The times., 1899-09-25
CHURCH OF OUR FATHER.
DIR. Thompson, of massachusetts. on
the Might of Truth.

the Might of Truth
The pulpit at the Church of Our Father.
at the corner of Thirteenth and L Streets
northwest, was filed yesterday by Rev. Dr.
j. F. Thompson, of Plymouth, Mass, who
officiated at both the morning and evening
services. At the morning service he de-
cIared in eloquent terms that truth, nc
matter how bitterly opposed, will ulti-
mately prevail The text was taken from
John xviii:37, in which Christ assures
PLATE, when arrsigned before the Roman
tribunal that he is the King and that he
was born that the truth might be known.
up to the time of the persecution of
Christ, from the dawn of history" said Dr.
Thompson, two mighty social forces had
been struggling for dominion. One, the
spirit of military achievement from which
the nations of antiquity had gained their
-eminence, had been dominant from pc
riods beyond the memory of history. The
Pharaohs derived their greatness from the
power of their military forces, as did AS
syria and Babylon. 1t was by conquest that
Persia and Greece secured and maintained
their temporary supremacy. The greatness
of Cyrus and Alexander was due TO their
ability to manipulate military forces. The
spirit of military achievement had it's cul-
mination in the establishment OF the Roman
Empire, the greatest the world had known
The imperial splendor of that worldwide
empire was the climax.
.'The other social force was the faith in
the existence and providence of God, the
predominant feature in the life of the He
brew people. This force had its culmina-
tion in the life and teaching of Jesus, the
Christ, who espoused the idea of the
fatherhood of God, the brotherhood OF
man. and the life beyond this existence
These two mighty forces had been growing
in strength but up to the time OF Christ
they had never come into opposition.
-"It was at the trial of Christ that the
paths of the two forces became crossed
It was at this point that the representa-
tives of the two influences, PLATE. the
emissary Of the physical. and Chyist, the
exponent of the spiritual, met to settle the
question of supremacy. PLATE was backed
by the entire military force OF the mighty
empire which he represented. Christ was
there without friends and without counsel.
but was armed with the conviction that
truth, though it be downtrodden. will pre-
vail and that he would be regarded in fu-
ture ages as the sovereign. Christ was
sentenced and died. His followers were
scattered, but in three hundred years
Christianity, with no carnal weapons but
existing upon its spiritual and ethical
truths, conquered the empire. but it final
ly died of it's own moral degradation. It.
however, remained for the new religion to
build up an empire stronger than the old
receiving strength from the example of its
founder. Crime has been committed in its
name. This is one of its weaknesses, but
one great truth has been developed, and
that is that God requires that his follow
ers live and follow in the footsteps of
rrg-Z
and error die. That which is wrong, that
which is out of harmony with the universe,
contains inherent elements which will ul-
timately cause its downfall -