The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-05-18
What the Church
Doing.
NARROW GAUGE RELIGION
The International Sunday-SchOOl Les
son for May % is The Council at
J~eruSalenl.' Acts Is: 1-3o.
By William Z. Ellis.

Jerusalem" Acts Is: 1-35.
BY William Z. Ellis.
Probably the meaneSt type Of Girls
tianity ever l nave run across in tn"
world is what l found at several points
in the Orient. where missionaries Of
certain American sects, avoiding the
difficulties of pioneer work among the
heather have planted themselves in
the midst Of the converts Of older
missions, and have undertaken to
proselyte them to their particular
tenets concerning immersion, or holl-
ness, or some peculiar Sectarlan dis
tinction. Environed by all the op-
~pOrtunities of the nOn-ChriStian world,
and with their SmallneSS rebuked by
the presence of a great need, they yet
do not hesitate to Wean away from
another missionary the fruit Of many
years of labor, all for the sake Of
some shibboleth. They call this foreign
missions; instead it is one Of the worst
forms Of domestic sectarianism trans
planted to a foreign shore.
That is about what the strict LEGAL
lists from the Jerusalem Church tried
to do in the Antioch mission field. 1t
is perhaps well that Luke does not
mention the names of these trouble
makers and separatists, who were
blind to all the glorious headings of
Gods providence, and open-eyed only
to the legalistic rites OF the Mosaic
law.
The persistence of shibboleths in re-
ligious life is a curious phenomenon
which may some day be scientificallY
studied. 1t was true of Judaism and
of Judaized Christianity. 1t i true of
Buddhism in al its branches. so that
it is reported from Tibet that two sects
have arisen. one cOntending for the
merits of prayer-Wheels driven by
Water-poWer, n the other contend
ing for prayer-Wheels driven by wind
power. Tibet is not SO far distant in
SnIrIf as NAV he imagined from some
centers of American Christendom. In
Scotland the Wee Frees" as the
branch of the Free Church which re
fused to enter the union have been
called, have steadily grown more and
more intolerant. and with each year
lay down an increasing numbe of de-
tailed rules for their adherents-bur-
dens too heavy to be borne.
The Religion of Rote and Rule.
All s~hibbOlethS are opposed to the
genius of Christianity. Intolerant de-
nOminatiOnaliSm, Sectarianism and
separaratism are foreign to the mind
of the Master. "Where the Spirit Of
the Lord is there is liberty" Where
there is no liberty it may be question
ed whether the Spirit Of the Lord is
to be found.
The tendency to make Christianity
a thing of rOte and rule is one which
every generation has to face and fight
There is a certain type of small mind
which wants its religion carefully la
belled and formulated into definite
rules for every department Of conduct
They would delight in the Koran. with
all its innumerable regulations Of be
haviOr under every circumstance
Some churches and preachers display
a tendency to stress unduly certain
forms of violation OF their churchlI
codes as the most Dreadful of sins
Similarly, they emphasize conformity
to definite regulations as the sum OF
righteousness. Now if the New Tes-
lament makes anything clear it is tha
the GOSPEL of Jesus is not a catalogue
of detailed practices, but a new spiri
of life. Christ is not a barrier, but {
door. He is not a Imitation. but {
way Whose follows Him closely can.
not walk man-made paths but find.
himself led out into newness Of libert,
and breadth Of horizon and largenes.
of soul.
A study of the ~present-day Orienta
Christian Church reveals a surprisin9
number of Occidentalisms that have
crept into our church life. and Will
which the Oriental is inclined to dis
pense. We put the converts from
heathendom under a serious ~handical
by trying to make them conform t.
our western order. Thus we hay,
church steeples in China. Northern
~Presbyterians in South China,-wher,
they have the haziest notions o
America at all, and I know nothin;
about the unfortunate division betwee.
North and South. In many such way
we have been inclined to perpetual
the provincialisms of our western
churches in these alien lands. We ar,
of h school of Judaizing Christian
who feels that the Gentle believe.
must conform to the whole law o
Moses.
Champions of Liberty.
There is a milk-and-Water type O
Christianity which decrieS controversy
Lacking spine and spirit. it woult
manifest itself only in supine affabi
and in gelatinous submission to al
opposition. That kind of religion i
not learned from the New Testament
lnere IS no scripturaI warrant for con
Ge,Ving OF Christians as sugar. TIL
and nlas them be salt. and salt bite