The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1898-08-20

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, no! 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 I'll 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
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 l 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 ia one direction and
that against the common enemy?"
Ane vet 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 bay!
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 disciple left. The Baptists
were hurled out of Boston in olden
times. Those who sympathized with
them were imprisoned, and when a
petition was offered asking leniency in
their behalf, all the men who signed it
were indicted. Has intolerance stopped
the Baptist church? The last statistics
in regard to it showed $4,000 churches
and 100000 communicates. Intoler-
ance never put down anything.
But now, my friends, having shown
you the origin of bigotry and sec.
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 OWL
weakness and our imperfections. l.
we make SO many mistakes in the com
mon affairs of life, is it not posi- Ole
that we may make mistakes in regard
to our religious affairs? Shall we take
man by the throat or by. the collar
because he can not see religious
truths just as we do? In the ligh
of eternity 1t will be found out,
think, there was something wrong in
all our creeds, and something right in
mistakes in regard to things of the
world, do not let us be so egotstic and
SO pulled up as to have an idea thai
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 il
which we agree, rather those on which
we differ.
Now, here is great Gospel platform
A man comes up on this side of tn
platform and says: II don't believe i
baby sprinkling. Shall l shove hin
off? Here Is a man coming up on thi
side of the platform, and he says .
don't believe in the perseverance of tn
saints" Shall l shove him off ? No.
will say: do you believed in the Lor
Jesus as your Saviour? Do you trus
Him for time and for eternity?" Yes
|. "Do you take Christ for time and &c
! eternity?" "Yes." l say: Come OF
brother; one in time and one
eternity; brother now, brother TO
ever" Blessed be God for Gosp,
,, platform so large that all who receiv
Christ may stand on it!
l think we may overthrow the sever
sectarianism and bigotry in our heart
and in the church also, by realizin
that all the denominations of Chri
: tians have yielded noble institution
and noble men. There is nothing tn;
so stirs my soul as this thought. Or
denomination yielded Robert LA
and an Adoniram Judson; anoth'
yielded Latimer and Melvill
another yielded John Wesley ar
the blessed Suinmerield, while o,
' own denomination yielded job
y Knox and the Acknowledgement {
: whom the world was not worth
= Now, say, if we are honest and fai
: minded men, when we come up in Il
presence of such churches and such d
= nominations, although they may
different from our own, we ought
: admire them, and we ought to love al
VI honor them. Churches which can pr
o duce such men, and sach large-heart'
! charity, and such magnificent marty
{ dom, ought to win our affections