The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1901-01-01

1
)een necessity. for the church must
Walk by faith not by sight. Living as the
hurch must b. the as vet not fully
.omprehended rule and revelation OF her
Master, it is but proper that she should
prove all things, and try the spirits II
hey be of God. Hence the church has
1een slow to receive some of the discov-
cries of science, fearing lest she should
9e found warning against God But, the
,burch will in the Goth Century awake
n the fact that the God of nature is the
God of the Bible, and that He who wrote
he mute record Of the rocks. is the
same as He who inspired the Psalms and
bestowed the visions of prophets. So that
n the goth Century God will be worship
ned not only in temples made with hands,
9ut also in the leafy grove. on the noun
ain side and in the Vaster temples of
rature Devout worshippers will see Him,
not only in the miracle of multiplication
If bread, but in the daily wonder of wav
ng harvest fields; not only in the raising
rom the dead of the widows son. but also
n the healing balm and soothing anodyue
STAYED by His own hand in many an herb
nd mineral
lie CAulCn Va IlS SVAu 1ChNuiy WIZ
.ealize more fully her true mission. And
What is that mission? Let the Great
Teacher declare, The Spirit of the LORD
upon me, because he hath anointed me
% preach the gospel TO the poor; He
hath sent me to heal the broken hearted,
O preach deliverance to the captives and
recovering CT sight to the blind, to set
at lberay them that are bruised to
preach the acceptable year Of the Lord.
In other words the church will broaden
he scope of her work, caring for the life
hat now IS as well as for the life to
iome; and considering the wants of the
whole man, physical, mental and moral,
she will establish institutions, build
homes for the unfortunates and endow
colleges. Probabilities will largely
suoercede doctrines, and dogmas will
Weld place to correct living. 1t requires
no prophet TO foresee these things. for
coming events cast their shadows before
hem
SOURCE OF SOLICTTUDE
Rev. Eugene Daniel, d. d.. Pastor
Presbyterian Church-The opening CEN
fury brings it's sources of solicitude,
Is well as qualification. 1t must be con-
used that the greater part of these lies in
certain conditions found at home. The
eyes of the watchmen upon the walls Of
Zion cannot be closed TO the danger aris-
ing from a growing laxity as to the OBJ
;ervance Of the Sabbath. The complex
les of labor in our growing civilization
Inder its increasing difficulty even to
Known ones duty and growingly more i'm
,ortant to keen the Christian conscience
awake and alert as TO the sanctity of this
great foundation stone of personal and
public religion.
There, too, is the increasing neglect of
religion in the family. No church can
have any more real religion in the con-
gregation than is to be found burning on
he altar at the family hearth-stone.
Church courts of all denominations are
blowing the trumpets Of alarm as to the
peril overshadowing the opening century
because, in this busy age, too many homes
ire abandoning family prayer end rele-
eating the religious instruction of the
children to other lips than those of Chris
zion fathers and mothers.
Net another conspicuous danger, not
looming in the future, but actually pres
emit, is the practical contempt which, in
all our larger cities, is being poured upon
fhe Sabbath evening services of nearly all
he churches. At a meeting of ministers
Chicago not long since, the most emf
nent ministers of the city discussed this
matter, with tears and almost with
yroans of august Some of them admitted
that they had yielded to the tricks of in
1ucements and of enticement to try to get
Gods own people to attend their self
appointed services in their own houses of
worship; to lectures, to sacred concerts,
and other pitiful expedients. Finding the
result to be still blank space and empty
oews, these ministers poured out their
confession of sin to God and resolved
that, come veal or woe to themselves,
they would reform this evil and hence
forth be true to their convictions by hold
ing genuinely religious services and
preaching nothing but Jesus Christ and
Him crucifed. The anguish of those SER
wants of God over those empty pews on
Sabbath evening is shared by countless
pastors in the largest churches in all our
cities throughout the land. At the be-
ginning Of the century it is to be hoped
that the church will have a thorough and
extensive reformation affecting two
parties; first pulpit demagogues who de-
liver political harangues and literary es-
says rather than sermons; second, formal
professors of religion who Systematically
make appointment to meet their God in
sacred worship every week on Sabbath
evening and without excuse break it al
most as often as they make it,
The century has been characterized by
free thought and bold discussion in Theo-
logy Criticism of the Bible has run to
the point of destructive radicalism. The
indications now points to reaction. The
conservative school of thought is en-
couraged to hope that the pendulum is
still destined to swing clear in the arc
of sacred truth. The Bible is the book
most largely printed and most generally
sold of any in the who:a world
LED ON AND UPWARD.
Rev. NJ M. Marshal, D. d., pastor
Christ Church-The Nineteenth Century
is now remembered with the irreYocable
past and it has been by all odds the most
marvellous in the history of the human
race. The record of it's material progress
reads like story in the Arabian nights.
We fail to realize it's magnitude. because
of the gradualness of its development and
our familiarity with the facts. If we
could roll back the scroll of time and
look upon world without a steamship or