The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1899-1900, 1899-06-14

tell you what has brought them arm IN
arm to the same altar. Something very
important has happened. Their son is
standing in the aisle, taking the vows OF
c, Christian. He has been somewhat
wayward and gave father and mother
agood deal of anxiety, but their prayers
have been answered in his conversion,
and as he stands in the aisle and the
minister of religion says: do you
consecrate yourself to the God who
made and redeemed you, and do you
promise to serve Him all your days?"
and with manly voice he answers: Il
do" there is an April shower in the
pew where father and mother sit and
rainbow of joy which arches both their
souls that makes all the difference of
creed infnitesimal. And the daughter,
who has been very worldly and gay and
thoughtless, puts her life on the altar
of consecration, and as the sunlight of
that Sabbath streams through the
church window and falls upon her brow
and cheek she looks like their other
daughter, whose face was illuminated
with the brightness of another world
on the day when the Lord took her into
His heavenly keeping years ago.
J should not wonder if, after all,
these parents pass the evening of their
| life in the same church, all differences
of church preference overcome by the
Joy of being in the house of God where
their 1hildren were prepared for use
| fulness and Heaven. But | can give
YOU a recipe for running your children.
Angrily contend in the household that
your church is right and the church of
your companion is wrong. Bring sneer
and caricature to emphasize your opin-
ions, and your children will make up
their minds that religion is a sham,
and they will have none of it. In the
northeast storm of domestic contro-
"ersy the rose of Sharon and the lily
of the valley will not grow. Fight
about apostolic succession, fight about
election and free agency, fight about
baptism, fight about the bishopric, fight
about gown and surplice, and the re-
ligious prospect of your children will
be left dead on the field. You will be
I rs unfortunate as Charles, duke of Bur-
gundy, who in battle lost a diamond
the value of kingdom, for in your fight
you will lose the jewel OF salvation for
your entire household. This is moth
ing against the advocacy of your own
religious theories. Use all forcible ar
gument, bring all telling illustration,
array all demonstrative facts, but let
there be no acerbty, no singing retort,
no mean insinuation, no supercilious-
ness, as though all others were wrong
and you infallibly right.
Take hint from astronomy. The
Ptolemaic system made the earth the
center of the solar system, and every
thing was thought to turn round the
earth But the Copernican system
came and made the sun the center
around which the planets revolved. The
bigot made his little belief the center
of everything, but the large-souled
Christian makes the sun of righteous
ness the center ard all denominations
without any clashing and each in his
own sphere revolving around it. Over
the tomb of Dean Stanley in Westmin-
ster Abbey is the passage of Scripture:
THY commandments are exceeding
broad" Let no man crowd us on to a
path like the bride Al Sirat, which the
Mohammedan thinks leads from this
world over the abyss of hell into para
disc, the breadth of the bridge, less than
the web of a starved spider or the edge
which many fall. No. While the way
is not wide enough to take with us any
of our sins, it is wide enough for all
Christian believers to pass without
peril into everlasting safety. But do
not any of you depend upon what you
call "a sound creed for salvation. A
man may own all the statutes of the
state of New York and yet not be a
lawyer, and a man may own all the
best medical treatise and not be ply
sician, and a man may own all the best
works on painting and architecture and
not be either painter or architect, and
a man may own all the sound creeds
in the world and yet not be Christian.
Not what you have in your head and
on your tongue, but il your heart and
i'll your life, will decide everything.
But do not reject Christianity, as
many do, because there are so many
sects. Standing in Westminster hotel,
London, | looked out OF the window
and saw three clocks, as near as can
remember one on the parliament
house, another on St. Margaret's chapel,
another on Westminster abbey - and
they were all different. One said IL
o'clock at noon, another said five min
utes before II, another said five min
utes after -. might as well have con-
cuded that there is no such thing as
time because the three timepieces were
different as for you to conclude that
there is no such thing as pure Christi
anity because the churches differ in
their statement of it.
But let us all rejoice that, although
part of our family may worship on
earth in one church and part in an
other church or bowed at the same
altar in compromise of preferences,
we are, if redeemed, on the way to a
perfect church, where all our prefer
ences will be fully gratified. Great ca
thedral of eternity, with arches of ame-
thysts and pillars of sapphire, with
floors of emerald and windows aglow
with the sunrise of Heaven! What
stupendous towers, with chimes angel
hoisted and angel rung! What myriads
of worshipers, white robed and coronet-
ed! What an ofliciator at the altar,
even "the great High Priest of our pro-
S2ssion" What walls, hung with the
captured shields and flags, by the
church militant passed up to the church
triumphant! What doXolcgies of all
nations Coronet to coronet, cymbal
to cymbal, harp to harp, organ to oU