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


best church which gets the most
honey of Christian grace for the
heart, and the most honey of Chris
tan usefulness for the life.
Besides that, if you want to build
up any denomination, you will never
build it up by trying to pull some
other down. Intolerance never put |
anything down. How much has intol- |
erance accomplished, for instance,
against the Methodist church? For
long years her ministry were forbid
den the pulpits of Great Britain. Why
was it that so many of them preached
in the fields? Simply because they
could not get in the churches. And
the name of the church was given in
derision and as sarcasm. The critics
of the church said, "They have no
order, they have no method in their
worship" and the critics, therefore,
in irony, called them "Methodists."
What did intolerance accomplish
against the Baptist church? If laugh
ing scorn and TRADE could have de-
stroyed the church it would not have
to-day a disciple left. The Baptists
were hurled out of Boston in olden
times. Those who sympathized with
them were imprisoned, and when
petition was offered asking leniency
in their behalf, all the men who
signed it were indicted. Has toler-
ance stopped the Baptist church?
The last statistics in regard to it
showed forty-four thousand churches
and four million communicates. In
tolerance never put down anything.
Now, here is a great gospel plat
form. A man comes up on this side
of the platform and says: 81 don't
believe in baby sprinkling." Shall
shove him off? Here is a man coming
up on this side of the platform, and
he says: Il don't believe in the perse-
verance of the saints" Shall l shove
him off? No. 1 will say: do you
believe in the Lord Jesus as your
Saviour? Do you trust him for time
and for eternity?" He says: Yes
Do you take Christ for time and for
eternity?' yes" say, Come on,
brother; one in time and one in eter-
nifty; brother now, brother forever"
Blessed be God for a gospel platform
so large that all who receive Christ
may stand on it!
think we may overthrow the Sc
we're sectarianism and bigotry in our
hearts, and in the church also, by
realizing that all the denominations
of Christians have yielded noble insti-
tutions and noble men. There is moth
ing that SO stirs my soul as this
thought. One denomination yielded a
Robert Hall and an Adoniram Judson;
another yielded Latimer and Mel
vile; another yielded John Wesley
and the blessed Summerfield, while
our own denomination yielded John
Knox and the Alexanders-men 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
denominations, although they may be
different from our own, we ought to
love and honor them. Churches which
can produce such men, and such
large-hearted charity, and such mag
nificent martyrdom, ought to win our
affection-at any rate, our respect.
So come on, We six hundred thousand
Episcopalians in this country, and We
fourteen hundred thousand Presby-
terians, and ye four million Baptists,
and we five million Methodists-come
on; shoulder to shoulder we will
march for the worlds conquest; for
all nations are to be saved, and God
demands that you and 1 help. For
ward, the whole line! In the Young
Mems Christian associations, in the
Bible Society, in the Tract Society, in
the Foreign Missionary Society,
shoulder to shoulder, all denomina-
tions.
Perhaps I might forcefully illus
trate this truth by calling your atten-
ton to an incident which took place
twenty-five years ago. One Monday
morning, about 2 o'clock, while her
nine hundred passengers were sound
|
home, the steamer Atlantic crashed
into Mars Head. Five hundred souls
in ten minutes landed in eternity.
Oh, what scene. Agonized men and
women running up and down the
gangways, and clutching for the rig
ging, and the plunge of the helpless
steamer, and the clapping of the
hands of the merciless sea over the
drowning and the dead, threw two
continents into terror. But see the
brave quartermaster pushing out with
the life line until he gets to the rock,
and see these fishermen gathering up
the shipwrecked and taking them into
the, cabins and wrapping them in the
fannels snug and warm; and see that
minister of the gospel, with three
other men, getting into life boat and
pushing out for the wreck, pulling
away across the surf, and pulling
away until they saved one more man,
and then getting back with him to the
shore. Can these men ever forget that
night? And can they ever forget their
companionship in peril, companion
ship in struggle, companionship
in awful catastrophe and rescue?
Never! Never! In whatever part of
the earth they meet, they will be
friends when they mention the story
of that night when the Atlantic
struck Mars Head. Well, my friends,
our world has gone into worse ship
wreck. Sin drove it on the rocks. The
old ship has lurched and tossed on the
tempests of six thousand years. Out
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