The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1902-07-25
The Good Of Going to Church.

, the church and the uSclCSSHcSS Oi bcyUrli-
ing Il member OF it and OF attending its
>rrvices. The only way we can charitably
account for the raising nfsuch a question
a Is that the questioner has lost sight of
" the large and universally excellent work
II of the church by brooding too long over
the shortcomings of individuals They
= tail to distinguish between the church and
70 the members of the church, and then they
. lInputc the sins of the few to the many,
and cite the hvpocrlteS aseXamplcs of the
church'S product. 1t is not necessary to
say anything about the fairness of such
treatment.
But IT anyone wants an answer to t his
, question, we shall not he at Il loss to give
such "A reply as ought to make the doubt
ing questioner ashamed of himself Our
only difficulty is to compress the vast
amount of available material into the
limits OF newspaper article. Here then
are some things which deserve careful
consideration.
First we appeal to history. What has
Christianity done
No one but anignoraut crank ora will. |
fully blinded person can say that Chisti- !
anlty has failed. The miracle of nineteen |
centuries of Christian history is the |
strongest argument for its truth. The !
church has produced the present dav |
civilization ard morality. And there is !
as great difference between this and the |
morality of the ancient world as there is
between day and night. Woman has
been raised from Il creature OF pleasure to
| the highest position III society. Christi.
anity alone has perceived the power Of
! woman for good and then made it posi-
! bic for her to realize that good. The
| Christian family is better and nOblcr and
| purer than anything the ancients ever
! dreamed Of with the possible exception
| OF the Jews; but even then the morality
OF the average Christian family is superior
to that OF the average Jewish family at
any period of old testament history. The
state has been influenced beyond what
we ordinarily believe. Christianity has
taught the Divine Nnission of tbs state |
and urged obedience to it as the uphol,lcr {
OF the common rights of men, and has
tempered that rule with Justice and liberty ,
as it never had been before. Where is |
there any government that can pretend !
to be Just ami free which is not, either $
directly or indirectly, a product of Christi /
anity? AS James Russell Lowell once :
said, "show me a place ten miles square {
anywhere on the face of the globe that is r
fit for decent man to live i'll where the =
Gospel of Christ has not been preached,
and then will feel disposed to listen to c
your fine arguments The vast multi
tude of hospitals, of charitable and phil.
anthropical institutions are a fruit OF
Christianity not one of them was ever
known or seen i'll the ancient world. The
sick and the poor and the outcaSt were
despiSed and left entirely to their own de-
vices when they were not actually driven :!
from the habitations of men into the will !,
lcrness. People had no use for "thc
weak tbinuS ,,f tbn ,,-p,-II'' ,.i,irI ~
we Sec God has chosen Ito confuund the "
things which are mighty" The Red y
Cross and all similar societies that have t.
lessened the horrors Of war get their in (.
spiration from Jesus Christ. The protec- -
ton that is given to children. and the Il
sentiment that has made childhood sacred g
and inviOlable are unknown in heather -
lands even today where parents may de- =
Stroy the children they do not want 4
Christianity has abolished slavery bv a
teaching the brotherhood of man, the II
Fatherhond of God and the universally
Of this religion. These and other such re- =,
suits of Christian labor are rightly called t.
a miracle; no ancient would have believed 4
such a thing possible. And this would 10
never have been brought about without a,
church going along with church teaching
Such has been the work of the church in
society at large.
But its influence has been still more po-
tent in the lives of its individual members ! .,
The church reaches society for the most
part through its members, Just as man
Uses the different members of his body, ca
one for one purpose and another for an ~,
other to serve the good of his whole body;
his hands and arms and various other re
members and organs are the media fe,
through which he works. A body with
only one member to perform all of its diff :,
terent functions stands at the very bot
tom of the scale of being. AS we examine
the higher forms of life we find more or -
gans and members, each of which has n
its own proper function assigned to it.
And the higher the beingis, the more mem
bers it has to enable it to perform the
functions of its more complex life. The
highest and most perfect body in the
world is the church, which is the Body of
Christ. The vast amount of teaching i'll
the New Testament concerning the being
in Christ" shows plainly that there is :;
vital and living connection between r
church members just as there n between ]
the different members of any living organ
ism. We express this doctrine in the
Greed by saving: 1--WE believe in the
communion ofSaints." And communion
means 'partaking of or "a fellowship
Will IL lIlS6tllS IlIetl NC
one body in Christ, and every one mem
beers one of another" The member which "
is cut off from the body, like the twig "
from the vine must die and wither away
like branch that has been cut off The y
church is the Body of Christ, and body "
must act collectively. When one member
is at home, and another in the fields, and =
a third at church, the rest we know not n
where how can there be any united &C
ton of the body as whole? The church
was made to act, and to act as Il body, VI
not as individuals. If the church has not
realized and lived up to its IN
ideal and has not accomplished its whole II
work, it is because there has been too
little church going. The members which "
were designed only for seeing and hearing y
find out that they have to do also the
walking and running and heavy lifting. V
Or if the legs go to church they may dis. fe
cover that the eyes and ears staid at I
home that day, and the service to that III
degree will be unedifying and Improbable &
you will -because the body !
had no means of appropriating the u
protfered blessings. The church then, 4
being body as it is, must act in union j
and together. And there is an inestima- u
BILE social influence in this collection, or lC
worship of the church. The :,
same LIE nOWS through all as the DlOod II
does through the veins. And it builds up
and sustains all unconsciously. There is
Il force i'll the united worship of the church
which private worship can never have.
The church, then. has accomplished -,
wonders in the face of tremendous oppo- ~
sition. Its good effect can be traced both N
in the lives of individual Christians and
in society at large. And it is clear that
no such effect could have been produced,
had it not been for continual public
Christian worship. If then it has done
this, land it most surely has), there is
some good of going to church.
Again, there is special presence of
God in the church. Christ's promise was
to be where the two or three were
gathered i'll His main. that is, in the
church or congregation, whether there
be building or IL t. He did not promise
that any special presence OF His would
be in the fields or on the waters where
man was trying to come into communion
with nature or his own selfish desires in
stcadof Jesus Christ. TIL: tendency to-
day is to take the Supernatural out of -
life. But Christianity has accomplished b
its work by belief in the supernatural; G
and as soon as one extracts that belief Al
from religion, he rohs it of it's great moral :,
and motive power. Of course the Christ - -.
~ ,, bal;avaS that God j. avnr,- w here but Oil