Democratic messenger. [volume] (Snow Hill, Md.) 1869-1973, 1903-10-17
THY KINGDOM COME"
A Brilliant Sunday Sermon By Rev.
DIR. Barbour.
Makes An Eloquent Plea for Fellowship
Cause of the Dearth Of Candidates For
the Ministry.

BROOKLYN. n. YIN the Emmanuel
Baptist Church, st. James place and La
fayette avenue. Sunday morning, the Kew:
DR.. Clarence Augustus Barbour. pastor CT
the Lake Avenue Baptist Church, Roches-
ter, n. V. preached on the subject. "!h!X
Kingdom Come; Plea for Fellowship"
line text was from Dr. Rarber s snI
Matthews gospel is distinctively the
gospel OF the Kingdom. but in a very true
sense the Bible throughout is the book OF
the kingdom. If. as one has suggested,
the conception of suffering Redeemer
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
divine polity over which Jesus Christ, is
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 than any
single denomination With any different
conviction the denominations easily be-
come "sects," something cut off in sym
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:
Japan" they say, "the japanese, seeing
the headquarters of fifteen different and
Incorporating sects in the square of
Toxic, wrote to America. DO not send MS
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
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
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 deadeniag. That was
a significant remark made by one of our
college presidents. 'The men who least
college are some professors of the college.
They are noble. self-sacrifcing men. but
eat one considers his own department the
only really important one, and the :dea
of building up a university is something
which none of them can grasp" So there
are sclf-sacrificing denominationalists. who
have no adequate convention of the dig
nifty and importance of the church univer-
sal-thc vast embracing kingdom of God.
''The field is the world" says our Mas
ter, nothing less; any smaller conception
is a caricature of Christianity. helitt'ing
of our faith; any ideal short of united
effort for tie conquest of the world-feld
is an ideal unworthy Of the Christian
name. 'The good seed; these are the sons
follow the refereace to the world-feld.
s"lhe good seed. these are the sons of the
kingdom" not the membership of any To-
cal church, nor of any single denomina-
tional body.
I believe that we are coming to .recog:
nize the essential unity of the kingdom OF
God. Many mountains. one globe; many
ravines, one mighty earth mass, vastly
greater than the wrinkles on her face:
many regiments. one army; many denomi-
nations, one church; manv creeds one
faith: many ways no the hill. one city at
the top, where sits the King on His
throne. Denominationalism, wisely man.
ton 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.
am a Baptist by birth, by training. by
conviction. / yield to no one in nv 10y
atty to essential Baptist principles. There
are ConrrcgationaIists and Presbyterians
and Methodists with equal loyalty. But
the Christian should b. no bigot and no
species of bigotry IS more offensive than
that of the UNCONVENTIONAL bigot.
Let no one misunderstood. We are not
of those sentimenta'ists who decry eccle-
siastical and denominatioral organization.
We are not of those who idea1ize the man
who nerches on the denorinatio7al fence.
The fence-sitter is nauseating as lukewarm
water.
We counsel no sacrifice of conviction.
hut mirroring forth of the shirt of our
divine Lord, who prayed for His discin'es
and for those who should believe, on Him
one. even as Thou: Father, art in Me, and
in them, that they also may be in us,
didst send Me-" that az Of cd the world
may recognize US as His. in that these
Such spirit is long way beyond the
spirit Of federation" Yet even federation
is in advance of what we have known,
even in. this Gland of the free" In the
Harvard baccalaureate Of this year DIR.
Van DYKE eioQucnt!v said of the Puritan:
..'Somethinr 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 que to our national forefath-
ers-and 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-
sseristic of Puritanism. The Puritan failed
to anpreEend the first principles of relig-
ious liberty. That it was his independence
of worship which banished 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 yield assent; 10 his standards OF
worship all must conform. And this pur-
pose to secure uniformity OF worship did
not content itself with seeking to correct
error by the gentler arts OF persuasion
error must be rooted out. at whatever
cost. The arm OF the State is invoked to
the New World are re-enacted scenes OF
which these exiles should long since have
grown. weary. The Puritan rivals in cru.
,,ty the prosecutors from whom he has
fled. We see Holmes, and Clark. and
Crandall dragged before the Governor and
sentenced to heavv punishment. We hear
the shriil crv of their clerical accuser as
he smites Holmes before the Judgment
seat, 'The curse of God go with thee
We see the three frail Quaker women
scourged through the settlement, until re-
prieved at last at the point of death. We
see Ann Hutchinson. her reason well nigh