The Penn's Grove record., 1908-01-31
THE PULPIT.
AN ELOQUENT SUNDAY SERMON BY
BISHOP a. C. POTTER.
Subject: The Church and Labor.

0ADJNNts II SlluitI anu LdDUps
Brooklyn, N. Y.-The Ri. Rev.
Henry c. Potter, Bishop of New York,
preached in st. AIMS Church on the
Heights, Sunday. His subject was
The Church and the Labor Cues
ton" and for his text he took the
two passages: st. Luke $40 to
IA (R. VI: And the multitude
asked Him what then must we do?
He answered and said INTO them.
He that hath two coats let him i'm
part to him that hath none; and he
that hath food let him do likewise
And there came also publicans to be
baptized and they said unto Him.
Master, what must we do?' And He
said t them, Exact no more than
that which is appointed YOU And
the soldiers also asked Him, saying,
what must we do?' and He said unto
them, 'Extort from no mar by vio-
lence; neither accuse any one wrong
FULLY; and be content with your
wages" And st. Matthew 11:2 to Z:
Now when John had heard in prison
the works of Christ he sent two of his
disciples and said unto Him: Art
Thou He who should come or look we
for another?' And Jesus answered
and said unto them, Go your way
and tell John the things which We
see; the blind receive their sight and
the lame walk; the lepers are
cleansed and the deaf hear, the dead
are raised up and the poor have the
good tidings preached to them; and
blessed is he who shall find no occa-
sion OF stumbling in Me-" Bishop
Potter said:
wonder if it has ever occurred to
you to ask yourselves the question.
how far the absolute incidents of the
gospels are a witness to their truth?
There + incidents like that which
must present itself to you in connec
ton with John the Baptist, and that
other which occurs at the close of St.
Matthews and st. Luke's gospels in
connection with Peter which make
us feel that if any one were writing a
book in which he desired to present
20 us simply a favorable impression
OF this or that a. there are certain
things In the gospels which would
have been left out. Nothing is finer,
for example, in it's way, than the Ian
guage of John the Baptist in connec-
ton with the coming to him in the
desert of the people, and of the SOL
d1ers, and the tax gatnerers and the
rest. 1t is a singularly direct and
I explicit way in which he lays down to
each group what should be the law
of their life. And it is entirely an
other man, if we stop and think a
moment. whom we encounter in the
gospel for the third Sunday in Ad-
vent: art Thou He that should
come? Really, l do not know wheth-
er you are or not"
That is the implication of thu
words, and l can imagine an unbe,
lever using these words as a very
of John the Baptist in the divine
claims of Jesus. Here is a man who
has been sent as the forerunner OF
Jesus, who had baptized Jesus, who
was profoundly persuaded of the mis-
sion and truth and divine character
of Jesus, and yet there comes a mo-
ment in his life when he says: "Well
really, l am not clear about you. You
claim to be the Messiah. You have
appeared to this nation and to thi;
era in the history of the world with
a revelation of the Supreme Force il
the world. Art Thou He who Should
Gomez" But the fine thing about
these two texts is the fact that eacf
n of them is a distinct and explicit
witness to that thing of which yol
and 1 are perfectly conscious in our
selves. That is, that every mar anc
every woman is made up of two me1
and two women; that there are type.
of character which are so contradic
tory and SO unlike each other thai
abstractly We should say they are alb
solutely irreconcilable and yet they
belong to the same person, Influenced
by different circumstances and chal
lenged by different ~perplexities. There
a be no doubt as to the impression:
which had been made by the teaching
and life of Jesus upon John the Bap
fist in the words 1 have read. John
in other words, grasped and seized
with singular clearnesS and force thu
fact that here in the advent of Jesui
there had entered the world an abso
lutely new law in the conception o
life and of the individuals relations
to other lives about him.
Go back to the beginning of civil
cation and trace step by step to thi
hour and you will be amazed to fine
how largely they built on the compli
cations and PHILOSOPHERS of caste. NJ,
brother (Dr. Alsop) might make a.
interesting sermon upon the tragi
and dramatic forces Of caste in In
dia, whose religions it would be wei
to remember are older than ours. Il
14ha, r-ar31 fha ~0ponnt fhof ha-
barism begins to lift itself by organi
cation, by the creation of the govern
ing society, it differentiates barbar
ism from civilization. 1t begins ais
to emphasize the distinction of caste
Do you know that to-day a Pariah
one of the classes in India, canno
walk on the sidewalk of the stree
after 8 o'clock in the afternoon be
cause it is possible that this Pariah
whose touch is defilement, Nigh
brush against a Brahmin? In othe
words, the Brahmin has pushed tn
theory of the isolation of the caste t
that point where he cannot allo1
n not of the same caste to walk o
/ the same side of the street with hin
( When l was in India l asked a Hind
on a boat on the Hoogly River to 81
down and eat with me, and he turne
as if l had struck him and said: m
caste forbids; I cannot eat with 20
because you are a Christian
Now, Jesus came and John tn
Baptist sees first of all that He ha
struck at the foundation, at the sys
tenn of the theory of caste. The the
ory of caste carried with it the righ
of certain privileged people to mair
tain a certain autocratic and impel
ious sovereignty over the lives an
property of others. NO." said Johl
having been long enough in the pre-!
ence of his Master to grasp that gres
central truth of the Masters teacf
rug, mo, you and /. the soldier an
the tax gatherer and the men VIII
ray taxes, and, all the rest. are on
family in the family of God, and j
your relations to one another yo
must govern yourselves by the law {
equity and not by the power whic
comes into your hands because of an
mere caste inheritance whateve
your Office or place may be in cast
inheritance of power over another