The Salt Lake herald-Republican. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1909-1918, 1909-11-26
FOR THE BIGGER RELIGION.

At Pittsburg last month, before the
centennial convention of the Christian
church, Mr.. Samuel Hardin Church, a
grandson of that Walter Scott who was
one of the founders of the denomination
mentioned, delivered an address that
viii mark an epoch in the religious his
tory of the nation.
One of the most closely cherished
tenets of the Christian-or Disciples
faith is that of immersion. By the great
majority OF the ministers sprinkling is
not considered baptism. Mr.. Church
argues against insisting on that for
mality. But his argument goes far be-
yond that. and far beyond the limits Of
his own denomination. His address is
a brief for a better unity Of ali the
Christian churches-the Catholics in
cluded-and even with the Jewish peo-
pie, for the betterment of the whole
world-for the help of those in America
not now members of any denomination.
Mr.. Church bases his labor on the
fact that forty-five millions of the peo-
pie of the United States are. by the
census report, outside of any church.
They are-even in a nation of more
than three hundred religions-uncon-
verted. They do not believe in any re-
vealed religion. They confess allegiance
to no God.
Il is impossible to give here more
than the merest fragments Of the speak
er's address. But of the wealth in that
argument for broader and more Chris
tian labor, we select this three:
Oh my friends, ask you whether re-
liSion, which is the fulness of life on
earth in accordance with Gods laws,
has not become too big and too vital
and too real thing to be bound any
longer to dead forms I ask you to re-
fleet, with such self-cleansing power
as the circumstance may carry with it,
that as you go through life every other
man you meet upon the street is nurs-
ing in the dark recesses of his brain
a dogma which viii save himself and
damn his fellow men!
x X
And ia that situation, somewhere or
other, you viii find the answer to your
own question, as TO why men do not
60 to church Would il not be an as
founding thing, my friends if, while |
with each other about the meaning of
abstruse dOgmas and the efficacy of
ancient forms, that orderly ard veil |
behaved portion Of society which we
call the world" would find God for
itself and accomplish its own salvation |
from the sins of this world without |
the aid of the churches?
When d man approaches, would Jesus |
command him to believe him to be a 1
God. on pain of having his soul de- |
stroyed? No, because the man would |
flee from him as a monster. Yer that 4
Is just what you are doing IN the name |
of Jesus. Would he PROFOUND thirty |
nine articles of faith. or one article. or
half of an article. before permitting
the man to enter the church? Would |
he compel him to cOnstrue and interpret /
a scripture which did not exist when |
he was on earth? Would he require
him to be baptized other than with his
own spirit? Mo- no! But he would /
take the man by the hand and plead |
With-him in irresistible tenderness to |
strive to be worthy i'm his life and char
acter, and to treat all other men with /
loving kindness.
The speaker Offended many who heard /
him, there in the Pittsbung meeting. /
They insisted on holding to the form
of their religion. He argues for the spirit
of it. And his address, Religious Prog
ress in America" should be in the hands
of every thoughtful man and every
sincere woman in the republic.
1t can not but help in the work which
engages the effort of all good people
the cleaner and more useful lives Of
mankind