The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-12-16
HALF.HEARTED RELIGION
SERMON BY REV. j. CUMMING SMITH,
OF TABERNACLE CHURCH.
Too Much COnscienceIess CIevernes,
in America, and Sunday Is Too
Distinctive.

The Rev. ]. Cumming Smith, of the
Tabernacle Presbyterian Church, preached
yesterday morning from the text, 1.-The
pots in the Lords house shall be like the
bowls before the altar" He said:
I'VE have heard so often that the church
has come down from God; that we nave
lost the far deeper. richer truth that the
church has grown up through man; that
il is not like furniture on casters, brought
from outside into house, but like the man.
tel or staircase, built into the very house
itself; that the church is the world In its
bloom, and stands for the best thought of
the world for the nOblest life of the world !;
that il affirms the largest God as He moves
in our time and never Will things be right
until the church so symboliZes the divinest
and truest development that a man will
have TO apologize to the whole community
for not being Identified with 1t. The church
has grown out OF the WORLDS life and
voices its highest aspiration as the autumn
leaves we carry home are the finest types
Of the many-hued woods. Our fault to-day
is we worship a half-god with our half
self; hence our partiality in theologies,
hence our one-sidedness In enthusiasm!
We want to change our fractions into COM
plete figures and worship whole God with
a whole soul.
"Our artificialisms come in our manage
ment of our money; we hear people agi-
tating the question Of tithes, which Is on
the surface compared to the question
whether conservation does not mean that
every dollar belongs to God-every dollar
and every dime; and it is ours TO divide
our income with an unconditional sur
render and dedication of every dollar.
We artifcialize our religion when we set
apart holy days and forget that every day
lis equal TO the man whose whole life is
entempled by God. We artificialiZe or
enamel our religion when we warp our
creeds or narrow our charity to one sect,
when all men are alike the sons of our one
God. We artificialize our religion when we
distinguish between secular education and
religious culture, when man OF orbal
faith sees all science and all art drinking
deeply from the sources of all our life in
God and refuses TO call anything but
veneer the culture that tries to thrive and
glorify itself apart from God
Indeed, so wretched have been our sec
tional views that we nave looked on the
church too much like foreign affair, a
mere humorous growth. separate from the
vital organism itself. a piece of stucco
work rather than a pillar In the archi-
lecture: as much so as If II had been i'm
ported from China and foisted on our CIV
ilization. The phrase a supernatural
church has some truth, but more error.
1t has made religion sound abnormal. II
looks as if a thing smuggled from abroad
and we trying TO button II on to our
civilization. The reverse is the truth. 1t is
the best life of the world speaking. 1t is
man at his highest reach affirming the
divinest truth. 1t Is all the more from
God because it wells up from the deepest
souls of the race made in Gods own image
II saw a flock of wild birds last autumn
flying south, and when the leaders rose on
wing the rest rose, and when the leaders
rose again, again the whole flock rose; and
how, rhythmically they all rose in their
flight, And the splendid picture typi-
cal OF the churchill stands guide to a
whole God, not halved or quartered God
II stands for the whole race, not tribe OF
! clan; il utters, or ought to utter. the COM
plete and cosmical philosophy of Jesus
| it urges the hottest lessons, and, as leader
of humanity. voice of infinite love and
| holiness, it lifts the fight of the race to
/ higher levels. If the church were true tc
her Lord all atheism would be silent from
| shame. and no man of wealth or brain
/ could stand aloof from her without stulti
/ flying himself
! America has more cleverness, more
| briskness and scintilation than France
/ but America wants more vertebra and con
| science. We have churches at every corner
/ and yet can't impress the community
very easily with the reality of our religion
/ Our worship of wealth is vulgarity. oul
praise of smartness void of moral power
/ is the meanest infatuation: we make Mon
/ day different from Sunday, our politics
from our prayer meeting. The prophet
| speaks the only solution: Let holiness b'
| written on the bells of horses; let our ev
! eryday life beam with the law of God We
/ chant i'm our sanctuaries. And to that We
are every day drawing nearer-a holmes:
pervading all spheres, a conservation
warming and subliming all realms OF
/ thought and work; one race one world
one God lover all and through all and IL
| ALL" and Christ supreme