The Oskaloosa herald. (Oskaloosa, Mahaska County, Iowa) 1885-1919, 1900-12-06
INAUGURAL ADDRESS
Delivered by Rev. A. C. Kaye
to the Mems Club.

The following excellent inaugural
address was recently delivered by
Rev. A. @. Kaye, the newly elected
president, to the MEMS Club of the
First Congregational church:
1t is not unreasonable so suppose that
a man belongs to one denomination, rather
than to some other, for reasSno which seem
sufficient to him. We are willing to allow
him liberty of choice, at least those OF us
are who feel convinced that all sincere be-
levers in Jesus Christ belong to that great
confederation which He called s'My body"
and we call the church. And if he should
say, "The church of my choice seems to me
to be nearer right than your church" 1
think nobody ought to feel offended or
even surprised; for no one who has any
regard for the teachings of the Bible can
think this a wholly indifferent matter. And
while we disclaim all sympathy with those
Pugnacious sectarians whose chief message
TO the world seems to be to tell us we are
all wrong and they alone can set us right,
ana with those scarcely less disagreeable
| people who spend most of their energy in
making extravagant claims, of one sort
and another, for their church, we think il
is proper to speak freely when the ocoa-
sion seems to demand it, of ones own
! church.
This is my apology. if one is needed,
for saying a few words, first of all, on the
Congregational Church as denomination
of Christian believers.
If it should appear that we speak of
Congregationalism with especial pride
and affection, it is not from any dee ire to
lose sight of the splendid history of some
other churches or minimize the services
which these great bodies have conferred
on mankind. In the evolution of the re-
tigious history of the world, each demon
nation has stood for some real advance
in thought or practice or for the defense
of some great principe necessary to lib
erty and progress. The Baptist stood for
something more than an idea as to mode
of baptism the Presbyterians for some
thing more than a system of Calvinistic
doctrine and church organization accord
ing to Presbyterian mode the EpIsoopa-
liam for something more than the idea of a
true church through the line of the Apos.
tolical succession of bishops properly
| constituted 4; the Roman Catholic for some
thing more than the supremacy of the pope
as the successor of st. Peter 4; the Metho
dist for something more than peculiar
doctrine of conversion and freedom of
prophesying the Friend for something
more than the abolition of sacraments
True, all denominations have spots in their
history that are especially bright, and
| others which it would be well to forget
Romanism has many pages in its history
which are quite indefensible, but there are
multitudes of Christian Romanists. Some
| Episcopalians still claim to be one of the
three branches which together constitute
the only true chui ch, but there are others
who are as broad in their spirit of affha
ton as honest men can well be. Baptists
| of several denominations say that INNER.
| sion is necessary to obedience to Christ.
if not much more than this but this is
not the prevailing complexion of the Bap-
fist denominations, though some of them
may still hold to close communion.
1t is worthy of mention also. that if the
Romanist contends that his church is the
one true church, and that it exists by
Divine right, clearly Presbyteripns and
! some Congregationahsts made the same
claim for their respective churches. There
are, in all probability, Presbyterians still
living, who are quite convinced that all
the churches mentioned in the New Tesla
ment we're of the Presbyterian pattern,
and that this was the form impressed upon
them by their Divine founder, and there
are Congregationalists who are Just as
firmly convinced that all the first churches
were Congregational in their polity. These
questions are purely historical, and must
be settled, if they ever are settled to every
body's satisfaction, which doubt, by the
historical expert. In this connection we
may notice, in passing, one sign of the
times which is significant As a rule peo-
pie do not care so much about these cues
tiOns of church's right to be-" on ac-
count of its supposed closeness to the an
cient model, as they do about its present
spirit and ideals. wish it were as easy
to drop out Of mind, in thinking of GER
tain churches, all the passionate polemics, |
all the barriers erected against human |
progress, all the actual brutalities com !
uitted in the sacred name of Christ, which |
disgrace their annals. But tonight let us |
remember only what is good. We recall |
the fact with pleasure, that early Metho- |
dists taught and Pr.fessed vital religious
experience and asserted its necessity in the |
religious life, at time when most churches
were absorbed in theological discussion
and sunk into a state of Journalism almost
as dead as that which preceded the Ref
ormation.
OF course, the new spirit of reality and
revival was beginning to arouse all
churches through other channels, and the
churches would have passed through a
great reformation period, If Methodism
bad never taken root but no one would
wish to rob the name of Wesley of single
leaf of the crown so justly accorded to him,
for his zeal and labor in preaching the
gospel. especially among the poorer and
more illiterate population of England.
and what we have said of early Methodism
9 true in another sense of the Friends.
They protested against Journalism in an
Ige of Journalism, when most nominal |
Christians seemed to regard being mem
,er of q church and Christian as meaning
title more than willingness TO be count
d in, to take the sacraments and TO give I