The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-09-18
GOSPEL IN THE FAMILY.
Rev. {. M. Chapman breaches at Cen
trail Church.

trail Church.
Rev. Edward NJ. Chapman, associate
pastor of Central Congregational
church, delivered an impressive dis
course at yesterday mornings services
His subject was THE gospel in the fam
n.y. and his text was taken from the
ISL Corinthians, i:16-"And I baptized
also the household of Stephanas" He
said in part:
want to bring to your attention this
morning the place which the gospel
gives to the family, and the measure in
Whlch 1t depends upon the family for
its growth.
The place of the family as a unit Of
society and a responsible center of in
huence is recognized in scripture from
GENESIS to Revelations. All through the
Old Testament especially man is gem
orally thought of not merely as an in
dlVldual, but as holding a representa-
tive place. He not only stands for him.
self, but for his brethren and his child
rem to the third and fourth generation.
50 1t was d perfectly natural thing
that when the gospel of Christ came in
all the fullness of its beauty, and God
was manifested in the guise of love- it
should come to families; to the house
OF Peter; to the brothers and sisters of
Bethany: to Salcme and her sons; to
the centurion of Caesarea and those
VINO belonged to him; to the wife and
children of the Philippian jailor; and to
the household of Stephanas. But 1
doubt If there was ever a time before
when this doctrine seemed so far re-
moved from the common thought of
men as now.
Now we have done we'll to emphasize
Individual freedom. We are right in
thinking that in the last resort a man
must be judged by his own choices and
actions. But we have been going alto
gether too far in divOrcing men as in
dividuals from those relationships and
environments and the responsibilities
that belong to them and must be rec
ognzed by them if they are to be true
men.
To illustrate more exactly: We have
been emphasizing a mans rights to
compete with his fellow man for bust
ness by any and every means short of
actual fraud until the business world
mas reVolted and we are face to face
with the possible and probable tyranny
of the trust We have been emphasizing
mans right to sell his labor and to
compete with his fellow laborer with
out any thought of the real adequacy of
his remuneration, until the world of
stand face to face with the possible and
often actual tyranny of the trades
unions. We are living here in the midst
of revolution, though we do not always
recognize it. Revolution against our
over emphasis of the independence of
the individual and our attempt to set
him apart from those responsibilities as
a member of a family, and as a citizen
in community which really belong to
and condition him
The church was designed to lean and
lean heavily upon the family. One of it's
fundamental principles is that the pro-
misses are to the believers and their
children. Not to those children when
they have grown to manhood and
womanhood and can somehow earn a
promise for themselves, but from the
beginning of their lives. That is the
significance of the baptism of infants.
The church does not regard it as a
magic rite. 1t does not want parents to
bring their children as though it were
magic rite. But it does regard it as a
perpetual sign of the grace of God upon
the children of believers. The church
would always teach by means of it that
1T makes q difference, a difference from
the very beginning of life, whether a
child is born into an unbelieving or a
believing household. The church says to
the world every time one of her minis
ters lays his hands in the thrice blessed
name upon an infants head: There is
religion os the family
There is a faith into which children
may be born. One generation is not abb
solutely and completely set apart from
that which preceded by a horizontal
line of cleavage. There is still a unity
which includes a child with his parents
during all the is years of growth and
I /,