Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1906-10-22

Ell uellleS or AtlenS. linen ne uttered
the memorable words of my text, And
the times Of this ignorance God winked
at, but now commander all men
everywhere TO repent AS God bore
with the ignorance Of the Greeks of
old God has been bearing with our ig-
norance, but now eyes are opened
as were those Of the Athenians. Now
it is time for US to repent of our past
sins and surrender OLE Aearts TO Jesus
Christ. Could we have a better time
to DO this than on this first Lords day
Of the new year? As the year 1905 has
slipped into the year 1906 we seem
to be in almost as dramatic a position
as We're the Athenians when listening
to the preaching of the mighty Paul.
God in the first place has borne with
our ignorance theological. He has been
dealing with our creeds a great deal as
he has been dealing with the shrines
Of the Athenian worshipers. To use
a homely figure, he has been shutting
his eyes to our superstitions as a moth
er sometimes pretends not to see b
w%rongdoings of her little child, because
she does not think it best to correct the
boy now. Man in the past has beer
holding the Baptist creed and the Epis-
cOpal creed and the Methodist creed
and the Presbyterian creed and the
Lutheran creed and the Catholic creed
sometimes with as little intelligence as
did the Athenians worshiping at the
affairs of a Mercury, an Apollo, a Ju-
| .s4or. n 49, a,1 a JInNl on cfIJ- h1,4
now men are beginning to realize that
while it is important to adhere faith
fully to the creeds of their respective
churches the supreme necessity is that
they give their loyal worship to the
Holy. Trinity, of whom God is the Fa-
tner and Jesus Christ the elder brother
and the holy spirit is the paraclete.
And yet, my friends, there was a time
when Christian people built their Sec
tartan fences SO high that they could
not see any good in any church unless
that church belonged to their own
household Of faith.
No sooner did John Wesley come into
touch with the Moravians and get a
broader conception of Christ than had
liz IDhSNOIdlIdho ILoh q OhNS Ii
chancel of the Church of England was
closed against him. To the Episco-
palian he became a spiritual outcast.
No sooner did John Bunyan attempt to
start forth as a nOnconformist preach
err than at once he had to surrender his
pulpit for Bedford Jail. No sooner did
Albert Barnes, like st. John, get a
broader vision, of heaven than had his
ministerial brethren than he was de-
prived of his Presbyterian orders, and
the greatest Bible teacher and COM
mentator of his generation had to sit in
the pew of the First Presbyterian
church of Philadelphia as . worshiper
instead of standing in the pulpit as q
preacher. All the prosecutions. of the
dark ages were due to the worship of
sectarian creed. All the horrors of a
st. Bartholomew massacre and the
murderings Of the Covenanters among
Scottish hills and the fendish works
of a "BloOdy Mackenzie" and of 3
Bloody Mary" were due to the wor-
ship at a UNCONVENTIONAL altar instead
of the cross of Jesus Christ. Oh, re-
ligion, religion, what awful crimes
have been committed in thy name! The
demons of the darkest caverns and the
most bestial of sins have drenched
their garments with human gore be-
cause under the helmets of sectarian-
ism they have been prompted to IN
sheath the sword Of bigotry. But now
all things are being changed. Paul re
revealed the unknown God" to the
Athenians. Jesus Christ has revealed
God to us. Now. u religious teachers
have become SO broad that they are
ready to join all Protestant churches in
one great federation for Christian work
as long as the one cardinal doctrine of
those churches is "Jesus Christ the Say.
Jour, who has come to save man, a
: sinner"
5 Christian Federation.
i And, mark you, this revelation OF
Christ has. not been gladly acclaimed
by the churches during the past centu
: ries, but only within the last few years
: You must think of this church fellow
ship as a child of our youth and no
e as a blessing of bygone generations. L
e was as late as the life of Patrick Hen
~, NuO uIGu LII LOU, lldt IIc DdplIS1
ministers of old Virginia were called
upon to defend themselves in the Grim
: inal dock because they were charged
with preaching the gospel of the sol
of God" You who are students of his
tory recall how the same ~elOQuence
which fired the American c~olonists fol
liberty or death reused the hearts OF
S his jurors when Patrick Henry pleaded
II for the freedom of the indicted Baptist
ministers. My God" he cried, can il
t be that any man should be charged as
S a criminal for preaching the love OF
Jesus Christi Then, again and agair
Y he waved the Indictment above him as
e he said, For preaching the love OF
5 Jesus Christ" Blu now, thank God, al
e such criminal trials are past. God has
f revealed himself to US t~heolOgically
S We know, and well know, that fOreor
;. dination or Arminianism or belief il