Montour American. (Danville, Pa.) 1866-1920, 1907-05-09
Glass Of Fifteen
CONFIRMED


morning. The rite of confirmation
was administered by Rt. Rev. J. H.
Darlington, bishop Of the diocese of
Harrisburg, who preached a sermon on
the occasion. There was large con-
gregation present.
The sermon which followed con-
frmation was a profound and practic-
al discourse. The text was taken from
9th verse, 2nd chapter of Colossiaus
=" For in Him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead. "
There is an idea prevalent, the speak
er said, that much of the preaching of
the present day is wasted because it
does not meet present issues. Whether
this is wholly true or not he would
not say. But speaking for himself, he
has made an effort to discover
what problems veX-what subjects of
discussion are uppermost in the minds
of the great body of humanity.
In order to place himself more cloAa-
ly in touch with the rank and file
while travelling on the cars whenever
at all convenient, he makes it a prac-
tice to ride in the smoking car, not
for the purpose of unduIging in a
smoke, but to get in touch with the
travelling men when they may be
found in a mood most willing to COM
municate. Practical and observing,
the average travelling man may be re-
garded as an exponent of current
thought.
The burden of the talk indulged in
by these business men the bishop has
found to run along two lines. One of
these seem to centre on the idea that
there is something radically wrong
with the bible. The men have not got.
ten the idea from personal study; they
had not read books of biblical critic
ism, neither have they listened to any
lectures on the subject; but so far as
the speaker can determine they have
been influenced wholly by newspaper
squibs.
The bishop paid fine compliment
to the modern newspaper and held it
up as an indispensable agency in the
twentieth century civilization. The
newspaper. however, is not the place
to look for reliable criticism on biblic-
al subjects. To illustrate how little
weight is to be attached to such at
tacks and criticism found in the news
papers the speaker related an anecdote.
He called one day on an acquaint-
anoe, who was an editorial writer on
leading newspaper. The latter pre-
sented the bishop with fine work on
theology with the explanation that he
had just written a review of the work
and had no further use for it. The
bishop observed that the leaves were
uncut and asked the writer to explain.
The latter made no secret of the fact
that he had only referred to the table
of contents and the last chapter and
from these indirect sources had con-
structed lengthy and exhaustive re-
view.
Another burden of thought on the
minds of men that Bishop Darlington
discovered is that we "are making too
much of Christ that the evangelists
and poets of these latter days are
him unduly, placing him
q n fol II,
teachers of Christianity. Somehow
the idea seems to prevail that the ord.
er in which the divine personages are
given in the trinity should be observ-
ed and that the Son should come sec
ond. following the Father. This idea
might be due to the doctrine of Crapsy
recently given publicity or to the
higher criticisms of the day. Most of
these attacks center on the gospels and
the book Of revelation, which contain
so much to console the Christian.
Higher criticism, which is attacking
the bible. is divided into three camps
the radical and conservative camp of
Germany and the English camp. 1t is
worthy of note, the speaker said, that
these schools all agree that the epistle
to the Colissians is authentic-a book
which, as revealed by the text, places
Christ upon a very high pedestal:
For In Him dwelleth all the fulIness
Of the Godhead.
Incidentally, the speaker paid his
to the school of thinkers
who denominate themselves "agnos-
tics. y The original or literal mean
ing of this work, he said, is "ignor-
anus.
The bishop held that we do not put
Christ high enough. We are too much
tainted with this unitarian heresy
Christ is the head of the church. In
Him is all fullness and perfection. All
hope is in this great God and Savior
We know great deal about Christ in
these days; we read of his life and we
travel over the land where his foot
prints lay. But it is vastly different
thing to know about Christ and to
know Him, the one thing necessary.
Do we not put Christ too far away
from us-2000 years ago? Do we get
the real living Christ-the present
Savior?
Very beautifully indeed the bishop
applied these thoughts to the class lust
confirmed. Every life, he said, has
It's own trials and sorrows-its own
yethsemane. All should endeavor TO
10 live that when the time of trial
zones they can say with their Savior,