The Cairo bulletin., 1910-10-24
CHURCH COMPETITION.

| MI. MofSdH DONATION Oh SluutVU
for the promotion of the universe
church idea will again raise the oil
Question of whether universal
church is thing to be desired Com
petition has been the life of trade il
theology as in other things If tht
original Protestants had protested un
| der a conviction that there was room
| for but one church in the world, am
that the one they were proposing te
establish must disestablish the orig
inal one and see to it that no Others
took its place, nothing is more Ger
tan that that what we call the Refor.
nation would not have found any
large place in history.
But because Arminlus, when set tc
defend the doctrines of Calvin, endel
In opposing those doctrines and found
| a multitude OF followers, and because
| Erasmus and other great thinkers
found paths of their own, the move.
ment was greatly accentuated. In al.
probability, il church established
by Luther to displace the church of
Rome could actually have displaced
THAT church and itself have seized the
scepter of spiritual sovereignty, he
Christian faith would not have made
the great strides 1t has under the spur
Iof competition. The Reformation
would have failed almost In it's in.
.aeption. But reused to an exalted
spiritual activity through resistance
finding its strength in a competition
of creeds The church OF Rome sent out
those great Jesuits whose mighty
work is written into the history Of
this aud other lands. The fruits Of
this work, in this country, are seen
Ia great spiritual groyths in many
churches, rising directly out Of the a.
triton OF contending forces, the old
church against many new ones, and
each OF the new ones against all Of
the others which were new as well as
the one which was old
If any ore of them had worked
avll II would have passed long ago
l3uf each Of them has worked good,
inca each Of them has held to the
one great central truth of all Chris
fian faith Our fathers, delighted in
long polemies between leade,s of GIL
nosing sects as To the mode ard man.
ner of carrying out the divine DEGREES.
They wanted to see the wheels 90
around, and Il, by pitting a man
claiming that the wheels turned to
the left AGAINST one claiming tina
they turned to the right, they could
streng CITIZEN their assurance that thov
surely turned in one direction or the
other, wherefore can we blame them?I
This generation, in it's impatlence
with such polemics, is really testify
ing to higher faith than those gone
before. We are coming closer an
closer to the truth that only right
eousNess e8aHeth man or people, |
and that righteousness, made incar-
nate. can triumph not only over the
flesh but over death. Since this is the |
substance of all our creeds, aud since,
n an age Of numbers. the creeds |
strive against one another for mum.
oers, the zeal of their striving works
fnr the good of the race We know |
hat the wheels go around, and 1t can |
aot hurt US to have polemics as to |
the details of the plan of salvation.
All churches having thnved under
the great majority off
them will regard a great money con
-rihutiou from J Pierpont Morgan to-
ward establishing a single church as
another effort to establish a monopoly. |
Globe-Democrat.