The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1903-06-11

To-day in my country home they are suffer-
ing from drought, and yet, il | were to 90
on the hillside and run tube down little
way into the ground, should strike a
spring full of water. So God is full OF
mercy. This is the revelation of the New
Testament, and whatever your troubles,
sorrows, sins, you can go TO Him and find
His loving kindness and tender mercy. You
don't find that in any other religion.
thou not also merciful@" Put that along
side what can separate man from the love
Christianity is this mercifulness of God.
A man falls into pit and cannot get out.
Presently Confucian comes along and says,
My dear fellow, | am sorry you have fall
len down there If you could only get
out Confncius 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 see 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, II my
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
the burden of their sins and the conse-
quences of their misery. But, 0, the pity
of it, men don't want it. Napoleon said,
"Scratch Russian, and you will find
Tartar" Scratch Christian and you will
! find pagan. 1t seems to me that Chris
| tian congregations are full of paganism. [
receive letters every week from men and
1vbo Oh how Ia hat
they have made a blunder or committed
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. 1t 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
| His love, and we want to give Him some
thing in return. I 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 service2. First confession
and then absolution. The same thing of
| the Episcopal service, and of the Congre
gational. We don't 60 into the confession
| al; we don't stand up as priest pro-
nounces an absolution, but d.. T.. Moody as
| truly preached absolution as any Catholic
priest or Episcopalian rector. II you want
| to know what men believe, don't go to the
creeds or catechism. Go to the hymns
books. They express our faith and real ex-
l yaa1 N11r cy1vn ~
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 dong here"
| The answer would be: eve are here to
worship the Lamb who hath redeemed us"
In the Episcopal church he would see no
candles and incense, and would again ask
the question. The answer would be: 1--WE
hath redeemed us" 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 US" Ard u i. tie Quaker meeting
house he would see 70 choir or preacher or
would all be sitting still doing nothipg-ab-
solutely nothing. And their reply to the
same question would be: "Weare giving our
praise to Christ, who hath redeemed us by
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 so back and say: They
| II tho,, Nv Of
Gods love that had given His Son for their
redemption" 1t is the love of God that
makes us one, and only that. I was once
| in a Catholic church in Paris and after
watching the service for a time | walked
around behind the altar and found there a
service of deaf and dumb people. The ser.
vice was the same at heart; the love OF God
inspiring the thanks of men.
I remember an old English divine begin.
ming his Sermon: Il 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
thing; that can do" It was quaint way
of putting it, but it made the text stick in
my mind, and | have never forgotten. IT..
This is the secret of the power of Christian
ity. Yon will find men say: Thou shalt
love the Lord thy God with all thy
Strength - is the summary of Christianity.
That is mistake. Christ gave that as
| the summary of the Jewish law. When
asked, SsWhat is the chief end Of the jew
ish law" He said, Chou shalt love the
Lord thy God and thy neighbor as
| myself" but when He was about to die He
left as a legacy to His disciples this: "a
new commandment give | unto you; that
We love one another as | have loved YOU"
| How did He love us? He laid down HIS
| life for us. That is Christianity. Judiast.
lis justice; Christianity is sacrifice. What
makes a Christian nation? Not creed
written in constitution. not an estab-
| liSked church, an organ or music. What
Will make America Christian nation? We
have about us dependent and inferior races.
Loving eur neighbor and the Filipino and
| the negro and making them men-nothip1
else will make us Christian nation. Ard
what makes Christian church? Not fac
| windows and music, but making the world
| wiser and better. What would Christ do
| for your employees and servants? Helpful
| ness and service is Christianity; the heart
| and the centre and circumference of it.
All Christian theology is summed up in:
God SO loved the world that He gave His
only begotten Son." and all Christian ritual
/ in the Psalm: Blessing and honor and
glory and power to Him that stitch upon
| the ~thrsne and that hath redeemed us.
| All Christian power is summed up in: II