The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1905-07-19


in mountain cave. 1t matters not
whether the worshiper be white or
slack. whether he worship on his knees
,r on his feet or on his back, so long as
be worship In spirit and in truth.
Christianity so far as ii consists OF
visible performance at all is the most
natural and spontaneous outgo OF the
religious instincts to God. and religious
worship is essentially n personal com
munion with God and in such form
and place as Is best suited to the wor-
shipper and most in accordance with the
will of God.
Hence, you will see, one of the prime
characteristics of the church triumph
ant is perfect liberty. Get religion"
said Augustine. "and do as you please"
BY which he meant II you truly get re-
ligion you will always please to do
right Paul means the same thing
when he says. "If ye be in the spirit
We are not under the law" And Jesus
meant the same when He said. Make
the tree good and his fruit will be
good" And hence, the ideal Christian
life Is perfectly p0ntaneous. Obe-
Hence is not by compulslon of law, but
by impulsion of love. "All the law Is
fulfilled in one word, Thou shalt
lOye.'"
We have heard not little about
the consent of the governed and we
ire likely to hear more. The state
nent as it stands in that famous docu-
nent will not bear a literal application.
But there is good reason to believe
that our fathers knew what they were
talking about. If they had said, gov
ernment derives its potency from the
consent of the governed" they would
have been uttering the exact truth.
Statutes are imperative until the sub
jects consent. Perfect society implies
perfect acquiescence iE the will of the
superior or law making power. The
more society progresses toward unity,
the simpler and more equahle will gov
ernment become, because the more gen.
era will be the consent or acquiesence
in the government Paul says, II con-
sent unto the law that it is good" and
in the perfect society of Johns vision
each man enjoys perfect liberty be-
cause the will of the governor and the
governed are in perfect correspond
ence. Each individual does as he
pleases and at the same time does as
He pleases.
In some such way the perfect COM
munity is characterized by perfect
unity without uniformity. Each per-
forms his own duty in his own way,
but is all the while in perfect har-
mony with his neighbor. Again. in the
perfected society there is no distlnc-
ton between the religious and the Sec
ular. Here we have our times. and
places of religion. We gather here in
this house of prayer, believing that
God is present here as He is not in
other places, as, indeed, He has prom
ised to be. 1t Is Gods concession to
our limitations and infrmlties. But
it is far from the ideal. We are apt
to identify religion with the means OF
religion, rather than religion itself.
We get grace by our religious exercises
to keep Gods commandments in ali
our walks of life. and that is religion.
The members of the church triumph
ant are equally religious every day OF
the week and every hour of the day,
and hence, church-going in our sense
of the word is forever abolished. In
that society, one does not need to say
to his brother, "Know the Lord" for
all shall know Him from the least to
the greatest There is no more preach
Ing, no Temple tHeTelu.
Once more; 1t is obvious that the
more faithful and devoted we are to
the means of religion here the sooner
we shall be fitted to do without them.
Your child, learning to play the piano,
finds it hard labor to spell out note by
note, conforming to the rules and rudi-
ments of practice. BY and by she will
go beyond the rules. She will acquire
the genius of the skilled performer
And the more diligently we observe
our religious duties here the sooner
we shall get beyond them. The more
faithful we are now to the times and
places of religious worship the sooner
shall we be ready for that society
where all life is religious.
Zacharlah had tnat vision ages be-
fore John had 1t, when he saw "Holi-
ness to the Lord inscribed on the
bells of the horses and the pots in
the Lords house, as sacred as the
bowls of the altar; yea, and every pot
in Jerusalem as holy as the vessels OF
the sanctuary. That was at least q
glimpse of the templeless city Of God.
And now shall we not keep before
us that ideal? Let us not be dscour-
aged by the great disparity between
that far-off perfection and present
reality. The poet well expresses our
feeling:
Oh, Land of Promise, from what Pts
gah's height
Can l behold thy stretch of peaceful
bowers,
Thy golden harvest flowing out OF
sight,
The nestled homes and sun-illumlned
Gazing upon the sunsets high-heaped
gold,
It's crags of opal and of chrysolite,
Its deeps on deeps of glory, that un'
fold,
Still Frightening abysses,
And blazing precipices,
Whence but scanty leap It seems to
heaven,
Sometimes n glimpse is given
OF thy gorgeous realm, thy more un-
stunted blisses.
Gazing upon that vision, let US be
faithful to our temple duties here that
we may be fitted for that city where
there Is no temple. ''for the Lord God
Almighty and the Lamb are the temple
of It,"
No troubles are so great that they
cannot be built into the steps OF the
staircase, by which souls mount up t.
heaven.-Canon Liddon.