given their life to something practi
cal, they might have been vastly use
full! Suppose, while l speak, ther
, were common enemy coming up tn
J bay, and all the forts around the har
Dor began to fire into each other
you would cry out, National suicide
, Why don't those forts blaze away il
one direction, and that against tn
common enemyY And yet some
| times see in the church of the Lor,
. Jesus Christ strange thing goinl
| on; church against church, ministe
. against minister, denomination