The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-04-29
ON SATURDAY CLOSING
PRACTICAL TALK BY PASTOR OF
TABERNACLE CHURCH.
Urges that Business Men Close Their
Houses on Saturday After
noon at Least.

The regular morning sermon of the Rev.
j. Cumming smith. of the Tabernacle Pres
byterian Church. was prefaced by a short
talk upon the Saturday closing Of business
houses. He said the Sunday question was
largely a Saturday question. Men require
sports, the freshness Of rural places and
the recreation of the woods and streams
as much as they need money, food or edu-
cation. He thought that the reason that
many estimable young men do not marry is
because the strenousness of business life
makes them indisposed evenings and Sun
days TO make an effort TO get out among
their friends and get acquainted with them.
He thought that a bird which did not now
and then stop to pour forth a song would
be a poor bird i'm gathering worms, and
that the business man who supplied for his
employees liberal and regular periods of va
cation without loss of wages would secure
to himself the best of their labors. and far
in excess in value of the cost of the vaca-
tions. lie urged tina owners of business
places study the question and close Satur-
day afternoons, at least.
The pastors regular sermon was in keep
ing with his remarks on the labor question,
iC ACAb OOAuS tdhCh Ni1NbitN Al
verses IS TO 30. from which the topic of
"'The Two Rests was taken. He said in
part:
Our Lord addresses all the weary and
heavy laden-that is. the world! For who
knows no unrest? Who do not feel them~
selves out of rhythm? Who are conscious
of complete satisfaction in the spiritual
sense? Beneath the glitter of opulence
as beneath the pinch of poverty. beneath
the veneer of culture as beneath the shabby
coat of ignorance. the soul tossed about as
a mar in pain that skill cannot quell and
the one universal demand of the world is
rest. TIL first rest comes with the faith
that God loves US as His own. He for
gives our sin. He restores us into conf
dence. He sOws a new repentance and res
olution in our souls. The atonement of
Jesus was not to make God willing to save
but man willing TO be saved. Nothing pre-
vents a fathers pardon TO a returning
prodisal- But a hundred things conspire
To steel ana stinen a man against the
return home.
Calvary has no upward attribute OF
softening or conciliating Gods government.
Indeed, II man cannot be at rest astray
from God, God cannot be at rest apart from
man. God must seek his child until that
chile is in the fold. The church visible
consists of all who profess; the church in
visible consists of all who really believe;
the church universal consists of all who
believe in God and are attuned TO His
spirit, whether they have heard of Christ
or not-such as Enoch and Job and Cor
nelius and Marcus Aurelius and Socrates.
i cannot fancy heaven shut To martyrs for
principle, however void their creed on some
points.
1.-The first rest is immediate. instantan-
eous. perfect. The second rest is gradual.
Learn OF me and take my yoke, and We
shall find rest The repose I'm Gods love is
the starting point; the continuous effort
70 come into harmony with a holy and in
telligent Being who encircles infinitude is
the progress toward final harmony. In a
sense the struggle toward il is our destiny.
The church Is in anxiety and unquiet. Why?
Because she is not in perfect harmony with
Gods mind. She must aim TO be or she
dies. Some are cast into narrowing fears
when the church endeavors TO express more
completely the truth of God. The alarm IS
unwarranted. The supreme theology is still
To be and the church is in travail for 1t.
1t is coming. Growing intelligence must
and the glory of His word. With all my
reverence for the past, | belong to the
church of the future. To me 1t is as clea:
as day that all our churches have their
follies and fetichisms; they are excellent
I'm some respects, but ali are grounded on
the creeds of men who dwelt in far
pastS when the air was lurid with con-
troversies and bitterness dethroned reason.
Our Presbyterian Church is surpassed in
power and mellOwness and catholicity by
none: but even she must reach cut after a
more sane and symmetrical system of truth.
The confession, once a haven, may yet be
a malstrom; a coat of the polemical sew
enteenth century may be a dead weight
in the twentieth. Truth must grow. Man
must aspire to greatening equipoise. Col
must be more and more discovered. The
principle of evolution overrides all other
principles.
Il fear the forecast less because every
new truth dawning out of the night
seems TO point most eloquently to Christ,
and our authority, as | have often said,
when you drop cant and discard platitude
| cur authority is not the Bible, but the
Christ. What He approves in the Bible
alone is for you and for me to hold to and
fight for. Hence the church is not at rest,
because not yet in chord with Gods bound
yet in poise. Things are on the rack be
cause the heart OF the world cannot cease
working toward larger truth and deeper
holiness. 1 saw once a child looking over
a fathers shoulder as he was prone on the
ground aiming "A rife at a distant target
Both took sight together. Both were still
and ~stirless. Both allowed for currents CT
air to swerve the bullet Both pulled the
trigger, and when the pun of smoke cleared
away both claimed the victory for hitting
the central circle. 1t was perfect unity
OF aim and action. And SO of life. How
can rest come when a soul jars with God?
How can the church rise TO her best when
incomplete creeds are o~bstlnately chung 10
as if they were final? And now can the
churches throw off their shackles while
small and soulless and unintellectua men
seem 10 tyrannize the still smaller men
However, the days of big small men, swell
ing dwarfs. are numbered. The scholars
and thinkers and praying soul winners are
vet to reign i'm these high realms.
At the evening service the ordination and
installation OF the elders and deacons elect
ed at the annual meeting OF the congregA l.
ton two weeks ago took place. The new
officers are:
Elders-W. o. Anderson, John C. Ingram,
Robert A. Brown and George III. Pratt:
Deacons-Herbert H.. Hadley, C.. p. Aten,
| Newell Stewart and Scion l.. Goode.
Sunday-school Superintendent-Robert a.
Brown.