The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1910-02-01
Sermon by
CHARLES 7.
RUSSELL,
Pastor Brooklyn
Tabernacle.

ingS. which are to continue during
four successive Sunday afternoons in
the largest Auditorium of Brooklyn,
the Academy of Music, under the aus
pices of Peoples Pulpit Association"
The topic for the day was:-
What Congregattonatists. Presbyteri-
iGns and Methodists must surrender In
the interests of Church Federation"
Pastor G. T. Russell of Brooklyn
Tabernacle delivered the address. The
spacious and elegant Auditorium was
crowded SO that an overflow meeting
with another speaker was deemed ad-
visable. On the platform behind the
speaker were several hundred men, In
GLIDING a number of ministers. The
audience as a whole was a very in
telligent one. The Honorable J. f..
Rutherford. Attorney-at-Law, intro
duced Pastor Russell. who said:-
take for my text the Word of the
Lord through the Prophet, 'Say We
not, Confederacy. to all them to
whom this people shall say, A Con-
federacy; neither fear We their fear,
nor be afraid" isaiah viii. ~.
The desirableness of oneness in the
Church of Christ is beyond dispute.
The improperly of sectarianism or di-
vision is now generally conceded, al
though twenty years ago many de-
Tended the divided condition of the
Church as being helpful. They point
ed to our Lords words, am the Vine
and We are the branches; every branch
in me that beareth not fruit my Fa-
Their. the Husbandman, taketh away
And every branch that beareth fruit
he pruneth. that it may bring forth
more fruit John XIV, 1-5D. They claim
ed that the denominations were the
branches. The evident teaching of
the Master here is that his people are
related to him in an individual sense
and not as parties, sects or denomina-
tons, and that they are dealt with
from the individual standpoint as one
Church and not many.
st. Paul enunciated the same great
truth q Corinthians xii, 49,, declaring
that the Lord Jesus is the Head of the
as the human body has many men,
bers under the full control of the head,
except when diseased. so the Church.
as members in particular of the Body
of Christ, are all to be subject to the
Lord as their Head. They are all to
be so connected with their Head. and
thus with each other. that when one
suffers. all suffer with it, and when
one rejoices. all rejoice with it, be-
cause they all have fellowship in the
one spirit of the Head. Hence the
eye cannot say to the hand. nor the
hand to the foot. ] have no need of
you, for every member is necessary to
the prosperity of the Body as a whole.
And as the joint supports and strength
ems the limb and Is Joined thereto
by sinews. ETC.. so individually Gods
people are united to each other i'll
the bonds of grace and truth and love.
1t must be conceded that Church
Federation or Confederacy is in many
respects quite different thing from
the Church's oneness illustrated by our
Lords parable of the vine. and the
Apostles illustration Of the human
body. Nevertheless since Federation
is proposed as the nearest possible APP
proach to the spiritual enjoined Union.
it is proper that we and all Christians
everywhere should enquire carefully
the cost and the gain implied in the
Federation movement. AS the pro-
gram shows, this series of meetings
will consider impartially the cost of
Federation to the creeds of the most
prominent denominations. First in the
of Congregationalism. Presbyterianism
and Methodism.
a. AS to church government very
slight concessions will be required Of
any Of the federating denominations.
UNCONVENTIONAL liberties as respects
forms of worship and methods of gov
eminent and discipline are to be permit
ted very loose rein. The Federation pro-
poses chiefly the regulation of home
and foreign mission work and general
watch-care over the interests of the
federated systems along the lines Of
political influence. The expectation is
that the political power of the Fedora
ton will have considerable to do with
moulding of legislation favorable to the
Federation, and later on, unfavorable
to the smaller denominations not asso-
ciated in the Federation.
(2l 1t is along doctrinal lines that the
sacrificing in the interest of Federation
will be chiefly demanded.
Doctrinally Congregationalists and
Presbyterians are one; hence we may
consider their sacrifices of doctrine in
the interests of Federation as the
same. They both accept the West
minister Confession of Faith with its
Calvinistic foundation-that God, be-
fore the foundation of the world. fore
ordained whatsoever comes to pass;
that he predestinated an elect sanity
few to heavenly glory. and equally
foreordained that the remainder of
thousands of millions Of non-elect
should be maintained in eternal life
20 all eternity. in order that they might
suffer excruciating pains. both mental
and physical. never-eD~ing. as a part
of the supposed penalty of the "Origi-
nal SIM committed by our first par
ents in Eden.
Evidently there will be few people
In these highly intelligent Christian
bodies ready to insist, as our fore
fathers did. that this element of faith
is essential to salvation. Few of us
would agree with Brother John Calvin,
the great architect of this creed, that
fellow-Christians rejecting this doc
trine should be burned at the stake,
as Brother Calvin decided in respect
to Brother Servetus. No, thank Godl
We have outgrown some of the mar
rowness which so terribly fettered
some of our brethren during the dark
ages.
Few any longer believe that there
are infants in hell not span long"
because non-elect. Even where the
doctrine of Election is still blindly
held, few have the temerity to state
their belief that any innocent infant
was predestinated to everlasting tor
| ture. But Brother Calvin's conten-
ton expressed in the Westminster
Confession is that there are no innocent
infants-that the condemnation of
| Original Sin was to eternal torture and
that Adams children. born in sin and
shapen in iniquity," were therefore not
innocent, but guilty-born under the
sentence of eternal torment and sal
vable from it only through membership
In the Church of Christ. Indeed we
may say that this theory was still
older than Calvin, for did not st. Au-
gustine first declare the danger Of in
fants to eternal torture and the neces-