The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-09-19
THE FAMILY, THE IDEAL UNIT
REY. DR. MUNGER'S SERMON AT
 UNITED CHURCH YESTERDAH,
The Central Type of Humanlty-The Church Is m Enlarged Family Held Together Through Sympathetic Love- Social and Economical Harmony De- mnnded by the Church.
manded by the Church

Social and Economical Harmony De-
 mnnded by the Church.
 The Rev. T. T. Munger, D. D., preach ed an admirable sermon at the United church yesterday morning. His text was from Matthew 12:47. He said in substance:
 Christ did not place His family on one side and the disciples on the other with preference for either. At first it seems as if Jesus had abjured the household. But even a careful reading puts the matter in different light. The family stands without. Jesus does not refuse to go out and speak to them. He uses the incident as a text We can go farther and imagine that the mention of His mother aroused in Him the pas sion for home It is true that He said, "Whosoever doeth the will of my fath- CT, the same Is my brother, my father and my mother"
 But He does not mean that the feel ing for family Is to be abjured. The source of natural affection is the fam fly. There is only one kind of family and one kind of love. No offsetting or contrasting can be found in the words of Christ The instinct of love is not set against the feeling of duty The passion for the church does not eXpel the love in His very nature. He does not now abate the love of His mother No antagonism Is found in the charac- ter of Christ. Instead He carries the ideal of the family into the church ana the church into the world of humanity Christ ever anticipates the modern | thought that the age of antagonism has passed or is passing away. One thing is not destroyed, but is replaced by an other and better. Nature presents phases. Society is a development, a growth from one stage to another. Christ takes the family out of one group and puts them in a larger. "whosoever doeth the will of my fath- CT, the same is my brother, my father and my mother"
 Notice the order in that He places the mother last. The mother Is the germ of love. What Is a church? It is body of people striving to do the will of the Father. Why Is the church family? It has the same bond of sym | pathy-love The family has two foufl- datfons, one in nature and one in spirit The one creates it, the other holds it together in the spirit of love. Whoso- ever loves obeys God. There is no such thing as selfish love. Selfishness and love may combine at times In such manner as to seem one feeling. Wher- ever love Is there is obedience to the will of God.
 Life itself. wonderful with it's myste- rious complexity, it's strength it's weak nesses, eagerly outreaching and final | ly slowly revolving into a personality, is the greatest thing in creation. The | object of creation Is to perfect the fam lily. The family Is the central type of | humanity. The bond that holds the family together is sympathetic love. When Christ stretched forth His hands | to His disciples He said, Whatsoever doeth the will of my father the same IS my brother, my father and my moth er.'' Again, a church can be family because it's ways will harmonize. We speak of the family resemblance in fea- lures and character. However great a difference there may be in callings, l they must dSTe6 III tilc iVASoNt uSNA 'A ! and respectable traits.
 | All this Is true of the church, and is one of the things that makes 1t a fam lily. This likeness of the church to the family is more than a likeness. It is | because the church demands the like ness. The church Is a family and as a family begets social and economical harmony. One of the chief blessings of | a family is the power to develop and | uplift the characters of it's members. Love holds them up to the same stand ard. They will vary In response to the ideal, but not in the general likeness. | This is true of the church. It exists for the very purpose of bringing people to have the same tastes and ideals. The church has the uniforming spirit and upholding energy of the family. The family comes to the church to renew it's own spirit of love.
 l Another likeness is that the largest interests of the church and family are the same. The organization of the church is different. It meets only to worship, but at the heart of it is the | same purpose-to secure character. The church is family, but g, family In free- dom. It's members voluntarily unite and say that together they will seek af- ter chracter. They unite because 1t can be secured only through united effort. The family Is not an end In itself It is not a refuge where we are to hide our selves for the satisfaction of love and comfort. It is this and more. Christ carried His family life into the life of the disciples. But they were to carry the family ideal out into the world. The family that lives in itself and does not fulfill itself by carrying it's witness into the church fails in its fuller sense. It is not enough to love the wife and children. Love is boundless. The home is to be carried into the world, not by building, but by the spirit which makes 1t home.
 So 1t Is with the church. Whatever we learn here, whatever of love and | truth is instilled in us here, must be carried outside. The family is the ex- ponent of the most universal thing in the world-love.