The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1903-10-22
A SERMON FOR SUNDAY
A LEARNED DISCOURSE ENTITLEN
THY KINGDOM COME"

MHheS an IIlOquenI IleA fOf FeIIOW-
ship-Cause of the Deartll of Candidates
For tile Ministry.
BROOKLYN, N. YIN the Emmanuel
Baptist Church, st. James place and La
fayette avenue. Sunday morning, the Rev.
DR.. Clarence Augustus Barbour, pastor of
the Lake Avenue Baptist Church, RocIles-
Kingdom Come; Plea for Fellowship"
The text was from Matthew WHO: '"Thy
kingdom come" DIR. Barbour said:
Matthews gospel is distinctively the
gospel of the kingdom, but in very true
sense the Bible throughout is the book Of
the kingdom. If. as one has suggested,
the conception of a suffering Redeemer
Scripture. it is no less true that the con-
ception of the all-embracing kingdom and
the al-conquering King runs through ell
the Scripture as cord of royal purple
My. fundamental proposition is that the
kingdom OF supreme and transcendent
Importance. The kingdom of God, that
divine polity over which Jesus Christ is
Claims pre-eminent fealty.
The kingdom is Of greater Importance
than the local church, OF greater import
ancc than any communion in any COM
munity. of greater Importance than any
single denomination With any different
conviction the denominations easily be-
come "sects," something cut off in SYM
nathv, as we'll 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 Roman Catholic friends say that
professionalism is split up into innumerable
little sects. quarreling among themselves.
In the Protestant missionary work OF
Il 4hnr,
the headquarters of fifteen different end
Incorporating 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
articuate and compact organization. We
are the church. one and united" We
might answer that this is not necessarily
a ground for decentralization; that
wherever there is freedom of inquiry, free
dom Of opinion. freedom of will there is
bound 70 be diversity But we are not
now discussing the truth or falsehood,
the good or evil: in Roman Catholicism; ;
we say that this argument the Roman
Catholic uses with powerful effect
True it Is that narrow denomipational-
ism is belittling and deadening That was
significant remark made by one of our
college presidents "The men who least
comprehend what I am trvin~ to do in this
college are some professors of the college.
They are noble, self-sacrifcing men. but
each one considers his own department the
only really important one. aud the idea
OF building uD university is something
which none Of them can grasp" So-there
are self-sacrifcing denominationalists, who
have no adequate conception of the dig
nifty and Importance of the church univer-
salEthe vast embracing kingdom OF Cod.
The field is the world says our Mas
ter, nothing less; any smaller conception
is caricature of Christianity, belittling
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-feld.
The. good seed. these are the sons of the
Kingdom not the membership Of any To-
cal church, nor Of any single denomina-
tional body.
believe that we are coming to recog-
nizee the essential unity of the kingdom Of
Cod Many mountains, one globe; many
ravlnes, one mighty earth mass. vastly
greater than the wrinkles on her face:
many regiments. one army; many denomi-
nations, one church; MANY creeds one
faith: many ways ND the hill one city at
buC COp, WilGIe SITS Inc Ming on His
throne. Denominationalism wisely man
aged, may be used for mutual provoca-
tio1 to love and good works. Perhaps it
IS better to be broken up externally, that
each denomination may do its own work.
But there must be recognition, and that
recognition more than a normal one. Of
the practical fellowship, the cooperative
fellowship of believers
l am BAPTIST by BIRTH by training. by
conviction. I yield to no one in nv 10y
atty to essential Baptist principles. There
are. Congreeationalists and Presbyterjans
and Methodists with equal loyalty But
the Christian should be no bigot. and no
specles Of bigotry is more offensive than
that of the UNCONVENTIONAL bigot.
Let no one misunderstood. We are not
Of those sentimentalists who decrv eccle-
sastical and denominational organization.
We are not of those who idealize the man
who perches on the denominations fence.
The fencesitter is nauseating as lukewarm
water.
We counsel no sacrifice of conviction.
hut a mirroring forth of the spirit of our
divine Lord, who prayed for His discinles
and for those who should believe on Him
Through their word. chat they all may be
one, even ven as Thou; Father, art in Me, and
that the world may believe that Thou
didst send Me-" that as Of old the world
may recognize US as His. in that these
Christians Cove one another"
Such q spirit is long way beyond the
spirit of "toleration." Yet even federation
is in advance of what we have known.
even in this 'land of the free" In the
Harvard beccalaureate of this year Dr.
Van Dyke eloQuentlv said of the Puritan:
"Something too little of sunlight may
have come in through the narrow windows
of his house. But that house had founda-
tions. and the virtues lived in it." With
all difference due to our national forefath-
ers-apd to them difference is due-there
were tenants in the house other than
those readily recognizable as virtues. In
tolerance. intense and bitter. was charac-
teristic of Pnritanism. The Puritan failed
to apDrehend the first principles of reiig-
ious liberty. That it was his independence
of conviction and his demand for freedom
of worship which banisbed him from his
native land, but renders his failure in this
respect the more CONSPICUOUS. He had no
charity for those who read the truth
through other eyes than his The freedom
which he demanded for himself he would
not accord to those Of different faith. To
his view of truth the whole community
must Weld assent; to his standards Of
worship all must conform And this pur-
pose to secure uniformity of worship did
not content itself with seeking to correct