The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-01-16
What Is The Church For?
 Is to SerDe fhe, Whole World

the eternal contemporaneousness of thg Gospel makes this always possible.
 A Church's Treasure.
 What makes a sermon different from a speech? Why is an ethical culture meeting not like 8 church service? What has the church better to offer than the 1yceum, the debating society, in this epochRl sermon of Peter's at Pentecost He presented not abstract virtues, but q personal. living super natural Christ. The Apostolic Church did not have any such edifices or ap- pliances as we boast to-day; but she possessed--and tremendously realized "a Christ who could save the world. The theologians would call Peter's dis course Christocentric sermon. 1t held up Jesus the Christ That name was powerful to break down Jewish pride and to overcome all the we'll nigh impossible barriers that confront- ed the early Christians.
 Over in Japan they teach ethics in. the public schools. But educated Ja-. pan is worse. morally than old Japan. The moral problem of the nation now centers in the schools. It is clearly seen that ethics do not suflce to pre- serve character or to transform na- tiOn; there must be the vital force oE an overmastering religious impulse ta give power to the teaching Of codes of conduct. This is the treasure oe the Christian Church; new life which Is in Christ Jesus, and which may ba imparted to the lives of men, making them new. The secret of all the con- quests of the kingdom is this life-giv- ing Christ. whom Peter preached.
 A Sensational Church.
 Some churches, like some people, would rather be correct than clean. ORflA ha ef. They have less fear of violating Gods law than they have of transgressfng the social sode. They are more fash ionable than fearless. They ahhor any, thing irregular or sensational. Yet the Christian Church started on her career by creating a tremendous sen- sation which would have been treated with scare heads by every daily in Je- rusalem. If Jerusalem had possessed newspapers.
 Think of the news value" of that strange sound from heaven, of the dis tributed tongues of fire of extraordl- nary performances of the disciples, of the accusing, excoriating, heart-search- ing and sensational sermon of Peter, as he arose to defend the little com pany from the charge Of drunkenness. Imagine that motley mob of conscience smitten Jews, crying What shall we do." And conceive, If you can, of the baptism of three thousand converts in a day--an accession of new members that fairly swamped the original eon- pany. Sensational?> Why, old Jerusa- lem had never before known anything like 1t. Moreover there as once arose. In the midst of the cruel selhshness ok the city. q communal life 6 group Of men and women with hearts made ain- pie and sincere, who suddenly lost the lines of care and bitterness from their faces, and who irradiated a peace and a gladness and a good will that staggered the comprehension of all be- holders. They had no rancor or vim dictiveness toward the slayers of thair Leader. but even called them 'bre-' thren." so that all the people were constrained to look upon them with favor.
 Sensational? Verify. And if the twentieth century Church were preach- Ing the Gospel that Peter preached, as he preached 1t and the present diciples were living in simple -hearted. humble and rejoicing broth erliness, there would be created a sensation that would not end until all the world had entered the Church.