The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-01-30
IN THE CITY CHURCHES
ADVANTAGES OF DISADVANTAGES"
DISCUSSED BY j. CUMMING SMITH.
Rev. II. j. ViIIers Talks of the 'YOung
Man Who Slept in the
Church.

At the Tabernacle Church, yesterday, Rev.
]. Cumming Smith took for his subject:
THE Advantages of Disadvantages" his
text being, Phil. i, II: For this happened
Unto me for the furtherance of the gospel"
And So" said Mr.. Smith, faith is only
high form of reason which is able to believe
in many things not seen, because every
thing we see points in their direction, we
can chime with Paul. He was a really re-
gal spirit He did not teach that God of
resource could not have made a better world,
or that world could not have been organ
lied on another basis than sin, and pro-
duced lofty and lovable souls without going
through the furnace of pain. He merely ac-
cepted the situation as compatible somehow
with infinite love and told us to gather les
sons from sorrows The plaques and ship
wrecks and farewells of earth can be braid
ed and embroidered into an eternal scheme
of goodness if we but wrest the good from
them. Our town is in a muffied panic over
a deadly Infection. This will do good if it
teaches our citizens to honor our Board of
Health. 1t will do good if it teaches men
to honor simple sanitary science 1t will do
good if it forces upon US a fact too often
forgotten, the fact of our social unity. Our
city is organicaly one. We draw chasms
between classes, but a plague brings out
the points we all have in common and rubs
out the lines OF artificial distinctions.
have seen in the woods the birds pecking at
one another so long as the sun shone
through the leaves, but when the black
cloud of storms rolled over have seen them
hushed into friendliness by the sense of a
common danger. believe if you could fire off
a Krupp gun in front of the cages where
lions and tigers lie you could break down the
bars Of separation because a common dan
ger would quell their ferocities for the time.
''The same law reigns in the sphere of re-
ligious life. The church is bad, to be sure,
but so is every institution; and the law is
that criticisms and challenges help to purge
the church. When an arch enemy of our
faith enters a city to lecture many people
grow faint with fear. One would suggest
smelling bottles to restore their sinking
sririts Is not the law of history clear that
atheisms of all sorts always put the best
things on their mettle. and that agitations
prevent a sickness or stagnation from
warping our truest life. We need these en-
emies. 1t is a law of nature / welcome
loud-voiced infdels, because they compel the
church to probe the deep. real life of our
Christ. Three forms OF attack there are;
First, there are inhdels who rant against
dogmaS that found currency in dark ages,
but which the same wisdom of the church
has long ago declared 10 be foreign To her
faith. Let demagogues hammer away at
such till the arms ache, but they only waste
their fury on graves! Then there are ag-
nostics who for a fat purse inVeigh against
u truth because 1t transcends the level of
our common reason. Such cannot hurt our
cause. Our faith is our higher reason. and
our higher reast)n sees mysteries enVeloping
every discovery IN science. Our higher rea-
son would scorn a book from God that never
scared beyond our power of wing We court
opposition because 1t only unveils the essen
thai beauty and loftness OF our faith
Another form remains. 1t is mean
and base form. man who cam
not distinguish between the eternal
truths of our Bible and the thousand
fading accomplishments Of those truths
between architecture and its early scaffold-
ings Is an incompetent. And so is he an in
competent who asks an IngersOll 10 blush
for shame because he cannot pass an ex-
animation for school teacher, or because he
does not take high rank as lawyer
Neither did William Pitt or Lord Macauay.
Law requires noble order Of talent. but