The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1903-10-14
THY KINGDOM COME"
A Brilliant Sunday Sermon By Rev.
DR.. Barbour.
Makes Al 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 Rev.
DR.. Clarence Augustus Barbour, pastor of
the Lake Avenue Baptist Church, Roches-
ter, n. Y, preached on the subject, Thy
Kingdom Come; Plea for Fellowship"
The text was from Matthew vi:l0: THY
kingdom come" DIR. Barbour said:
Matthew's gospel is distnctively the
gospel of the kingdom, but in very true
sense the Bible throughout is the book OF
the kingdom. If. as one has suggested,
runs as blood-red cord through the
Scripture, it is no less true that the con-
ception of the allembracing kingdom and
the all-conquering King runs through all
tbs. 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
pathy, 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 Roman Catholic friends say that
Professionalism is split up into innumerable
little sects;; quarreling among themselves:
In the Protestant missionary work OF
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 us
any more kinds of religion We of the
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 decentralization 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 say that this argument the Roman
Catholic uses with powerful effect.
True it is that narrow denominational-
ism is belittling and deadening. That was
a significant remark made by one of our
college presidents '"The men who least
comprehend what am trying to do in this
college are some professors of the college.
each one considers his own department the
only really important one, and the idea.
of building uD a university is something
which none of them can grasp" So there
are self-sacrificing denominationalists. who
have no adequate conception 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, a belittling
of our faith; any ideal short of united
effort for the conquest of the world-feld
InaI A,.Nlx Is tlA lxr,nN "a,
name. "The good seed, these are the sons
OF the kingdom;" the words Immediately
follow the reference to the world-feld
1.-The good seed these are the sons of the
kingdom" not the membership of any 10.
cal church, nor of any single denomina-
tional body.
/ 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-
faith: many ways ND the hill. one city at
the top, where sits the King on His
throne. Denominationalism wisely man
aged, may be used for mutual provoca-
ton to love and good works. Perhaps it
Is hetter to be broken up externally, that
each denomination may do its own work.
But there must be recognition, and that
recognition more than q normal one, of
the practical fellowship, the cooperative
fellowship of believers.
| am Baptist bv birth, by training. by
conviction i Weld to no one in nv 10y
atty to essential Baptist principles. There
are Congregationalists and Presbyterians
and Methodists with equal loyalty. But
the Christian should bo no bigot. and no
species Of biGotry IS more offensive than
that of the denominational higot
Let no one misunderstood. We are not
fhnun tttpo ,tal, Oh hn aon1a
slastical and denominational organization.
We are not of those who idealize the man
who perches on the denomnational fence.
The fence-sitter is nauseating as lukewarR
water.
We counsel no sacrifice OF convict n,
but mirroring forth Of the snirit of our
divine Lord. who prayed for His dscin,es
and for those who should believe on Him
through their word, "that they all may be
one, even as Thou. Father, art in Me, and
in them, that they also may be in us,
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 "love one another"
such a spirit is long way beyond the
spirit Of "toleratiOn" Yet even liberation
Is in advance of what We have known.
even in this Gland Of the free" In the
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-
tons. and the virtues lived in it," With
all Difference due 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 hitter. was charac.
teristic OF Puritanism. The Puritan failed
70 apprehend the first PRINCIPLES Of relig-
ious liberty. That it was his independence
o. conviction and his demand for freedom
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
tnrongh other eyes than his. The freedom
which he demanded for himself he would
ms 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
eTor by the gentler arts of persuasion
error must be rooted out. at whatever
cost. The arm of the State is invoked Ia
secure uniformity. Upon the shores OF
the New World are re-enacted scenes oi
which these exiles should long since have
Crown weary. The Puritan rivals in cru
saIty the prosecutors from whom he has
ned, We see Holmes, and Clark. and
randall dragged before the Governor and
ssshteneed to heavy punishment. We heal
tshe shrill cry of their clerical accuser as
ne smites Holmes before the judgmen,
,wset, The curse Of God go with thee
we see the three frail Quaker women
pneved at last at the point OF death We
zee Ann Hutchinaon har raason xyall n;aI