Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1907-05-02
DEPOSITS FROM 500 UP TAKEN.
Master, "Thou shalt love the Lord
thy God and thy neighbor as thy

Master, ''Thou shalt love the Lord
thy God and thy neighbor as thy
self"
The church must exercise her pre-
rogative as the natural leader in all
moral reform. That reform which
has not the support of the church
must sooner or later fail She must
insist on clean public conscience as
the logical sequence of her demands
for purity in the private life. It is
not the province of the church as an
ecclesiastical body to claim temporal
supremacy over the government OF
the city or the nation, but it is her
duty as composed Of voting individ-
uals to demand, and to enforce the
demand, that municipal and national
government be undefiled. The poll,
tics of our large cities will be only
so bad as the church cares to allow.
In country where the citizen is
strenuously to maintain the honor OF
the sovereign people should be the
high aim Of the church.
The church must, however, keep
strictly in mind the prime object of
her existences Her mission it is to
preach the good news throughout
| the world. In the cities is her mis-
sion most difficult to fulfil. Here, by
reason of the multitudinous obsta-
| cles that beset her path, she must
| use extraordinary measures to reach
| the people. It is not enough that the
| spiritual needs of the immediate con-
gregation Of any church be minis
| tered unto. That the pastor preach
regularly twice upon the Sabbath,
| that the exercises of the Sabbath
school progress without interruption,
that the prayer meetings occur as is
| their wont, that the church be prompt
| in her financial affairs, is not enough.
| A yearly contribution to missions in
the foreign fields and the support of
| city missionary do not constitute
| the whole responsibility of any
| church.
The grace of the gospel is for all
J men. Unto all men must the tidings
! be told. To the unhearing and the
| uncaring must the inspiration of the
| infinite Son be carried. Christianity
must be proven a practical force In
| the common life. For the Christ life
| is practical life written large. AS the
only correct system Of right living,
as the ultimate scheme of salvation
J must the gospel be presented to the
| people, To them we must show that
| the promises of Christ are real, that
| Christianity is synonym for broth
| erly love, for the deepest consecra
ton, for the highest purity of life
and motive, that Christianity is
Christlikeness.
The church must carry to the null
| titudes of the unsaved gospel unsul-
lied by her own insincerity and in
consistency Her creed must be SIM
| pie, her differences dismissed. Her
| forces must move in unison toward
the common end. Sect and party
strife must be eliminated. It may
be that the great divisions always
will exist. Always the Catholics and
| the various Protestant denominations.
But like mighty army in which the
! different regiments have each their
duty and their position under a COM
| mon generalship, so must the church
| in waging the peaceful battles of the
moral war march, side by side, sect
| by sect, creed by creed, in full pano-
| ply and with solid front, forward to
| the victory under the common lead
ership of the King of Kings, who is
! Christ the Lord.
| And now a word upon the manner
of the preaching Of the good news.
The gospel should be preached at
tractively. Water street missions
| and Salvation Army rooms may suit
| the preferences of that class to whose
spiritual natures the workers may
wish to appeal. Wonderful is their
| influence and to them be all honor.
The average self-supporting poor
man, however, does not care to feel
under any obligation to the richer
j portion of the community for his
spiritual sustenance. He feels. and
all too sadly with some justification,
that the mission-the very name OF
| which is distasteful to him-has been
established so that he may have no
cause to intrude his unwelcOme pres
ence upon the mother church. May
God speed the day when the church
will see her duty in this matter. The
poor, whose only. sin is poverty,
whose piety is often more genuine
than that nurtured in a protected
home, should be given substantial
) opportunity to worship. The Moody
revivals prove that the common
people respond eagerly and in force
to the appeal of the man in whom
. they can see and imagine only love.
The common people heard Christ
. gladly when the learned scorned
Him.
j We often speak of the wilfulness
| of those who listen to our discourses
/ upon the duty of every man to ac-
: conf Christ as the nerSOnal Savior,