Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1898-08-01


denomination of Christians must set
| forth all the doctrines of the Bible, /
/ feel it is especially incumbent upon
each denomination to put particular
emphasis on some one doctrine
Another great damage done by the
sectarianism and bigotry of the church
( is that it disgusts people with the
Christian religion. Now, my friends,
the church of God was never intended
for a war barrack People are afraid
of riot. You go down the street and
you see an excitement and missiles
flying through the air, and you hear
the shock of firearms Do you, the
peaceful and Industrious citizen, go
through that street. Oh, mol you will
say, "I'll go around that block Now,
men come and look upon this narrow
path to Heaven, and sometimes see the
ecclesiastical brick bats flying every
whittier, and they say: ''Well, guess
I'll take the broad road; there is so
much sharpshootlng on the narrow
road, guess III try the broad road"
Francis l. so hated the Lutherans
that he said that if he thought that
there was one drop of Lutheran blood in
his veins he would puncture them and
let that drop out. Just as long as
there is so much hostility between de-
nomination and denomination, or be-
tween one protested Christian and an
i other, or between one church and an
other, so long will men be Disguised
with the Christian religion, and say:
IF that is religion, [ want none of it. !"
/ Again, bigotry and sectarianism do
great damage in the fact that they
hinder the triumph of the Gospel Oh,
now much wasted ammunition! How
many men of splendid intellect have
! given their whole life to controversial
disputes, when, if they had given their
life to something practical, they might
have been vastly useful! Suppose,
while / speak, there were a common
enemy coming up the bay, and all the
forts around the harbor began to fire
into each other -you would cry out:
"National suicide! Why don't those
forts blaze away in one direction and
that against the common enemy?"
Ane yet sometimes see in the church
of the Lord Jesus Christ strange
thing going on. Church against
church, minister against minister,
denomination against denomination,
firing away into their own fort, or the
fort which ought to be on the same
side, instead of concentrating their
energy and giving one mighty and
everlasting vOlley against the navies
of darkness riding up through the bayl
But now, my friends, having shown
! Won ho Aririr IF hirOt1.v and coo.
tarianism, and having shown you the
damage it does, want briefly to show
you how we are to war against this
terrible evil, and think we ought to
begin our war by realizing our own
weakness and our imperfections. If
we make so many mistakes in the COM
mon affairs of life, is it not posi- BILE
that we may make mistakes in regard
to our religious affairs? Shall we take
a man by the throat or by the collar
| because he can not see religious
truths just as we do? In the light
of eternity 1T will be found out, /
think, there was something wrong in
all our creeds, and something right in
all our creeds, but since we may make
mistakes in regard to things of the
T u.
SO pulled up as to have an idea that
we can not make any mistake in re-
gard to religious theories. And then
think we will do great deal to over
throw the sectarianism from our heart,
and the. sectarianism from the world,
by chiefly enlarging in those things in
which we agree, rather those on which
we differ.
/ Now, here is a great Gospel platform.
A man comes up on this side of the
platform and says: Il don't believe in
baby sprin king" Shall | shove him
off? Here IS a man coming up on this
side of the platform, and he says: II
don't believe in the perseverance of the
saints" Shall l S hove him off +? No.
will say: do you believed in the Lord
Jesus as your Saviour? Do you trust
Him for time and for eternity?" Yes"
''Do you take Christ for time and for
eternity?" YES" | say: ''Come on,
brother; one in time and one in
eternity; brother now, brother for.
ever Blessed be God for Gospel
platform SO large that all who receive
Christ may stand on it!
! I think we may overthrow the severe
sectarianism and bigotry in our hearts,
and in the church also, by realizing
that all the denominations of Chris
tians have yielded noble institutions
and noble men. There is nothing that
so stirs my soul as this thought. One
denomination yielded Robert Hall
and an Adoniram Judson; another
yielded Latimer and a Melville;
another yielded John Wesley and
the blessed Summerfeld, while our
own denomination yielded John
Knox and the Acknowledgement of
whom the world was not worthy.
Now, | say, if we are honest and fair
minded men, when we come up in the
presence of such churches and such de-
nominations, although they may be
different from our own, we ought to
admire them, and we ought to love and
honor them. Churches which can pro-
| duoo Suoh rnnn and S-ch larCo hoo rta1