The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-10-09

It was when Augustus was emperor ol
 Rome and art and literature were in
 their golden age, that the power was beginning to depart from the empire
 It was when Michael Angelo had de-
 signed the magnificent dome of St. Pe-
 tefs that the pope began to sell indul- SencleS in Germany in order to gel
 funds to build 1t, and so aroused the
 moral indignation of Luther. Let us
 have all the loveliness we can in our
 churches! Let us feel that nothing is
 too fair to lay at the feet of Him, ir
 whom there is no beauty that we de-
 sire! Let us remember the words ot
 the apostle, All things are yours, and
 ye are Christ's, and Christ is Gods!'
 But let us never forget that when the
 heart departs it Is something broad and
 trusting withal; It is of little use to go on repeating fine words, and chanting
 beautiful psalms, and playing upon the sensibilities with elaborate rituals, if
 we have lost 'the secret of the Lord. ' l know man who has hanging in his home sword which his great-grand- father carried in the Revolutionary war, of which he Is very proud, and
 
 He belongs to a military organization, but when war was declared with Spain he managed to get out of going. Of course he wanted to go, and was great ly disappointed because he could not
 but really the pressure of business af- fairs was too great l know some reli- sious people who are very proud of the fact that they are walking in the ways of the ancents, and who lay great stress upon having an "apostolic church." but when some new war is de- clared that demands apostolic conse- cration, when some emergency appears calling for apostolic self sacrifice, then it is found that at heart they belong to that very world, against which the apostles were forever warning their followers. Xerxes once asked to see the sword of Leondas, and he sent it back with the words, q have a sword as good as that" To which the hero re- piled, Tell your Master that he asked to see my sword, not my arm" l sus- pect that some of our apostolic church es have improved somewhat, in their machinery, upon apostolic methods, but can hear Paul saying to them, You are asking to see our sword, not our arm.' When children get to the bottom of the page in the copy-book. they are generally far away from the copy, and after two thousand years of copying the form of apostolic Christianity, we are likely to get some very grotesque results What gave strength to the early Christianity was its nearness to Christ, and the fact that as yet the se- cret of the Lord" had not been forgot ten, and the effort to rejuvenate the church by copying the ancient forms must forever end in failure. It is not the outer life that gives birth to the inner, but the inner that fashions and forms the outer. Only short time ago we were very angry with certain western politician, because he thought he could make fifty cents worth a dol- lar by putting the stamp of the gov ernment upon it. And yet how often do we try the same thing in our re- zion? Men get the stamp of the church on them and they feel safe. get new members into the church and then breathe sigh of re- lief, and never give them another thought. We fancy religion is pro- duct of the church, and not the church ] product of religion. We ask to see the sword of the church and not it's arm. We look at the pulpit and the choir. instead of looking to see how much loyalty and love there is in our own hearts.
 And so we miss "the secret of the Lord"
 Napoleon never took a work of art if he could secure the artist. The paint ng ended with itself, but the painter was it's source and spring. It is not he man who observes Gods methods md who is ever looking for his com hands, who lives nearest to the Father It is the man who has entered into Gods idea, and who has come to expe fence some of the love from which the commandments spring. To make us he partakers of his essence, to shape IS into His image by the power of His ove, to lead us out of exile and servi- ude into the joy and blessedness of the livine life, this is the one great object If religion. God is not trying to get rom us little reluctant obedience to ,ertain arbitrary decrees. Here is a lower in my garden l am told to im-, l tate it. There are just two ways I an make a representation of 1t out of | wax. l can make it perfect in all but | me thing. It has no life, no fragrance. | J. I can go at 1t in another way. I | an plant a seed and grow another | lower. This is of course the true way. | The only way to initiate life is to i'm tate it's spirit. To copy it's form does ot truly reproduce it. The church will | e following Christ when 1t fills itself | with His spirit. We shall have a true | postolic Christianity when there is in our midst that fearless nd glad affection that the days of old reused in degenerate Rome, and star led her by the sight of a people whom ersecution could not terrify; who ] aced pain and death with an enthusi- sm that raised them infinitely above, he heroes of the republic; who went | bout amid the plague-stricken in | ines of horror and pestilence, with no bought but one of mercy; and who | tood beside the dying martyr, uttering 'ords of congra tulation, half envious hat it was not their privilege to lay | heir life at the feet of their blessed 1 ord. In that early church the repre- of our Lord Tn art had a curi- us history. They took the words to be terally true which say He hath no Jrn nor comelineSS" The first pie 1