The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1902-06-27

world and to draw the worlds life
near to it. And just because this
should be the tendency of the church
l have chosen to speak to you this
morning concerning 1.-The Church of
the Living God. +"
Nothing is more often talked about
than the church and nothing is more
often talked about in a petty and
mechanical and formal way, but God
forbid that there should be any petit
ness or fornality in our talk about 1T
today. am speaking to you out OF
five years experience in the church
five years are not many but we accept
the decimal system of enumeration and
this is the first haltingplace. They
are years enough in which to observe
some things at least and some things
that are of serious moment. | lave
no fear that l am going to run short
of observations to present to you; my
fear is that may not present them so
that they will have just the effect
that l want them to produce.
"The church of the Living God. -
What an inspiration there is in this
combination of words. The sounds
of words and their combinations pro-
duce influences of different character
just as truly as musical sounds do.
Some are as liquid and tender as the
melodies of Brahms and Rubenstein !;
some are as full of suggestion and
feeling as Shumann's Faust or
Chopin's Convent Bell; while others
have all the majesty and inspiration
of Handel's oratorios and Bach's Pas
sion Music. If we think of the church
as a human organization or an ag-
gregation of humanity selected &C.
cording to UNCONVENTIONAL affiliations
it's name will be far from majestic
and very uninspiring but the very
title: 1.-THE Church of the Living
Colds sufficient to stir our souls
to their very depths.
There is something removed great
ways above pettiness in the name
1.-THE Living God - it is one name of
the Deity that profane men do not
use irreverently and reverent men
use sacredly; whenever we hear it it
produces feeling of sanctity or So
berness, at least. Even when Mr..
Kipling wrote about the despised and
abused water carrier in the British
Army:
"Tho, I've belted you and f1ayed you ;
By the Living God, that made you.
You re better man than l am,
Gunga Din. Z"
We are apt to forget the levity of
the preceding verses and think about
the God who created us and still lives
and is very conscious of what we are
doing at the present moment. We
cannot enter into the presence of God
without awe; as long as our thought
of Him is the thought of an ABSTRACT
and indefinite idea or an Impersonal
Creator we have little feeling in the
matter but when the thought of Him
us a living person takes hold of us
and becomes vivid and graphic in our
minds; when we feel that we are in
the presence of the Almighty and at
His mercy we become more thought
full and reverent and we tread more
cautiously. And so it is or so it
would be if you realized that the God
who founded the Church and to whom
each local church is dedicated is as
real and living and present as the
minister who conducts it's services.
would not ask to do more this
morning if I could only make you
know that this is the church of God
and not the church of Presbyterian
men and women in this village and
that it is the church of the Living
God.
There are two classes of people, to
whom, particularly, I wish to speak
this morning. First, to those who
caunot see that the church is doing
much or making much Roadway in
the world to those who measure its
progress by numbers added to the
roll, who gauge its activity by noise
and demonstration and special SER
vices that are often considered the
hall-marks of a wideawake spirit.
And second to those who are not
greatly interested in it and its well
fare, who do not look upon it with a
kindly glance nor deem it worthy of
very great attention or support.
1 might speak, and I think profit
ably, about ''what the church ought
to do for those outside of it's congre-
CATION, the unchurched; what it
ought to do as a working institution
to relieve the poverty and ignorance
and sufferings of the world" or some
kindred topic, or l might appropriate
ly have chosen to speak of what it
ought to do for it's own loyal and de-
vout adherents, these that assemble for
worship and arm themselves for war
fare and strip themselves for service"
or 1 might have essayed to consider
chow it may best praise and glorify
the God to whom it is dedicated, ="
or / might even have decided to pre-
sent what we ought to do for it"
but have elected phase of its life
that seems to me more practical and
more needful and more fitted to this
occasion than any of these; it is this,
What is the Church Doing Here and
Everywhere; Now and All the
Time?'
l am willing to make some admis-
sions that may seem discouraging