The herald., 1898-08-08
THE CHURCHES
Rev. W. D. P. Bliss preached yesterday

Worlds First Inter
Christianity and national" from the
Socialism text, Pure religion
and undefled before
God is this, to visit the fatherless and wild
ows in their affiiction and to keep himself
unspotted from the world
He said in substance: Social reformers
often say we want Christianity, but not
churchianity. This is like saying we want
brotherly love, but not its practice: we
want socialism, but not its application.
The fact is. you can not distinguish be-
tween Christianity and the church Chris
tianity is life and a social life and the
church is but the outcome of that social
life. When people leave one church they
almost inevitably form another church or
society or some organization. People de-
nounce creeds and then establish society
or brotherhood with declaration of prin-
ciples longer and often narrower than any
ecclesiastical creed. People denounce the
ritual of the church and then join some
secret order with a ritual far more
elaborate. The fact is that organization
Is necessary. We need some church. If
the church is evil we need to reform 1t, not
denounce it. We need not new sects or new
denominations but new life. The church
is not dying. 1t was never stronger than
today. Missionary societies of every sort.
societies of Christian Endeavor, Sunday
schools, church guilds and organizations
of every kind, indicate a church activity
and life never equaled in the world. More
people have been added to Christianity in
our century than in all the preceding CEN
turtles put together. Yet all our church
methods seem to be radically wrong. be-
cause, though the church is growing, 1t is
not making the world moral at all in pro-
portion to its growth Crime is on the in
crease in all civilized cities. Criminals in
the United States have multiplied since
1910 four times faster than the population
Impurity and the wrecking of the family
is on the increase. Our young men are
learning not to marry and the marriage no
longer means family. Gross intoxicati
Is passing away from polite society but
intemperance is not decreasing at all in
proportion to the Christian temperance
movement. The church is growing in
numbers and activities far more than in
the fruits of good living. This shows that
something is wrong. We need to return to
the simple power of primitive Christianity.
The power of Christ was that he lived
love. This was the power of the primitive
church. How those Christians love each
other" was the heather comment They
taught and practiced absolute equality and
brotherhood. The slave was to them a
man and brother. That principle over
threw slavery. The church ransomed cap
tives and fed the poor. 1t founded orphan
asylums, hospitals, primary schools. In
Ii - 3la .
church. When our churches make less of
sectarian doctrine or ecclesiastic rites and
teach and practice social and cooperative
love- our churches will be both large and
strong and the world will grow like Christ
The church was the worlds first interna-
tional.
David Walk, in the Church of Christ, yes
terday characterized Gods methods of in
struction as object
Object lessons. EXtraordi-
Lessons nary times and cir
cumstances call for
extraordinary men and methods. Elm
mate the purely and obviously supernat-
ural element from some of the historic
pages of the dim past, and the facts recited
dwindle in comparison with recent achieve
ments. Had such an event as the destruc-
ton of two great fleets. with the loss of
single life, occurred 5000 years ago, nobody
today would believe it. No Bible story
taxes credulity as much as this.
Each of the three great dispensations of
Gods moral and spiritual government has
been distinguished by an ascension; the
patriarchal by Enoch, the Mosaic by Eli
jan. the Christian by Jesus Christ. In
each dispensation the doctrine of tmmor-
tally and future life needed to be en-
phasized. and translation was the empha-
sis. And to give increased emphasis to
this supreme doctrine Elijah reappeared
nearly a thousand years later and held
converse with Jesus in the presence of
three chosen witnesses. No truth OF revel-
alton is better attested than that of the
indestructibility of mans spiritual nature
The oriental imagery of chariots and
horses of fire is striking, and as related to
Elijah, significant. The words there ap-
peared" are not in the original. The ascen-
sion of Jesus was prophetically imaged in
the same way. God is POLITICALLY described
as making the clouds his chariot as walk
ing upon the wings of the wind, as making
the winds or angels his messengers. his
ministers a flaming fire. All of which is,
in sober prose, suggestive of an angelic
train. Only in a very restricted sense did
Elisha become the successor of Elijah
Such men as he and those just named can
have no successors. They did the work for
which God ordained them, and did It so ef-
fectually that successorship was not need
ed; and these last named men Of our own
times and history were as much the called
and chosen of God as were Moses and Ell
jah. AS to the miraculous element of the
closing incident In Elijah's career we need
not stumble. If God is God, there is no DIFF
fculty in the way; If he be not God. then
1t matters not as to the truth or falsity of
any page of the history of humanity.
Rev. ]. w. Ball preached Yesterday at
the English Lutheran from the text. st.
Luke 1913, his sub
children of ject being The Pru-
Light dence of the World
and of the Sons of
Light Mr.. Ball remarked that our Sa-
Vlor was led to this observation in regard
10 the relative prudence of the children of
the world and of the children of 1igbt hv
the parable OF the unjust steward. who
represents that class of men who are ac-
tuated by the one aim of possessing and en-
Joying as much as possible of this world
Other things must bend to this. They are
from their standpoint, prudent and CON-
sistent. For II the world is the chief good
tnen all other things, whether moral ron
StderatiOQS eternal io,-e