The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1905-07-26

ones own ends; they worked for others
interests. tLcy found joy in their Sue
cesses and pain in their reyerses.
The Christians first zane for them
selves was 1.-The Brothers," And so
full of this idea Of brotherhood were
they that, first off. they went Gaft over
it and thought it involved communism.
Each man sold his possessions and
pooled the proceeds and let the apostles
distribute the fund as each brother
had need. Not one of them said that
aught he possessed was his own, but
they had all things In common 1t did
not take them long to find out that
brotherhood involves no senscless level
ing down of everything and everybody,
that it involves elder and younger,
stronger and weaker, larger and
smaller. But, though they had aban-
doned this experiment, they conserved
the fundamental principle Of mutual
service and brotherly union. They
lived a way which bad as its motto,
Bear ye one another's burdens"
Christianity meant walking in the
Road Of the Loving Hart"
These, then, were the characteristics
Of the Christian way as the first Chris
tians understood tit was q life Of
subsection to Jesus, q life lived by tEse
strength of God, q life IF devotion to
duty, q life Of love to brother man.
And this is Christianity, and it can be
nothing else-living your daily life at
the call Of duty in allegiance to the
Lordship Of Jesus, with q personal
consciousness Of God as 4 Father and
fellow man as brother.
A day came to Christianity when it
meant more than this. The day Of in
curry came, when Christianity was
brought into conflict with other cults,
and then Christianity got itself q creed.
The day of systematic svangelization
came, when Christianity had lost her
first leaders and had to make new ones
out Of the raw material found among
the new converts, and then Christianity
got itself energy and organized itself
into the church. But first and funda-
mentally was what its Founder left it,
and what its pathfrders made it-a
way Of living the daily life in allegiance
to the Lordship of the risen Christ,
with q personal consciousness of God
as q Father and ones fellows as
brothers. And this is The first and
Fundamental way in which Christianity
must be presented to and embraced by
every real life, if it IS to De a real and
vital religion. 1t must be, first of all,
just q way of living the daily life.
A man begins to have it and con-
tinueS to be q possess0r If it when, in
his home, in the street car, in the hotel
and shop and legislative chamber he
and feels himself to be the son Of
God and the brother of every last fell
low mortal who has 4 claim on what
God has given him Of health, wealth,
education, friendship and spiritual life.
To every man who lives in this way
there may come q creed. There comes
q time to every man when he inquiries
Of the solemn. face Of life, and God
and Christ what they are. And the
answer which comes to his own Utmost
soul through his personal experience
will be this mans creed. And to every
earnest soul who lives in the way there
will come.a church. AS he seeks the
conditions of his own best way of
living, rs he reaches out to help his
brothers in their pilgrimage, he will
discover that there is power in aSSo-
citation, q dynamic in organized fellow
ship and thus he will rejoice in the
glorious company and will enter into
operative fellowship with ell who own
the risen Lord.
But with all the creed and in all the
community with other believers, re-
ligion will still be this and this only
living cne's daily life Of common duty
with Jesus is q Master, with God a. q
Father and with men as brothers. The
creed and the church will be the out
ward expression and tools Of the thing,
but not the thing itself. The man who
lives in the way will see how & man
may be able to give assent to the creeds
Of Christendom and yet be out of the
way. He will realize that q man may
be baptized into the faith of Rome,
or confirmed in the Episcopal denom-
ination, or received into the Presby-
terrain church, and yet he forewandered
from Christ. And he will discover
how. though q man be unable to sub
scribe to any formula of faith, and
though he be disallowed the privileges
of church membership, if he followed
in the way, if he live his daily life
with Jesus as a Master, God as his
Father and men as his brethren, he is
still a friend Of the risen Lord.
What is a Christian? A man who
doth the same things as other good
men, but with q different motive, q diff
ferent method, a different aim. The
motive is devotement 10 Christ. The
method is by the strength of the i'm
maHent God. The aim is for the love
of brother man.