The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-06-12

] they cannot tell friend from foe, whose
! heart can no longer find in the cross
| anything worth living for or dying for
| and who continually threaten the pastor
with desertion unless he offers his mer-
! Cenaries a larger bride of pleasure than
| that which is held out by the concert
| hail and the saloon, 1t is this thing
! that gives us so many members with
| strong nomadic instincts, who have
never sacrificed anything for their faith
and so find it very easy to break their
attachments to the old, and who are
| like those denizens of the boarding
! house who accumulate no furniture,
and find it very easy to pack up and
move. Perhaps they do not like the mu-
sic, or are put in a poor pew, or see a
man against whom they have grudge,
or think the sermon is too dry, or hear
an appeal for missions, and SO they
wander off to another church as easily
as the cuckoo slips into the nest OF
another bird Like sea-wrack, torn
from its native rocks by the boisterous
waves washed about until it touches
many shores, now borne in somewhere
by the rising tide now carried back in
to the sea by the refiuent waters; so is
the life Of many a Christian, who never
fastened himself by deeds of generosity
and self-sacrifice to any one branch Of
the church of Christ, and so the slight
est wave of circumstance is sufficient
to loosen him from his mornings, and
leave him to drift in and out OF the
doors of the churches. with no home
anywhere
This much we may learn from the
fathers. | grant you that they were
somewhat inclined to press the matter
little, as if the Lord had said, Marrow
is the mind that leadeth unto life, but
he did say that something is narrow,
and in the rugged earnestness of their
self-sacrificing spirit they came very
near to the heart of the whole matter,
/ am glad that l live in more liberal
times; but there is liberality that
sounds the death-knell of all religion.
The drowsy laXity and the ease indul-
gence. the good natured indifference
that arises from lack Of insight into the
vileness of sin, the shining aftability
that is as uninterrupted and as tiresome
as the pleasant weather in desert,
broken by no storm of penitence and
answered by no harvest of love-this is
simply a mockery of the Christian viz
tue of sympathy. because it overlooks
wickedness from lack of love of good
ness.
l would suggest one other thing we
may learn from our ancestors; but l
would be understood to do it in no spir-
it of pessimism. Though we cannot go
l11oly +p a bp1iaf ~, % IlniOn Of church
and state we might be a little more
careful perhaps about double standards
of morality, and We might insist a lit
tie more on the fact that righteous
ness exalteth a nation" We have all
been reading recently in the papers
about the national gatherings of our
great denominations, / wonder If you
noticed, as l did, the absence in their
discussions of certain burning questions
of the day. Did they take up the spirit
of self-seeking greed that we are told
has cornered the supply of grain in In
dia so that vast multitudes are dying
of starvation, not alone because of lack
of supplies, but because there is not
enough money to buy at the price at
which they are held? Did they consid-
er that constituencies condition of
trade that led a recent Wall street spec
ulator with strange heartlessness and
barbarity to turn out into the world
thousands of poor work people to walk
the streets in dumb despair that he
might give color to the pretense that
he was losing in his business, and so
make a million or two? Did they seek
to impress upon their prophets the ur
gent duty of resisting the corrupt po- |
litical tendency that enables great |
body of free-booters to double the price
of ice that the poor inhabitants Of our |
cities may pay dividends on hypotheti-
cal stock that earns money by the
methods of the burglar? Did they at
tempt to grapple with few OF the
the family life of our day the obstrue-
tons to justice in our courts and the
awful problems of the great city, where
human beings swarm the narrow
streets, haunt the markets for castaway
food and creep out on fire escapes and
truck wagons on hot summer nights, for
Just a breadth or two Of Gods free air?
No, nothing was said about these ques-
ton. One is almost tempted to ask,
What, then, do these people regard as
all Important" Let me illustrate by
going back to our ancestors! 1t is a fact
well known to students of history that
there was not always a Baptist and
Congregational church in this country.
At first they We're one body under the
name Of the Independents" They
practiced two forms of baptism and
1ever baptised infants. AS time passed
IN some of the more cultured wanted to
oaptise their babies and the whole ques-
ion of baptism was opened up for dis
3usesion So there became two denomi-
nations. Now supposing you and l had
gone to the atonal gathering of our
denominations with hearts on
ire with the awful problems Of the day
and bad proposed a union of the two
bodies on the old basis, for the purpose
If presenting a solid front to the forces
If iniquity in the world, what sort of
reception do you think would have been
accorded US? II will stir UP your pure
minds" said the apostle, "by way Of re-
membranes"
1t is certainly true, of societies as of
that when thick mists of in
Inference hide all the landmarks of
aith; when the message of the infinite
alls on ears grown dull with the din of
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