The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-12-26
AT TABERNACLE CHURCH.
There Was Special Music and n Ser
mon by the Pastor.

At the Tabernacle Church yesterday morn
ing Rev. ]. Cumming Smith took for his
text the scriptural words, There was no
room i'm the inn'' The music was by Miss
Lille Adam, Miss Edith Conner, Mr.. w. M
Daggett and Mr.. Walter Wilson. A special
number was the chanting of 1.-The Lords
Prayer"
In the course of his remarks the pastor
said: "And now the worlds old ostracism
of Jesus carries lesson to our own time. In
many respects the glory Of the incarnation
has become part of our very life. In many
other respects we are shut against its help
full monitions. He is still in advance of our
best standards. Christ grows more and
more as our world grows. We have grown
far enough to praise the Christ, and yet not
far enough to perceive and appreciate His
complete message. l can conceive of men
of partial goodness recoiling from some of
the wondrous and superhuman ideals of the
Christ he has learned to love. Why? Be
cause mans character is a culture an eVO-
luton, and opens up the way to larger in
terpretatons. Why? Because conscience is
rather an index to his inner elevation, and
the same man may condemn and then APP
prove the same thing in his one lifetime.
man who does not change his verdicts must
be either omniscient or incapable of enlarge
ment. One recent incident has swept both
North and South into a new ecstacy of
patriotism. and it is a case in point Our
President has uttered amid deafenlng accla-
nations what at the close of the war might
have cost any leader his renoWn. The sug-
gestion to the North to join the South in
care for the dead did occur to few rare
men at the end of the war, butAt was hushed
as something premature The big0tfy and
bitterness of that stirring period would have
condemned the suggestion as essentially
traitorous. But time heals old wounds and
time mellows our austere standards, and the
peace of these thirty years and the inter-
twining interests of trade have gone far to
form a new public opinion. Our last war
has welded all our sections into one; and
therefore our President in Atlanta urges
upon our government TO guard the graves of
those who fell on the side of the South, and
at once it is felt that he only echoes the
sentiment of all classes. Nothing could have
proved how far and fast our American best
life has been growing, and yet nothing
more conclusively shows that we cannot
trust to any attained standards as final
1.-The sense of duty is the breath of God,
but the course of duty is the product of ex-
perience Hence there is always room for
conscience TO ripen! Hence the meanness
OF one century passing harsh censure upon
the action of a past century when inferior
standards reigned! Hence the cowardice
often involved in the sarcasm of Christians
against the Jews for crucifying our Christi
To many Of them, as sincere as many Of US.
Christ was an impostor and His life was a
fraud. 1t is criminal for our modern church,
with it's mature conscience, TO backen a
whole race of Jews for acting out its own
stern sense of duty. They did wrong, but
the crime of the cross lies upon those alone
Who SlnnEd against their Hght. Inc NEAR
nation alone conveys the eternal standards
of life. Up from the caprice and false saint
illness of men we learn to look TO the ideals
born in the heart of God This is the voice
of the incarnation. This is really the reason
why, as this genial season rolls around. we
turn back to the Child of Mary for unfading
suggestions. 1t never tires us. II guaran-
tees the goodness of the infinite bending
and brooding over our world 1t Keeps
new Ideals floating before our age and
haunting our dreams. TO stop is to stag
nate. Ii teaches man 10 be tender to man.
even while unflinching for law. II glorines
our common nature and opens cur hope
toward the skies.