The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-03-11
CENTEREp IN CHRIST
WILL BE THE RELIGION OF THE
TWENTIETH CENTURY.
mo MAN SAVE JESUS ONLY"
TEXT OF REV. CHARLES III.
STRONG's TALK AT ST. JOHNS.

Mr.. Strong's First Address to His
Congregation Since His Illness.
From the Same Text He Preached
First to st. Johns Twenty-three
Years AgO-Creeds and Dogmas
Are Incidents; Relationship of
Christ to Man the Living Truth the
Church Observation-Disclosures of
Bible in What 1t Inspires Man to
Do.
Rev. Charles H. Strong preached at st.
Johns Church yesterday morning his first
sermon since his return from the North, 4
where he went to undergo treatment for
the severe illness which has afflicted
him.
The circumstances which surrounded
this first talk, for it was scarcely a ser
mon, by Mr.. Strong to his congregation,
made ID of even more than usual inter-
est. This is the twenty-third year of his
incumbency as rector of St. Johns Par
ish, during which long period he has wit
messed the gradual disappearance of al
most all of those who were at the first
his active assistants in the conduct of
the church work, pass from the scene of
earthly activities into the great beyond.
There has been a change of thought as
well as of men in this time and some of
the concepts of religious action that were
then most deeply roted have passed with
those who held them. Mr.. Strong, him
self if a pioneer in the new movement
and sometimes very nearly a martyr to
his convictions, had returned to his con-
gregation from what at one time seemed
to be the very gates of death. Still he is
in weak health and though only time, per-
haps, is now needd to restore his former
strength of body, he is able to stand on
his feet not longer than a few minutes at
time. He sat yesterday, while Rev. Mr..
Woodward, the assistant rector of the
church, read the service.
Mr.. Strong had not expected to speak,
but it was the wish of his congregation
that he should, and as he listened to the
reading of the service something of the
thoughts above outlined passed through
his mind. 1t so happened that the lesson
for the day was from St. Matthew's &C
count of the TRANSPORTATION, containing
the word, mo man save Jesus only" 1t
which Mr. Strong preached his first SER
mon to the congregation of st. Johns
twenty-three years ago, and it brought
wildly to his mind the varied experiences,
the enduring friendships, the fruition of
young enthusiasts and ambitions, the
lost illusions and the garnered pleasures
of hope that his pastorship had brought
him. His talk, thus engendered was in
innate and personal in it's character, and
it caught and held the sympathetic in
terest of his people as no more studied
and therefore less feeling and tender eff
fort could possibly have done.
The thoughts that had thus induced the
little talk he proposed TO make We're in
dicated by Mr.. Strong when he began. At
the TRANSPORTATION the favored apostles
had seen Moses and Elias talking with
Christ. When recovered of their fear,
they lifted up their eyes, the representa-
tives of tie law and the gospel had dis
appeared and they saw no man, save
Jesus only"
Mr.. Strong said that from the first mo-
ment of his ministry, it had been his pur-
pose to teach that in the Divine scheme
of things the older order had disappeared
and that the hope of a redeemed world
was and is in Jesus only. The transfigura-
ton had not alone served to indicate the
Divine approval of Christ's mission on
earth, but it had cast it's illumination
upon and about the Divine purpose. This
was the message, said Mr.. Strong, that he
had striven to bring to his people through
out his ministry-that Christ Himself
bears witness, that Christ is the central
thought.
Below the Mount of Transformation,
when that glorious vision burst upon the
eyes of the apostles, was the same world
of sin and suffering that exists to-day,
Then, as now, its hope of redemption lay
in Christs acquaintance and sympathy
with human sorrow and suffering. 1.-The
church and the Bible and the creed have
all their missions, but Christianity is CEN
tered in Christ. The greatest thing in
the world, the one great thing, is Christ,
not dogma"
There was much current speculation,
said Mr.. Strong, as to what would be the
religion of the twentieth century. Pre-
dictions as to its characteristics were not
few; but the truth of am or these time
alone could reveal Certainly. great
changes would come in the existing popu-
lar forms of religious belief, but it might
be confidently believed that there would
be no loss in the real essentials of belief
and that Christian effort would not be
less strongly exerted to advance the great
idea of the fatherhood of God and the
brotherhood of man.
There were many who knew but little
of the life of Christ and of his deeds on
earth, whose acquaintance with the bibli-
cal story of His ministry was exceedingly
vague, who yet understood perfectly the
relationship He bore to human sorrow aud
suffering. In this essential of Christianity
the religion of the twentieth century
would not be deficient.
The Bible itself is an evolution, said Mr.
Strong. Its inspiration is not so much
the inspiration of God as what it inspires
man to do. If in the cycle upon which
the world has just entered it inspires him
to acknowledge the motherhood of the
race and 10 mould his relations with
his fellows into the likeness of the Re-
deemer's mercy. charity and loving kind
ness il will have served It's purpose well.
FIREMEN'S DOG STOLEN.