Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1903-03-05
w. B. Bonnif1eld Reads Paper Be-
fore Methodist Mems Society.
SUBJECT GIVEN MUCH THOUGHT
Members of Brotherhood of ST. Paul
Listen to Excellent Paper at Recent
Neutrality-suspicious. Presented in Mas
terful Manner.
From TUESDAYS Daily.

eth Century Make a Departure, ana
That Thall it Be-" was the subject
OF a paper read by W. B. Bonnifield
before a recent meeting of he Broth
erhood of st. Paul of the First Meth
odist Episcopal church. Mr.. Bonnifield
dealt with his subject in a masterful
manner, and his paper showed an I'M
usual depth of thought and research.
Mr.. Bonnifield's paper is given here
with:
The question of church, of religion,
of worship, is a momentous question;
it is as broad as creation and eternity
combined.
1T may be thought to be presuming
too much to ask a banker to say any
thing On this question, and the height
of presumption on his part TO attempt
to do so. But the thoughts alone are
worthy of consideration without re-
gard to the source from which they
come. | am to speak of the church;
I submit my conception as to what the
church is and what it should be.
The Selfishness of Man.
When we look out upon the world
OF today and see the s%elfishness OF
man causing him to strain every fiber
of his being in an effort to get ahead
of his neighbors in business by com
bining ana m~onopolizing everything
in sight we conclude that there should
be a departure by the church i'll or
der to grapple with present conditions.
For nineteen hundred years ecclesias-
ticism has done a certain work in for
mulating religious tendencies, creeds
and dogmas. With architectural skill
it has made temples of worship and
81 - - WV H. I n ,,l with no,,t ~, -6nron
and spire. but has it in the same time
cErbed the ~selishness of man and
taught him the fatherhood of God and
brotherhood of man?
Time for a Departure.
"At this, the opening of the TWEEN
tieth century, the church wants to
draw on it's resources of Christian
faith, to show that it can keep pace
in influence on morals with the intel
l%ectuality, the push, comm ercialism
and devil of the age. The browning
glory Of Christianity has been suppos-
ed to be the protection it gives to the
weak, and the comfort it brings to
those who are struggling under the
disabilities of life. If these are riches
to. be held, as it were, and as they
seem to be today, in the spiritual at
mosphere of the church building, there
only to be chrystalized and precipitat-
ed upon the congregation in accord
ance with spiritual law. then it seems
to me it is time for a departure.
when we speak of the church we
do not mean the 142 religious sects we
find in the world today, nor is church
religious worship necessarily Chris
tianity; they had churcnes, temples of
worship and gods many, 5000 years
before Moses was born, and the PEG.
pie were intensely religious. Relig.
ious worship is as ancient as The
Ancient of Days, and we have
churches and gods many, down to the
present time. But church-religious-
worship, should mean Christianity as
revealed by Christ the son of God
The establishment OF His church, in
were to be fulfilled in one word, ever
this, Thou shalt love thy God with al
thy heart and thy neighbor as thy
self
The Work of God.
But why the necessity of church
work? We are told that God created
man in his own image and likeness
a little lower than the angels, that HI
made al that was made, pronounced
it good and rested. Can mortal maj
improve upon the handiwork of God
Read a little further in Genesis
and we get answer to this question
We learn that evil was not of God!
creation but of mortal mind; that the
devil, the serpent whom Christ sait
was a liar from the beginning and thu
father of lies, beguiled our first pa
1+@sT nnfC intna tho hn1iof -fhof nvil uyo
equal in power with good, hence sci
fishness and lust were educated int
the world. 1t is said that God re
pented that he had made man; that h,
gathered a few OF the best into an arl
and flooded the rest. But the worl'
emerged from the water with selfish
ness and lust, in its broadcast sense
still clinging to human errors;
waxed worse and worse, till God j
His wrath wiped Sodom and Gomol
rah from the face of the earth wit
fire and birthstone.
The Coming of Christ.
"In fullness of time Christ the So
of God came to redeem the world frol
s~elfishness and sin. The still sma
voice from Christ's teaching, in whic
he said that God made of one bloc
all nations to dwell on the face OF TT
EARTH came down through the age
and prompted the established churo
of England to make the attempt
loving thy neighbor as myself Abo1
three hundred years ago it went to
dia to lift the heather out of darkne
to the light of Christian brotherhoo
"a little later the missionary, tt
most self-sacrificing and grand chara
ter that Christianity eve produce
went also. to bring these people in
the fold of Christ. But the missile
airy was handicapped by the church
home, which, when it came into t
rich valleys of India, was, as usu
overcome by the s~elfishness implant
by the serpent and instead OF
planting the kingdom of God it plal
ed a kingdom of aristocracy; to ma
tain it they taxed the people to t
extent of one-half the product of t
land, as shown by the report OF tn
own secretary. They found the pr
by growing spontaneously; at a la'
late they wanted revenue from I
opium trade and they went to Chi