The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-06-15
ENTERS A new EPOCH
CENTRAL CHRISTIAN CHURCH ENDS
ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION.
Sermon by DIR. Philputt I'm the Morning
and Big Platform Meeting I'm
the Afternoon.

Inc celeDratl0n OF the seventeen dnnlNeT-
sary of the Central Christian Church. which
began last Friday, came to an end yester-
day afternoon, when a platform meeting
was held, and the Disciples congregation
will now enter upon new epoch in its his
tory. In the morning the pastor, the Rev.
Allan b. Philputt, preached on Our Fa-
Tiers God" He said In part:
IF we were asked why we were here
this morning worshiping God, and why we
were doing so In a particular way, We
should no doubt give various replies, but
for most of us there would, in the back
ground Of our lives, be this particular rea-
son-that we were born to this heritage.
Our cradles were sheltered in Christian
home. In political faiths and in religious
faiths we owe more to inheritance than We
think. The worship of ancestors is one of
the Oldest cults in the world. Traces of it
still remain with us, though we think our
faith the most rational of any. Virgil
speaks of Aeneas as pious because lac re-
vered his faith. The Jew bows more hum
bly, before Jehovah because He is the God
of Abraham Isaac and Jacob and he places
a higher degree of confidence in the prom
Uses because they were made unto the ia
theirs. Most of US have lived I'm an environ
ment congenial to this inherited faith. We
have naturally fallen i'm with 1t. Our efforts
to keep. the faith have been immensely
helped by the fact that, miIgling with
a, perhaps, slender strain of pure, abstract
devotion to an invisible God, there has been
an affection for those honored ones who
gave us birth, whose blood tingles in our
veins, and who still linger in memory if
not in body, to bless us with their benign
influence.
VALUE OF THE PAST
TT is a great thing to have had the ages
think for us and worship for us. The cheap
denunciation of the past i'll accords with a
just estimate of its mighty contribution to
our spiritual wealth. There is now and
then heard, and that, too, from so-called
Christian pulpits, an ill-disguised ridicule
of historic faiths. They are called musty
and antiquated. Let us leave these tradi-
tional notions they say, and walk forth
into the light of a new day, enjoy the new
thought and listen to the voice of God for
us When our friends return to us from
these bold excursions into the unknown we
are not impressed with their enterprise.
They have, after all, only brought back
what they took away with them, a trifie
mixed up and confused by the effort to dis
place II. Religious progress is not by
breaking with the past, either with its
creeds CT it's forms, but by refreshing and
renewing the ideas OF other generations in
the dews of our own thought and feelings.
A violent and eager break with the past
Is as bad as a literal clinging to il because
it Is the past. Both are bad. Religion is
more than creed, more than form, more
than visible institution. 1t is a splendid
abiding, age-long ideal for the soul of man.
1T rests scarcely at all in the ultimate
analysis upon outward facts, historic
events, schemes and plans of salvation.
These are but the proofs and scaffolding
by which we try to reach and hold and
mate goal worthy of all our striving
spiritual oneness with God. The church and
all ordinances and sacraments are but tenn
porary. The apocalyptic vision Of the heav-
emily city revealed no temple therein. But,
finite beings that we are. we love and hold
as eminently useful and divine the church,
it's ordinances and ITS doctrines. The word
of God, the only safe guide yet found, lends
its high sanctions TO these things. Jesus
Christ loved the church and gave himself
for it. We are commanded to keep the
faith once for all delivered to the saints.
And Paul rounds out the climax in the
noblest of his passages by saying, Il have
kept the faith l believe in healthy con-
servatism, not the closing Of the circle of
to break forth, nor yet the contentiousness
of prejudice as though We must oppose
whatever comes from those of the contrary
past, but anopenness and yet patient waiting
that the new may be seen in all its aspects.
What is called modern thought has made
many mistakes, Matched out so many
beautiful but impractical theories, and,
withal, has such bumptiousness and con-
descension in its attitude toward historic
faiths, that its devotees must be a little
patient II people are slow to accept its con-
illusions.
DAY OF UNSETTLEMENT.
lit is not given to us, however, to rest
serenely for any great length of time in a
transmitted and borrowed faith. The day
of unsettlement will come to many, when
We feel that the moorings are shifted, that
the anchor is straining and dragging and
that we are in danger of drifting out upon
a boundless sea of doubt. This is but nat
uraI. There is something of the pioneer
in most of us. We want to push out and
discover for ourselves. Otherwise we
should stagnate and be as dead as the
Orient. The trouble comes when we begin
to take our results too seriously. If a man
undertakes to think through the problems
is the only unfailing light. Here are the
contradictions of life, the smile and the
tear. the slowness of Gods providence. the
awful waste of precious materials. the
strong abusing the weak, the innocent suf-
fering for the guilty, the multitudes of
broken lines that have no fair chance, the
invasion of death, laying its dreadful hand
upon youth and innocent childhood with the
blush of the morning upon its brow. All
goes to swell the terrible mystery that
hovers over the world Of man and makes
an easy pathway to doubt
THE Scriptures recognize other methods
of attaining assurance than simply resting
in the traditional belief. prove all things;
hold fast to that which is good" Investi-
CATION Is the right and duty of every one.
But he should not value his conclusions
out of proportion to his capacity to draw
them. The facts are scarcely ever all in,
and the handling Of them is difficult mat
ter. Every sane man will balance his own
conclusions with the general thought of
men. The process Is agelong and haste is
dangerous. Experience. too, is test of in
herited faith. They that do His will shall
know of the doctrine. What are the fruits
of your theories? One may be guided to
faith by noting the results where it is alb
sent.
when France deserted faith for reason
the streets of her capital ran with blood
and every mans hand was against his
scend into a mere form in the eighteenth
century she lost the beauty of her civiliza-
ton. The home was broken and the court
was corrupted. What will happen to any
nation or individual when the light of faith
dies out? Melancholy, somberness. despair.
Take the literature pervaded by doubt, ex-
quisite it is, the writing of Arnold.
George Eliot, Ernest Haeckle, Thomas
Huxley and note the sad strain running
through 1t all Huxley says that if he could
immortality he would eagerly grasp il.
Thomas Carlyle In the gloom of his sor-
row after the death of his wife groans out
a snatch of our Lords prayer, Our Father
which art in heaven and finds comfort.
The way sometimes grows dark for us all
alike and then we say with Philip of old
Show us the Father and IL sufficeth us
Il believe the church is the permanent
and perhaps the ultimate channel of re-
ligous grace and life for this world. You
lilies where Ii is not We do well to main
tain and transmit IL. The great deposit of
faith must be handed down and kept. And
this, i hope, shall worthily do
Ministers Bring Greetings.
At the platform meeting held yesterday
afternoon a large audience was present