The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1903-07-02
A SERMON FUR SUNDAY
A BRILLIANT HISTORICAL DISCOURSE
ON THF REFORMATION.
The Rev. j. G. Wilson Talks Instructively
of That Period When the Foundations
of True Religious Liberty Were Laid
Freeing the Mind From ThralIdom.


of Truo Religious Liberty Were Lard
Freeing the Mind From ThralIdom.
New YORK CITY-Tn the South Congre-
gatlonal Church, Brooklyn, the Rev. j. 9.
Wilson, associate pastor. delivered dis
erty," the subject being Europe on the
Eve of the Reformation" The text was
Acts ", 38. and 80: "And now / say unto
you, Refrain from these men, and let them
alone; for if this counsel or this work be
of men, it will come to naught, but if it be
OF God, We cannot overthrow it; lest haply
We be found even to fight against God"
Mr.. Wilson said:
Let me suggest at the outset that the
struggle for religious liberty and what is
known as the Reformation are not in all
respects identical movements. The Refor-
nation was great tidal wave which swept
over Europe In the sixteenth century, out
| of the vast and troubled sea of the centur-
les whose waters were greatly agitated by
| the struggle for religious liberty it was
| the elimination of that struggle. It assert
| ed the fundamental principles upon which
| it had proceeded, and succeeded in laying
| broad and secure foundations upon which
| true religious liberty could be built, but it
| LETT some of the higher standards and finer
| ideals unattained. In that respect there is
much yet to be desired.
| In view of the fact that the Reformation
| split Europe into two great warning relig-
| ious camps, it is necessary to remind our
| selves that up to that time there had been
but one Christian church in Western Eu-
| rope. And the struggle for religious liberty
| went on within that church and not OUT
| side or 1T, nor against it, after the first
| three centuries. Whatever glory and what
| ever shame attaches to that church during
| the first fifteen centuries is shared equally
| by us ALL Protestants and Roman Catholic
alike: The Reformation itself originated
| within the Roman Catholic Church, and
| was led by men bred in her schools and
cloisters. We should also remember that
the Roman Catholic Church of the fifteenth
| and sixteenth centuries is not the Roman
| Catholic Church of the twentieth century
| and in the United States.
| From a very early age religious differ
ences have engendered strife and stirred
the most violent passions of men. Although
| the Jews tasted the bitterness of persecu-
| ton, that did not prevent them from
| pressing the same cup to the lips of the
| early Christians and, with the aid of the
| Romans, making them drink it to it's dregs
| Then were. written the first pages in the
| most sangulnary and thrilling story-a
story OF unutterable suffering and grim en-
| durance tor conscience sake-which his
tory's pages record. 1t can scarcely be
called struggle. 1t was as impossible for
the obscure and defenseless sufferers to re-
-sist their enemies as for fly to resist the
hand that brushes it. Judged from appear
| ances, 1t was a Temorseless massacre, which
crushed its victims into the earth But the
real forces that.were working out the prob
| lem were not on the surface The odds
against which the early Christians were
matched drove them to seek refuge in the
mountain businesses and in the subterra-
mean caverns, known as catacombs. Here
! they cherished their faith and worship I'M
| til the violence of their enemies abated.
After two centuries they came forth from
their hiding places, disciplined by hard
| snip, trained to prudence and foresight bv
the peril in which they had lived and with
| compact and efticlenJ organization. Their
| leaders had improved their long seclusion
to cultivate letters and arts, and soon took
! leading places among scholars and men OF
affairs; so that when Constantine succeed
| ed to the undivided possession of supreme
power in the Roman Empire prudence, il
| not preference, moved him to an alliance
| with them.
Then began a new phase in the struggle
for religious liberty. The despised and
! prosecuted Christians, now risen to places
OF power and possessing the throne in the
| person OF the Emperor did not abuse their
| trust. Such was the spirit of sweet rea-
sonabeness which animated them that the
hrst Christian Emperor issued an edict Of
| religious liberation, known as the edict of
Miriam, which granted religious liberty with
| IN the empire, on the basis of the sacred
rights of conscience; only those religious
rites were prohibited which involved i'm
| morality, magic or sorcery. Not until the
| fatal passion for power had been aroused in
them by it's possession did the Christians
| resort to persecution. The organization of
| the Christian church kept pace with its
| spread in Europe. From Rome as a centre
the missionaries penetrated to all parts of
| Europe. They carried with them the love
| of the mother church from which they
went and bound the churches which they
planted to her in gratitude and Christian
| fellowship. The confidence and affection
which she won by her generosity and self
| sacrlnce IN the gospel, she soon came to de-
mand as her right and when at length the
Bishop of Rome secured the political pow
| er OF his city he aspired to make the tradi-
tlonal capital Of the world it's ecclesiastical
capital also, then, with the policy of mill
tary Rome the Christian church adopted.
| also, the ambitious and relentless spirit of
the Caesars. Ecclesiastical Rome usurped
! the rights of mankind and perverted their
| liberties as ruthlessly as did political Rome
Through successive stages the church
| mounted to the throne of its power until
| it was more absolute than the empire had
ever essayed to be. Men like Gregory the
Great, Leo III. and Hildebrand made the
| most astonishing claims, and absolute SUI
|
| with the utmost severity all who withstood
their claims. Unavailing protests to their
astounding pretensions were raised by men
| like John Scotus, Abeard Arnold, of Bres-
cia and Wickliff, and in the humber walks
of life opposition showed itself in such
sects as the Albigenses and the Waldenses,
neither of which desired to separate them
selves from the Catholic Church, but both
of them desired that its>pretensions should
be moderated and it's abuses reformed ac-
| cording to the scriptural requirements of
apostolic simplicity and purity. These men
were simple minded and their lives were
| pure, but they were subjected to the most
| remorseless persecution. Their heroic en-
durance and unfaltering faith has covered
their memory with halo of glory like unto
that which surrounds the early Christian
martyrs. During the massacre of the Abb
| genses was born the order of the Domini-
cans, into whose hands was intrusted the
institution known as the Inquisition, the
| most diabolical engine of intolerance and
! persecution that human ingenuity ever de-
| vised.
| 1t is the fate of all despotisms to work
| their own destruction by fatal disregard
| of the limits of human endurance, and
when the papacy added the horrors Of the
4 Tnoui citiOy, Ia re 1rro t;oy, of 4bo