The Penn's Grove record., 1904-03-11
A SERMON FOR SUNDAY
ADlScoJRsEENTrTLED rcHRlSTIANs
OUTSIDE THE CHURCH"
Thu Rev. Robert Macdonald Expresses
the View ThRt TO Be a Believer In
Christ is Not Different From Being a
Believer in Man

O now AhtN 10 Ne q DelleVoF II
Christ is Not Different From Being 8
Believer in Man.
BROOKLYN, N. Y.-"Christians outside
che Church" was the subject of the ser.
mon Sunday morning by the Rev. Robert
Macdonald, pastor of the Washington Ave
nue. Baptist Church. 1t was the first of a
series of five sermons. The text was from
John K: l6: "Other sheep I have which
are not of this fold" Mr.. Macdonald
said:
So important and many sided a subject
as this must be looked at from more than
one view point. Numberless are the ques-
tons to be considered. Numberless the
opinions favorable and unfavorable, true
and false. to be confirmed in these ser
mons or repudiated. Numberless the peo-
pie interested in so practical and personal
q question, some of whom love the church
better h life; others Of whom hate the
churcn more than any other institution
IN existence; some who trace their Hottest
aspirations, their deepest motives, their
hottest desires back to her as a fond moth
er who lives to nourish her children with
her own rich life; others who have never
received the least benefit therefrom, of
which they are conscious and boldly as
sert that little benefit to humanity ever
emerged from her portals. Some 20 so far
as to make the church synonymous with
Chr1sts kingdom, and maintain that to
be a member of the one is to be a member
OF the other, and consequently yield to her
a fanatical reverence. Others swing clear
to the other extreme and consider the
church nothing better than the product
of a jealous rivalry for pre-eminence over
other institutions of earth, else the ex-
preston in wood and stone of overweight
sensibihties. Therefore, the monument of
a most irrational superstition. While an
innumerable many identify themselves
with the church because they believe it to
be a beneicent institution ordained of
God, without which the world would be
morally and spiritually impoverished, and
through which the spirit is working for
the redemption of humanity, in which di-
vine strength can be had for the ills of
life.
l desire that our starting point in these
discussions should be in favor Of religious
federation. As love is the centre of the
Christian system, so must it be the motive
in every church claiming to be a Christian
chruch. As Christ our Master was toler-
ant of and charitable toward those who
were not numbered among the twelve
disciples and forty apostles, so must we
as His followers be tolerant in thought,
word, act, to those not of our number, and
outside our communion. There is greater
need of federation to-day than at any pre-
vious period of the worlds history. The
church of to-day is more advanced than
the church of yesterday. Its intelligence
is greater; its light clearer; its affinity
with the Holy Spirit more personal; its
hold upon the cross of Christ, that power
of redemptive love, sacrificing itself even
unto death, stronger. The church of the
twentieth century ought to be, and shame
upon us if it is not, more spiritual than
the church of the thirteenth century, or
even than the church of the nineteenth
century.
But not only in view of our superior
spiritual enlightenment, also in view of
our peculiarly complex state of living
should we be tolerant. It is the age of
differentiation and OF classification. Every
significant fact of life has been forced to
submit to division and subdivision to an
amazing extent. Look, for instance, at
education. Trace it through the modern
FRRalvfMf55i shFy c66fRHFP5fieenn lHfHigv Gc08AattEgafsste II sFHiitlnk.
ton Of a century ago. You are over
whelmed with the multitudinous depart
ments, and subdepartments and branches
of instruction, and professional chairs. All
these necessary, you say, to educate the
youth. To adequately impart knowledge,
to meet the ever increasing intellectual de-
mand? Yes. The renaissance that called
Europe from its dark ages Of intellectual
slumber has not yet spent its force. Meas
ure the term medicine, or surgery with the
imposing stature Of the general practi-
toner of twenty years ago. The stature
is no longer imposing. The specialist of
a single bodily function is more imposing
now. And for the human body the work
of the one has been divided into the skill
Of the hundreds and each unit in the vast
aggregate Is more authoritative than the
one. The term philosophy no longer rec
ognizes the old vague divisions OF moral
and intellectual. Each division has been
differentiated, and each differentiation sug-
gests to the mind content and comprehen-
siveness, richer and more compact than
the original classification from which it
sprang. Metaphysics, theism, idealism,
empricism, economics, sociology, psychol-
ogy, biology, and many more are the terms
now familiar to our thought. And how
vast the field of consciousness covered by
any one of these significant terms. Eco
Monies, a very modern term for instance
postulates for us; the land question; the
tenement house problem, the theory OF
wealth, industrial organization, all social
istic and c~ommunistic relation.
The same in jurisprudence, in commerce
and trade, in everything of worth. The
difference between the big department
store and the little trader illustrates the
idea. Yet how surprised we are that we
should nave wandered r~eligiously far
aield from the primitive apostolic church,
with our highly differentiated credal and
ritual expressions, our numerous ecclesias-
teal orders, our multiplicity of organi-
cation. Bless you, it only shows We are
alive and growing and anxious to apply
the gospel Of Jesus to all sorts and condi-
tions Of men. The worldly minded claim
that decentralization is distracting and
sigh for a Christian unity that will swal-
low up all religious divisions. But, believe
me, denominationalism makes more for
the glory of Christianity than for its
shame. The only shame about it all is
that denominationalism at times nurtures
q spirit of Phariseeism that sees no God
in any other division of the Christian fold
than its own. It has been only a few
years since the medical students of Har-
ward fellowshipped the aspirant for veter.
mary honors. The term horse doctor"
was the term of salutation. The veterin-
ary student, as the student of dentistry,
was occupied with such inferior subject
matter. Yes, but necessary subject mat
ter. So of the Anglican churches and the
non-conformists of England. The one Is
poor stuff to the other, tolerated only at
the point of taxation to support their
schools. Similar intolerance was felt to-
word the great Booth movement In Amer
lea by all the churches, because that move
ment ignored their cut and dried eccles-
iastical methods and brought into requi-
sition the public square and the secular
hall if by any means they might save some
the churches could not reach. The same
Intolerance is now characterizing us to-
ward that growing, so called, Christian
Science movement. When viii we see the
"powers for good" that are ordained of
God? When win we believe that any move
ment, however in nineteen
points of test, if adapted in its twentieth
point unto the blessing of men, is worthy
of our tolerance, even our sympathetic re-
gard.
Even religious bodies quarrel among
themselves in defining orthodoxy, and de-
nominational responsibility, instead of
praying together for the salvation of the
world. No wonder Christians outside the
church pass bv on the other side of the
road when Christians inside the church
forget the purpose of their existence. The
thumbscrew, rack, fagot and stake are
looked back upon as relics of a barbaric
age, but their spirit still lives. Every one
OF the leading denomination have within
ten years either prosecuted, else made it
very unpleasant for some intrepid thinker
who saw more clearly and spoke more