The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-09-29


half century there have been built ten
times as many churches as lodges OF all
sorts, and most of those who attend lodges
go to church also The Methodist Episcopal
Church alone builds two every day, ana
mas Tor two or three years. In short, the
paper Is most remarkable anachronism.
1t Is too late by nearly two thousand years
10 test the divine authority of the Christian
religion only by what is written about IL
In the collection OF books known the
Bible, or by the vagaries of some of its
teachers and the misconceptions OF others.
christianity is the greatest fact in history.
what Purports to be the history OF its be-
ginnings might have been fabricated. but
the c6rst se as Is sven Pv Rs
was In every way unique. II represents a
well-known, uneducated carpenter as sud
denly claiming fer himself divine origin
with most extraordinary mission. Many
disputed the authenticity of the claim, but
many believed, and the record shows that
many signs and wonders followed In con-
ings were as unique as His works.
He spoke having authority as TO
personal duties. and he announced
world and for the ages: and that the only
means OF its propagation was to be by
preaching. He left TO His disciples only
unique life which is summed up in the
short sentence, He went about doing
good" was ended by a tragic death. and
that, according to the record, was followed
the record. but all that might have been
fabricated by some irresponsible person
or persons, and might be really only fairy
story, or myth. or foolish fallacy; but
there followed the most monumental phe-
nomena in the worlds history. Almost i'm
mediately after the resurrection, which was
as much surprise to the disciples as to
any, they almost unconsciously began to
preach. For some reason, no matter what,
they attached great Importance TO the fact
and manner of His DEATH and to the fact
resurrection nd
ISOLATED with these and His singular life
the idea of redemption and the forgiveness
or sins. Some OF the alleged facts OF His
life and death and resurrection were denied.
Tor, said they, boldly and defiantly, None
of these things was done in corner" The
immediate result was that thousands OF
thoSe who had been familiar with the factS
or His life and death and resurrection gave
In their adherence to the claims He had
made and adjusted their lives to the stand
ards He had made. IL obedience to the
command to go, they went, and as they
went they preached, and wherever they
preached they organized church on the
basis OF faith in His life and death and
resurrection, and wherever church was
formed the morals of the community were
improved and idolatry was banished and a
standard of brotherhood unknown before
obtained, for they enjoined but two things
on all their followers-to do good and TO
Keep personally pure. In less than CEN
fury this monumental phenomenon of re,
| founded churches in all southern Europe
and western Asia. Early in the second CEN
fury these preachers crossed the channel
and invaded the land of the Picts and Scots
and Angles, my ancestors. and probably the
| ancestors of 1.-The average man" who now
never goes to church. When they reached
| the islands they found peoples not whit
more cultured than the acknowledged
| Chinaman" or the "breech- clouted African"
| of whose possible conversion that writer
| speaks so sneeringly, and Anglo-Saxon civ
ilization owes its pre-eminence to the word
| which brought light to those benlghted
| peoples. In short, the culture and the COM
| merce of the world to-day is with the peo-
| pie who believe in the Christ of two thou
| sand years ago. Isn't this phenomenon
| the reforming of the world by preaching
| the most wonderful phenomenon the world
has ever known? 1t is even the more re-
markable if not the more wonderful that
| ii has accomplished this work from with
| in, not from without. 1t begins by re-
| forming the individual, not by beginning
with the aggregate. A nation of pure
| people will be a pure nation, and a nation
! composed of those who live to do good will
do good as a nation.
These aggregated monuments to the
| divinity of the Christ are so conspicuous
| and so numerous that he must be blind
who cannot read them: But not less con-
| spicuous are the individual monuments.
| He is careless observer of current facts
who has not seen the result of faith in
| the Christ in the reformation of many a
yet exhausted, nor will it be until earth's
remotest nation has learned Messiah's
| name. Every hospital and almshouse
| home for the aged or the orphan, every
| asylum for the insane or school for the
| deaf or the blind, and every missionary
society is a monument to the truth of the
| gospel that even the average man" ought
| to be able to read and to understand. That
| some individuals who name the name OF
the Christ do not depart from evil is pain
fully true, and that some nations composed
| of such so-called Christians are not
Christian nations is generally true. But
remember it Is only two thousand years
since the little leaven began its work
That the Christ of to-day is purer and
doing more good than ever before and that
more nations are seeking to conform tt
the teachings of the Christ in their inter
course with other nations will hardly bt
questioned by any whose personal faitf
has not weakened with the decay of his
or her physical forces. 1t is only "the
average man. who imagines that because
he does not go to church at all there are
but few who do go since he quit. few
| old Methodists and Quakers who were
| taught in their childhood that shad-belliet
coats. broad-brimmed hats and breeche:
| with broad falls or bonnets of a regulation
| style or a shouting meeting or a silent
| meeting was sure sign of great spiritua
power, may think there is no genuine re
ligion left since all these are gone, and som,
other old people may bemoan the loss O
what once seemed essential to pure anC
undefiled religion, but personal purity an(
| Christian entireties, the Bible test Wer,
never more conspicuous than now.
What IL the Bible is not a textbook o
science? 1t nowhere claims TO be- 1t onl,
claims to be a collection OF detached frag
ments of history and poetry and prophecy
from probably seventy to eighty authors
more than a thousand years separated b.
time and written under almost every con
ceivable difference of surroundings SOM
WAS written by kings, some by peasants
some in palaces, some in prisons, some Il
plain history, some is allegory, some 1
poetry, some epistolary; some illusions L
customs and modes of thought long sine
dead, may be obscure and difficult to un
derstand, yet every clusters aroun,
the great central truth contained in tn
first four words of the collection, I'm tn
beginning, God" And everyone recognize
in God much more than IAN intelligen
purposeful force" The God they writ
about is not only Creator but he is Love
Father, Shepherd. King, the thought ev
erywhere being that while he cares for
| sparrow, man, his offspring In a spscia
sense, is more to Him than sparrow is
This truth may mean nothing to the av
erage man, who never goes to church, blu
it is a constant inspiration and comfort t
those who go to church and who believ
1t in their hearts and act 1t in their lives
Indianapolis. Sept. o. L. L. SEE.
Men Who Do Not Attend Church.