The Penn's Grove record., 1903-10-16
A SERMON FOR SUNDAY
A LEARNED DISCOURSE ENTITLED
THY KINGDOM COME"

= OCts d. N14EC1CO
Makes an Eloquent Plea For Fellow
For the Ministry.
BRooKLYN, N. YIN the Emmanuel
Baptist Church, st. James place and La
fay tie avenue, Sunday morning, the hev:
DR. 9laTeRce Augustus Barbour, pastor OF
ter, N. Y, preached on the subject. THY
Kingdom Come; a Plea for Fellowship.
The text was from Matthew WHO: Thy
kingdom come" DR.. Barbour said,
Matthews gospel is ~distinctively the
gospel Of the kingdom, but in a very true
sense the Bible throughout is the book OF
the kingdom. II, as one has suggested,
runs as a blood-red cord through the
Scripture, it is no less true that the con-
ception Of the all-embracing kingdom and
the ~all-conquering King runs through all
the Scripture as a cord of royal purple.
My fundamental proposition Is that the
kingdom of supreme and transcendent
Importance. The kingdom OF God, that
King Of Kings and Lord of Lords-that
claims pre-eminent fealty.
The kingdom is of greater Importance
than the local church, of greater import
ance than any. communion in any COM
munity, of greater importance h any
single denomination. With any different
conviction the denominations easily be-
come "sects," something cut off IN sym
pathv, as well as in organization and be-
lief. from the rest of the Christian world.
There is real danger that the local
church or the denomination be exalted
above the kingdom of God. You know
that our Rhman Catholic friends say that
Protestant SIN is split up into innumerable
little sea. quarreling among themselves:
@In the Rrotestant missionary work OF
Japan" th1y Bay, "the japanese, seeing
the headquarters of fifteen different and
non-co-operating sects in the square of
Toxic, wrote to America. DO not send US
any more kinds of religion We Of the
Catholic Chuch are everywhere the same
in America, in Africa, in Asia, in Europe,
in almost every city and village of every
land; the same form of worship, the same
articulate and compact organization. We
are the church, one and united" We
might answer that this is not necessarily
. ground for self-congratulation; that
wherever there is freedom of inquiry, free
dom Of opinion. freedom of will, there is
bound to be diversity. But we are not
now discussing the truth or falsehood,
the good or evil. in Roman Catholicism;
we saw that this argument the Roman
Catholic uses with powerful effect.
True it is that narrow denominational-
ism is belittling and deadening. That was
q significant remark made by one of our
college presidents. sSThe men who least
comprehend what / am trying to do in this
college are some professors of the college.
They are noble, self-sacrifeing men, but
each one considers his own department the
only really important one, and the idea
of building IN a university is something
which none of them can grasp" So there
are self-sacri6cing ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS, who
have no adequate conceDtion of the dig
nifty and importance of the church univer-
sal-the vast embracing kingdom of God.
0The field is the world" says our Mas
ter, nothing less; any smaller conception
is q caricature of Christianity, a belittina
of our faith; any ideal short Of united
effort for the conquest of the world-feld
is an ideal unworthy of the Christian
name. "The good seed, these are the sons
Of the kingdom" the words Immediately
follow the reference to the world-6eld,
s1The good seed, these are the sons of the
kin0dom.,S no the membership of any To-
cM Church, nor OF any single denomina.
tional body.
! believe that ne are coming to recog
nize the essential unity of the kingdom Of
God. Many mountains, one globe; many
r~avines, one mighty earth mass, vastly
greater than the wrinkles on her face;
many regiments. army; many denomi
nations, one church; many creeds. one
faith; many ways up the hill, one city al
throne. Denominationalism, wisely man
aged, may be used for mutual provoca
ton to love and good works. Perhaps il
Is better to be broken up externally, thai
each denomination may do its own work
But there must be recognition, and thai
recognition more than a normal one, O
the practical fellowship, the cooperative
fellowship of believers.
] am a Baptist by birth, by training, b,
conviction. / yield to nc one in my 10y
atty to essential Baptist principles. Their.
are Conpregationalists and Presbyterian.
and Methodists with equal loyalty. Blu
the, Christian should DO no bigot. and M
Species Of bigotry is more offensive thar
that OF the UNCONVENTIONAL bigot.
Let no one misunderstood. We are no
of those sentimentalists who decry eccle
siastical and UNCONVENTIONAL organization
We are not of those who idealize the mar
who perches or the UNCONVENTIONAL fence
The fence-sitter is nauseating as lukewarn
water.
We counsel no sacrifice of conviction
but a mirroring forth of the spirit of on
divine Lord, who prayed for His disciple
and for those who should believe on Hin
through their word, chat they all may b.
one, even as Thou, Father, art in Me, ant
I in them, that they also may be in us
that the world may believe that Tho'
may recognize US as His, in that thes
Christians '1ove one another"
Such q spirit is a long way beyond tn
spirit Of federation" Yet even federation
is in advance of what we have known
even in this s1and Of the free" In tn
Harvard b~accalaureate of this year DR.
Van Dyke eloquently said of the Puritan
Something too little of sunlight ma.
have come in through the narrow window
Of his house. But that house had founda
tions, and the virtues lived in it." Wit
all Difference due to our national forefath
ers-and to them Difference is due-ther
were tenants in the house other thai
those readily recognizable as virtues. In
tolerance. intense and bitter. was charae
teristic of Puritanism. The Puritan failet
to aDprehend the first principles of relie
ious liberty. That it was his independents
Of conviction and his demand for freedom
of worship which banished him from hi
native land, but renders his failure in thi
rea1Det the more conspicuous. He had n,
q for those who read the trltl
other eyes than his. The freedom
which he demanded for himself he woult
not accord to those of different faith. T,
must yield assent; to his standards o
worship all must conform. And this pur
pose to secure uniformity of worship d,
not content itself with seeking to correc
error by the gentler arts of persuasion
error must be rooted out. at whateve
cost. The arm of the State is. invoked t
secure uniformity. Upon the shores o
the New World are re-enacted scenes o
which these exiles should long since hav
grown weary. The Puritan rivals In cru
city the prosecutors from whom he ha
fled. We see Holmes, and Clark, an
Crandall dragged before the Governor an,
sentenced to heavy punishment. We hea
the shrill cry Of their clerical accuser a
L ties Holmes before the iudgmen
ree 0nopaker womel
the settlement, Until re
{ the point Of death. w
kson, her reason well Mig
rough the deep SHOWS t
1ands Of sayages. No ele
is wanting to the scene
Imprisonment, whipping. mutila
hanishment, death, await those VIII,
sfress Of present convictions seel
3 faithful to the lesson of fidelity t
e;ence learned from their Puritan
- and associates IN the land from
4 thew have come. Such intolerance
hh;daous enough. though it was baset
= mon strength Of conviction.
sdsv the pendulum has swung to thu
extreme. We are IN a day whel