St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1905-04-05

the idea OF quiet church that gathers in
people most sympathetic to yourself, a
quiet cultured ministry that attracts
round about the minister those with
whom his mind is perfectly sympathetic.
Then shut the door please! And keep the
place quiet and select Are you taber.
nacle Christians? There are good many
about. 1t is this narrowness of our
Christianity that is its curse. Jesus says
to Peter, mo tabernacle for me.
What is that see at the bottom of the
mountain? A crowd! Down the noun
tain go, where the crowd is. The Son of
Man is not come to be shut up in a
tabernacle to be adored by faithful hearts
but to seek and save that which is lost"
Buddha was better Christian than a
great many of US. When he began his
great ministry of redemption for his
nation this was the sentence he used,
Never will be content with private
salvation, but every where and at all
times l will labor for the universal re-
demDtlon OF every creature" Buddha
said that. Have we Christian people
said it. The first question put tonight
is, Are you Christians of the tabernacle
or are you Christians of the crowd? 1t
sometimes seems to me that this note of
Catholic humanity is more often heard
in secular organizations than it is in the
Church of Christ. find it in socialism.
l hear it in International labor. find it
in science. Tolstoi strikes that note.
But in the churchill is rare and infrequent.
| venture to say that the great sacrifices
made for the brotherhood of mankind to-
day are being made under the flag Of
politics and not under the cross OF Jesus.
Think of the thousands upon thousands
OF noble minded men and women who
have trampled FIVE thousand miles as
criminals to the mines of Siberia there en-
during toll and anguish and degradation
for the sake OF Russia, for the hope that
some day liberty might come to their
land. Is it not true that religion has
been qualification but never sacrifice.
What have you done that you can truly
call sacrifice for Jesus Christ. Try and
think what the education of the event
means when you interpret it in your own
lie. What did it mean for Christ? 1t
meant that the closer Christ came to the
common people the more lovable be
found them. go not into any city of
the gentiles." Presently Jesus is saying
OF a gentle centurion, II find faith in
this man such as is not in Israel" 1t
was woman who was a sinner who
washed his feet with tears. when Simon
the respectable Ptarisee and office bearer
OF the church took Him home after preach
ing, to grudged dinner and thought
so little of Him that be did not even give
Him basin Of water to wash His feet,
the common courtesy of the guest. Well
might Jesus love the common people.
The common people loved Him. And it
is the great test of the church whether
the common people love you. If they
don't there is something wrong in US.
AS have taken up work of this kind,
the lower l have gone into the dark
places the better have thought ofhuman
nature. l have found where you would
least think OF it, hearts touched with
love. Shameful hearts perhaps they
were, lost yet ready to be saved. Easily
moved. Whereas among the sermon satu-
rated pagans who rent pews, God knows
how hard II is to get any response at all.
Then there is the education of pity.
Pity is passion. torture, an agony.
But pity is an education. And you will
never know the spirit of Christ until you
know the anguish of great pity. |
wish | could take you in Imagination to
a certain dark street not lar from my
house in London. | never knew it was
there till year ago. 1t is easy for peo-
pie to GO about the city and not know
because they don't seek to know the re-
atty OF the life round about them.
There in that street, dark as as Inferno,
was large number OF fallen women.
Oh the pity oft. 1t was the pity of
that spectacle that broke my heart,
made me feel that whatever happened to
me must do something for the s wing
of the lost. To go on preaching sermons
such as were approved by the sermon
saturated hearers and forget streets like
that, could MOTIVE in that way. Thank
God that from these houses OF shame and
misery these poor women have learned
to come to my church. That is the
greatest triumph of my ministry. The
fallen have found out there is friend
there. have had slips of paper handed
to me while preaching, with requests
like this: Please Sir, will you sing when
| Survey the Wondrous Cross on which
the Prince of Glory died." coming from
one OF these poor fallen women.
1t Stems to me that the hour is ripe for
these old truths again to take possession
of the mind and heart of the church.
There are many reasons why the hour is
ripe. One is, we have come to the end OF
a great many things we once trusted.
We have come to the end OF materialistic
No intelligent man any long
er holds bv materialism as philosophy
of the universe. A brilliant scientist tells
the Christian church that it has lost its
great dynamic because it has ceased to
pray, and he speaks from the point of
science. Materialism is going, is largely
gone, and thinking men are cropping for
on which to build. We have
got pretty near to the end of our belief
that human salvation can be accomplished
by purely social means. "The soul of
is the improvement OF the
soul" We have come pretty nearly to
the end of our faith in culture as re-
1emption agency. 1t can do much for
mankind but it cannot redeem. Culture |
may be just as hostile to virtue as ignor-
ance. "The world by wisdom knew not
God," is just as true today as in Paul's
day.
You cannot escape from your response
bility if you live in the country. The lost
are everywhere. We must seek and save
them. The first work tor the church is
to seek and to save that which is lost". If
YOU are not doing that you are Chris.
tan club it NAV be, but not Christian