The Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1???-1928, 1908-03-09
THE CHURCH OF CHRIST.
ouqht o Be Flexible Organization
Able to Adopt Itself TO the
Needs of the Age.

! beginning with the effect, Creation a
cause is clearly implied God is this
cause. The universe-the world and
all therein was not purposeless crea-
4 ton. This conclusion, to him who
| thinks will be arrived at even ii the
Bible a revelation from Deity, be ig-
iored: indeed God has given his chill
/ dren two revelations-the Bible and
| the intricate and abstruse Book OF
| Nature. The story is told most beau
| tifully, in verse of prehistoric age
| IN which a dainty fern played a part ;
vast and strange animals then lived,
monster fishes swan the main, but no
men then existed to leave a written
| record. The fern was crushed deep
| iii the mud Ages came and went, and
the little plant was forgotten. One
day thoughtful and scholarly man
visited immense quarries, and there
| no beheld, in the bosom of a rock, the
/ impress of that fern, line for line,
and he was able to tell to what geo
logical age the rock belonged, and to
name the species of animals then eX-
listing, and to approximate the time
since the fern-life ended Learn to
read the Book of Nature for this
volume is made up of many chapters,
all speaking eloquently of God, who
created for a definite purpose.
Man. the crowning work of creation
has been the instrument through
whom our complex social order has
been evolved His antiquity is very
great: the pyramids, buried cities OF
the old worlds, now partly excavated
Mexican civilization at the time of the
Spanish conquest, the ruins of an UNI
known civilization once existing in
New Mexico and Arizona, all attest
history, written and unwritten. we
are persuaded that-during the long
ages of his existence-the trend of
mans civilization has been upward, d
struggle through the mists and super
stitions, through primal methods of
ascertaining and applying the truth,
through bestial and unhallowed war
fare. Even in the glory of present
lay tenets Of social science and com
nercial activity, we have wrongs to
be righted and ethical laws TO be
needed. Still. the trend is upward
When Mosaic wisdom held sway,
1t was no uncomon thing for these
principles, with others, to rule: can
N fnr
Ne read of the ancient cities of
refuge" and capital punishment" as
today melted to the guilty, has its
prototypes in those laws of Moses
But the race grew. climbing upward
and after thousands of years of strife
and bloodshed, there stood outlined
upon the horizon of civilization a
fgure-that of Christ, the Nazarene
He taught men the grandeur of broth
nrly-love, forbearance, the Golden
rule" his ethicaEspiritual standard.
for the race, was higher, loftier, more
righteous than was that of Moses, in
termediary between Sinaitic revela
ton and Judaic receptivity God |
spoke to his children, through Moses, |
in terms they could comprehend: he |
gave higher revelation through |
Christ, even today but family per
ceiyed dimly apprehended But the
race climbs.
Our social mass is made up of the |
heterogeneous and uncertain Euro |
pean countries boast of their age
and experience Paris is nearly, If not /
quite, two thousand years old; Ireland |
1900 years ago, had literature and a |
king; about this time the Druid !
briests combatted inroads of Roman
and warriors of Devonshire |
held in check legions of the Caesar |
We boast-as a nation-of our youth. |
For years the gates OF our country |
have opened wide to a strong tide |
Of immigration, and as a result we
have a many-hued and complex woven |
fabric of society. Wealth and poverty |
and slumfolk. Christian
and nonCchristian, Atheist ad Deist,
and law abiding. are all to-
sether, subject to the same laws
These differene elements are all God
begotten; they are his children. many
81 them unruly and unlovabe. Men
# every nation and country have
found refuge Under our flag. from the
red-handed anarchist to the religious
md law-abiding Scandinavian Our
Social-order is exceedingly composite Il
Il is infammable, dangerous. No one
can tell what moment social unheav- /,
Il will change the center of gravity
Of our sosial-order.
AS in the sea, made up of millions
IF waves and countless eddies. there {
are untold possibilities-manifesta-
ions of storm and opportunities of
26lm--so in the sea of civilization ,
1uT sOcial-order surging to and fro
'cross the bosom of our country are
here possibilities of good and evil.
Therefore. the need of the church.
something that is more than man made.
+ society had been perfect. or if men, I,
With mere human effort could have
made it perfect, Christ would never q
ave founded his church against
which the gates of hell should not
revail." The church is a divine IN !
titution. broadly speaking. made up I
Z all the faithful followers of Christ !
herever found There are MANY !