The evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1907-1908, 1907-09-26
$l,25O FOR CHURCH
PRESBYTERIANS HOPE TO
RAISE $4,000 MORE.
At West Church Dedication, Preacher
Says It Is Duty to "Turn World
Right Side Up"

Church. supplemented with many mem
bers of the Roseville Avenue Church. the
mother church of the new organi-
cation. and It's congregation, Joined
in the dedication services last night
and during an interesting program
of exercises dropped $3.50 into the
collection plates to help pay off the
balance remaining On the building
fund. The edifce at Littleton and Elev-
enth avenues was crowded, and so great
an interest was manifested by every one
present it is the hope of the Rev. Harold
C. Harmon, pastor of the church, and of
the building committee that an effort will
be made to raise an additional 5000 be-
fore the weeks services are ended.
The dedication sermon was preached by
the Rev. DR.. William Y. Chapman, of the
mother church. and among those taking
part In the service were the Revs. Julius
H. Wolf, DR.. John r. Fisher, Fred Han
nahs, Joseph Hunter. DIR. Alfred Gay,
John Mcdowell, DR.. Davis W.. Lusk. DR..
chapman's text was "These men that
have turned the world upside down are
come hither Also" Acts xvii, 6.
He explained that the early Christians
were those referred to as turning the world
upside down, a charge brought against
them by the rulers Of the Roman empire.
THE charge that the apostles. as the
uTSI e8DOntnLS OIL SHTlSAiuIllJ, WtIt ue-
lberately turning the world upside down,
as the prosecutors meant it, was a false
charge" said DR.. Chapman. And in the
sense in which this charge was made we
can say after nineteen centuries of the
operation Of Christianity in the world, Not
guilty. 1T was not Pauls purpose, 1t
never has been the purpose of Christian
ity rightly conceived, to NEEDLE directly
with civil government, to remove kings
and governors, to incite revolution, or to
make or break constitutions. And
wherever or whenever the church has as
sumed these p~rerogatives. she has gone
beyond her jurisdiction, violated the prin-
ciples of her own constitution and either
destroyed or greatly impaired her infu-
ence in the world.
Nothing could more strongly support
this fact than the example of Jesus him
self. He never in any revolutionary sense
interfered with the social customs or civil
laws and institutions of men. Did He APP
prove of the e%xtravagant seven-day revel
OF a Jewish weddln62 Maybe not. but T.
was not His way to break in and condemn
it. He laid Town no specific rules for the
social life of the people. He came not to
destroy. but to fulfill
I'VE cannot for a moment suppose that
Christ With His pure and peaceful conceu-
tions could entirely approve the govern
ment of Rome or of the tyranny and
cruelty by which she became the mistress
of the world" continued the preacher,
HE certainly could not admire
the characters OF Herod or PLATE or
Augustus. The rank idolatry, brutality
and hideous debauchery of Roman society
must have been a part of the burden that
made him sweat blood. And yet not a word
or an act of direct antagonism to existing
Institutions could be justly charged against
Him.
THE fact is that the apostles In
some sense were turning the world
upside down." said DR.. Chapman.
wherever they went p~roclaiming the
gospel of the Nazarine there was
eommotion, strife and violent opposition.
TheN were indeed disturbers Of the peace,
such peace as has obtained In this poor
world. John the Baptist disturbed Herod's
peace and the peace OF the royal house
hold when he rebuked the wickedness of
that 1oathsome tyrant, and lost his head
In the transaction. Jesus was a disturber
Of the peace when Ne cast out the devils
and let them go into the swine. All along
the centuries the Church Of Christ and
the ministers of Christ have been turning
the world upside down, and all
the ministers of grace and righteous
ness in every part OF the world in every
age who have sought to promote the King
dom of God, have been disturbers of the
peace. turning the WOTlQ upside GOWN.
And surely it was a perfectly proper
thug to do il the world was wrong side
up. If the world is and always was right
side up. then the agitation of the reformer,
the tireless labor of the school master, the
trumpet-tongued pleading of prophet and
apostle. the self-sacriicing energies of the
philanthropists, yea, the very advent of the
Son of God, 'who came to seek and to
save that which was lost'--these all are
unwarrantable intruders and impertinent
meddlers."
DR.. Chapman said that the world is not
and never was right side up.
Hence 1 say" he concluded, ut is the
business of the church, this church, or any
other. to do something toward turning the
world right-side up. The church is to invert
society by converting the individual. Not
that the church has no concern for the
social organism. The church is to be at
once the Judge and the type of the social
body until the time shall come when they
shall be blended into one, and the old
distinction between the secular and the
religious shall disappear. But that must
come to pass not by making the religious
secular. but making the secular religious.
The church is not to conform to the
world, but il is to transform the world,
Therefore. let me say that if this
church shall not be in the true sense a
disturber of the peace in this community,
then they have labored In vain that built
1t. For either the people OF this eommu-
nifty are all at peace with God or else they
are comatose' with the peace of death AMI
must be awakened, and woe to that Chris
tan or body of Christians that lets them
sleep. 1t is the business of every Chris
tian to disturb the peace of death and
bring in the peace which passeth all un-
derstanding. which the world cannot give
or take away"
DIR. Chapmsn referred to the new church
as a baby. with the Rosekille church the
mother. as it was from the latter that the
former grew up as a mission.
DIR. Fisher said that the church could
find much work In looking after the chill
dren OF that section. by getting them to
attend church rather than spend thei
lives on the street.
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