Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1900-11-26
Our Social Equipment.

OhE SoCIsAA ElQufph1tnNs
81. Once we were a despised people.
Now only that, where people do not
know us. Bigotry stood in the way of
cur social influence. % Bigotry of
those differing from us. Many re-
ligious neighbors saw religion not as
sphere but as line, and that line
was the identical line in which they
were moving. They saw right forward
but nothing on the right hand or left.
Gould see nothing good in those
who did not walk in their particular
line. They imagined that we had
some contagion that was harmful to
the cause of Christ, and imagined this
simply because they did not possess it.
Well, we had contagion but it was
one that spread not sin but the light
of divine truth and led thousands away
from bigotry to the living Christ In
deed our religious neighbors were like
q poor, ignorant woman who approach
ed minister in cemetery where he
was burying dead man. She pulled
his sleeve and said: Sir sir, l want to
speak to you The minister said:
Woman, wait till have done No,
sir" she said, 81 must speak to you
at once Well what is it,? said the
minister Sir said she, you are bury
ing man who died with smallpox,
next my poor husband who never had
Il Such an association was the big
otry of our religious neighbors. They
were not social. (2) We have been
bigoted toward our religious neighbors.
We have thought because they lacked
some things vital, they lacked all
things vital. Our spirit toward them
was very much like that Procrustees
i'll Greeian mythology. He had an
IRON bedstead on which he used to tie
al those who fell into his hands. If
they were shorter than the bed, he
stretched them until they filled it; if
longer he cut off what extended over.
AT last another served him in the
same way. The moral is plain Our
eyes and those of our neighbors have
been opened and we have been led to
behold new and wonderful sights.
While we differed, and on vital points,
11,e cd hot or@ -
brethren. This discovery has led us
to walk and act as brethren.
%. We, as a people, are recognized
by other religious people.
Union church services, Y. P. S. c.
E. conventions made up of young peo-
pie of different churches land our own
prominence). Our own ministers in
close Fellowship with others in minis
terial union and reform work, and
the sermons of our own ministers fire.
quently in secular papers. These and
many other things show that the bar
riers are removed and that we are
A-A0i Z AZ q POGAbAO1 " CACl a pONCIlui
strong in communities. The social
power should be utilized for good. Are
we approaching our social equipment
and making it serviceable to Christ
and the glory of his cause?
Our Spiritual Equipment.
This is the most important. Many
religious people fail because their spir-
itual equipment is not complete. They
have money, intellect. social power.
and yet fail because their equipment
almost stops with this three-fold
equipment, when the one essential
thing needed is the browning element
the spiritual. Psalms 127.1.
q. We have the Bible-God's book.
Others have it. Others use it. We
have it. We use 1t in making it pre-
eminent above all other books. To
others it is the inspiration of God
ranking little higher than other
books. but not to them the onIv aufs1or-