Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1910-05-31

To supply the grievous want which he
thus laments, he organized the Method
list people into classes and established
class-meetings and band-meetings. He
also restored the apostolic 'agapae" or
''love-feasts." II he were returned to the
earth today, he would have to lament
again the absence of christian fellowship
In all the churches, the Methodist bodies
included.
The apostolic conception of the church
is that of a family, sprung from the
same father, gathered about him, and
called by his name. st. Paul speaks OF
the whole family in heaven and in
earth called by the name of Christ.
But we seem to have q conception quite
different. Our idea seems to be that
the church is a trolley car In when
there is a crowd of people, accidentally
thrown together, sitting side by SIDE ana
going in the same direction, carried for
ward by the same agency and cared Tor
by the same conductor, but entire strang-
ers to each other, having no common In
forests or common sympathies. They are
not knit together by kinship, but are
brought together for a season by the
chance convenience of a mechanical de-
vice for transportation which carries
them towards a destination which they
all desire to reach. Neither reason nor
revelation justif1es any such view OF the
Church of God.
1t is contradicted by the Creed Of
Christendom, and condemned by the
whole tenor of the Scriptures. In the Creed
we declare that we believe in the
Church of God and the communion or
saints" But does this trolley-car theory
of the church meet the demands OF the
4 70 hali Does
It measure up to the words of st. John,
when, writing to the humble believers
of his time he said, THAT which we
have heard and seen declare we unto
you that we also may have fellowship
with us. and truly our fellowship Is with
the Father and with his Son Jesus
Christ?
Men want fellowship, and will have 1t.
They can not live alone in isolated inr
dividualism. This explains their DISPOSE
ton to unite with all sorts of societies
and secret orders. The multiplication OF
such orders in our country points to
the failure of the church to meet the
demands for fellowship. How can this
failure be corrected?
BY return to the principles and prac-
tice of Apostolic Christianity. The fell
lowship of the Holy Spirit breaks down
all barriers and binds men together in
the hottest and most intimate and most
tender relation possible to human nature.
1t is said that lone touch of nature
makes the whole world kim; but far
more truly may 1t be said that one touch
of the supernatural makes the whole uni
verse akin. In the days Of St. Paul it
broke down the middle wall Of partition
between Jews and Gentiles, and made
them to sit together in Heavenly places
in Christ Jesus" Writing to the Ephe-
sian Gentiles of this mighty power Of
Christ to bind together in one all things
in heaven and on earth, the great Apostle
says, But now in Christ Jesus We who
sometimes were far off are made nigh
by the blood Of Christ. For He is our
peace, who hath made of both one, and
hath broken down the middle wall OF
partition between us; having abolished in
his flesh the enmity, even the law of
commandments contained in ordinances.
for to make in Himself of twain one
new man, so making peace; and that he
might reconcile both unto God in one
body by the cross, having slain the en-
nifty thereby; and came and preached
peace to you which were afar off, and to
them that were nigh. For through Him
we both have access by one Spirit unto
the Father. Now, therefore, we are no
more strangers and foreigners, but fell
low-citizens with the saints and OF the
household Of God, and are built upon the
foundation OF the apostles and prophets,
Jesus Christ himself being the chief COR
ner-stone. in whom all the building fifty
framed together groweth unto an holy
temple in the Lord; in whom we also are
builded together for an habitation Of God
through the Spirit" (Ephesians ii:13-20.
These great words OF st. Paul will ap-
pear almost incomprehensible to the pro-
fessors and opponents OF our modern
over-mundane christianity. IT will be no.
ted that the apostle magnifies Christ
above all earthly personalities and pow
ers, and that he puts spiritual relations
above all other relationships whatsoever.
Herein his teachings offer from much
that passes current for Christianity in our
time.
We can never have the unity and fell
l0wship which Paul sets forth until Christ
and His salvation mean to US what they
| meant to the Apostle. AS long as we i'm
agine that Christianity is mainly con-
| cerned with the rectification Of worldly
relations and the amelioration of earth
ly conditions, leaving out Of the account
it's work of setting men right in their
eternal relations to God through the atom
ing work of Christ. we shall never have
an adequate center around which to rail-
ly the fellowship which st. Paul and his
fellow Apostles had in mind when they
! wrote their epistles to the Churches. We
shall never know and love man as our
brother until we have round God as our
Father. When we minify Christ we mini
fy His Church and the fellowship which
It alone supplies. When we regard Him
as something less than a Saviour we
throw off his power to bind us to others
by the ties of a common salvation.
This truth is strongly put by Stanley
Leathes in his most excellent work en-
titled, 1.-The Christian Greed" This able
Prebendary OF st. Pauls and Professor
In Kings College says. LAS all true pat
riots. whatever their political creed, are
| equally loyal to the Constitution and the
Crown, and are necessarily drawn togeth-
er when the safety or honour of either is
threatened, so all true Christians, what
ever their individual sentiments or their
UNCONVENTIONAL creed, are mutually drawn
together, and sympathetically united In