Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1903-06-11

analrs OF nature and ilte. The message of
judaism was that God is righteous God
Still we need to understand that God ex-
poets Righteousness from us, and nothing
less will satisfy Him. In later Judaism
there came the greater message No longer
GOD as powerful, just God, but God as a
God GS;tod who will help you to be righteous.
mercy: Mercy. go back to Homer, Confu-
ciug, Seneca, Marcus Aurelius; do you find
it there? No. Some time ago made that
statement and professor said to me:
Are you quite sure of that" | said: II
am not sure, but you are student of the
and tell me if I an am wrong" Three weeks " ks
after I received a letter, saying: '"rhe only
revelation OF the mercy of God in the old
Hindoo religion is this: %. Veruna, art
thou not also merciful?' Put that along
side what can separate man from the love
OF God. The distinct characteristic Of
Christianity is this n1ercifulness of God
A man falls into pit and cannot get out.
Presently Confucian comes along and says,
My dear fellow, am sorry You have fal-
len down there IF you could only get
out Confucius would show you how to walk
so that you would keep out" Then Brah-
min sees him and says, Il am sorry, but
there IS no help for you; you never can get
out. The only chance for you is to fall
into an eternal sleep and forget your mis-
cry" Next comes Mohammedan. who
says. Il am SO sorry to you there. but
Allah is Just, and you deserve it. He is
not merciful, and you will never get out"
Last comes Christian, who says, Il my
self have been down there. tumbled down
there once. | know just how you can get
out" And he gets rope and pulls the
man out of the hole and puts his feet upon
a rock. That is the difference between the
Christian and The pagan religions. The
Christian religion is the only religion in
the world that offers to help men out of
quences of their misery. But, O., the pity
Of it, men don't want it. Napoleon said
Scratch Russian, and you will find a
Tartar Scratch a Christian and you will
find pagan. It seems to me chat Chris
tian congregations are full Of paganism. |
receive letters every week from men and
women who never yet have learned that il
sin, and perhaps involved others in peril
because of their mistake, God can take care
/ of it ALL and they can trust Him to help,
if only they will turn from their evil ways.
Helpfulness is the secret of Christian the
ology. So it is the secret of our Christian
ritual. It is at the heart of all worship.
We come to church, not driven by fear or
compelled by custom, and not by convic-
ton. Why? Not to be entertained by an
amusing lecture. Then, why? At the heart
of it all is this: Some sense of the truth Of
that message that God is love and that.
somehow or other, we are dependent on
His love and have had something from
thing in return. ] do not say that is true
of all, but still if it were not for the sense
of the love Of God and the desire to be
thankful the church would close it's doors
and the chimes cease to ring. What is the
Roman Catholic service? First confession
| ohc nJ,1fsn AF
the Episcopal service, and Of the Congre
gational. We don't go into the confession
| al; we don't stand up as priest pro-
| nounces an absolution, but D. L. Moody as
| truly preached absolution as any Catholic
| priest or Episcopalan rector. If you want
| creeds or catechism. Go to the hymn
books. They express our faith and real ex-
perience; they are our creed, sung over
and over and over again. And what does
| the hymn book say?
"Love divine, all love excelling." Thanks
be to God who giveth us the victory"
| Imagine, this Sabbath morning, a citizen
| of Mars coming down and entering differ
ent churches. He would go into Catholic
church and see the altar and the candles.
and the robed priest and the incense, and
he would say, 'What are you doing, here? p
The answer would be: "We are here to
worship the Lamb who hath redeemed lis"
|
candles and incense, and would again ask
| the question. The answer would be: we
have come to praise the Lord Christ, who
hath redeemed U.S." In the Congregation
| al, Baptist or Presbyterian church he would
see no altar Or candles or vested priests;
| ''What are you doing here?" he asks, and
the reply is: eve have come here to sing
the praise of the Man of God who hath re-
| deemed u.s. And in the Quaker meeting
house he would see no choir or preacher or
service and hear no singing, but they
would all be sitting still doing nothlng-ab-
solutely nothing. And their reply to the
same question would be: I'VE are giving our
His blood. We cannot find any utterance
which will express our gratitude, and we
are simply speaking in the silence of our
hearts, He would 60 back and say: They
were all drawn together by sense OF
Gods love that had given His Son for their
makes us one, and only that. | was once
in a Catholic church in Paris and after
watching the service for time | walked
around behind the altar and found there a
service of deaf and dumb people. The ser
lvice was the same at heart; the love OF God
Inspiring the thanks Of men:
I remember an old English divine begin,
ming his sermon: "I can do all things
and then saying, 'That [ deny. But let US
see. what is this: through Him that
strengthened me-, All, that is another tle ,:
of putting it, but it made the text stick in
my mind, and I have never forgotten it.
This is the secret Of the power Of Christian
ity. Yon will find men say: "Thon shalt
love the Lord thy God with all thy
strength y is the summary of Christianity.
That is mistake. Christ. gave that as
the summary of the Jewish law. When
asked, 'sWhat is the chief end OF the jew
ish law?" He said, ''1hou shalt love the
Lord thy God = and thy neighbor as
thyself,'' but when He was about to die He
left as legacy to His disciples this: "A
new commandment give I unto you; that
We love one another as l have loved you:
How did He love us? He laid down HIS
life for us. That is Christianity. Judaism
is Justice; Christianity is sacrifice What
makes Christian nation? Not creed
written in constitution, not an estab-
lished church, an organ or music. Wnat
will make America Christian nation: we
have about lis dependent and inferior races;
Loving our neighbor and the Filipino and
the negro and making them men-notiing
else will make us Christian nation. And
what makes Christian church? Not fine
windows and music, but making the world
wiser and better. What would Christ do