The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1912-04-10
THE EVAN GEL
:. OF LOVE =
BY Rev. E. A. King


Love" The sermon last Sunday
morning was listened to with unus-
ual interest by Il large congregation.
number of requests have been made
to have the sermon printed
Mr.. King spoke under the title of
This Christian Life is for All His
text was l Timothy "a, "(God) Will
eth that all men should be saved and
come to the knowledge of the truth
He began by saying that the life of
communion between man and God is
possible because of the fact that man
is a personal spirit and God is per
sonal spirit. He quoted Tennyson as
encouraging man to communt with
God thus:
Speak to him thou for he hears, and
spirit with spirit can meet,
Closer is he than breathing and nearer
than hands and feet"
"Man is the offspring of Cod said
the speaker, and the spiritual and
moral heights to which man is cap
able of rising are seen in the life of
| Jesus The scripture bears out the
fact of communion in John 15:4-o,
and Revelation 3:20. After quoting
Emerson. John Fiske and the Bishop
of Rippon, Mr.. King reminded his
hearers of Brownings significant
words,
"Earth's crammed with heaven and
every bush aflame with God,
But only he who sees takes off his
Shoes"
and continued thus:
We are now face to face with the
question that was put to Jesus tLuke
l3:25). Are there few that be saw
ed?" He did not answer 1t directly,
but said that many will seek to enter
in and shall not be able. His coun-
sci to the enquirer was, strive to en-
ter in yourself" This answer did not
| satisfy the questioner, but 1t tended
| to discourage mere speculation ABOUT
problematical questions.
We are not here concerned with
| this ultimate fact, but the quest OF
| God for His wandering sons involves
the question of the resisting power
of these sons wills. There are mil
lions of human beings still unrecon-
ciled to God. After 1890 years OF
| Christian effort only comparatively
few converts have been made to our
churches. There is a flaw in the
movement somewhere, and we VINO
represent the Christian church shouiu
not lay all the blame on these unre-
| sponsive souls. We hear on every
hand the statement made that count
less numbers of good men ana Wo-
men believe in Christ, study the
scriptures. and seek to live useful
| lives: vet they shun the church and
refuse to be counted with the pro-
fessed followers of Jesus. These peo-
ple NAV be said to belong to the
kingdom of God even if they are not
members of the Christian. churcn.
Doubtless a part of the trouble is
that churches, as organizations, have
developed a religion of their own
rather than the religion of Jesus.
Religion as Jesus taught it is an at
titude of mind and life of ethical
conduct The church has interposed
between the church member ana Je-
sus a vast system of dogmas and PM
losophical creeds. Admission into the
church is often an intellectual per-
Torrance, rather than heart re-
sponse to the call of the Master Je-
sus emphasized conduct, the church
has TOO often demanded theological
belief. / am confident that as thought
full people have come to realize TINS
they have lost interest in formal and
organized religion.
Because [ have come to believe this
to be the case | have sought as well
as nv circumstances would permit to
change this condition in the churches
over which / have been called TO ne
the pastor. | desire all of God
children, whether they think as do
| or not, to find comfortable welcome
| home under our church roof ana IN
our Christian fellowship. TO create
and successfully develop such broad
minded attitude and have it actually
work has often caused misunderstand-
ing and brought to the pastor OF such
A. church much personal pain; but
the platform on which | stand is Je-
sus' own:
He that Is not against US is Tor
| us. And whosover he be that doeth
the will of God. the same is my
brother, and sister, and mother. And
I say unto you. many shall sit down
| in the kingdom of God. If churches
generally would abrogate their formal
| creeds and unite on q basis of broth
erhood. it seems to me that immense
numbers of earnest people would find
rest for their weary souls and an out
let for their pent up desire to be use
| ful.
From such a platform as the Evan
gel of Love the minister of the Cos
pei loves to proclaim universal sal
walton. No longer does he believe
| that the Father OF all men has fore
ordained and predestinated an elect
| few to enioy the saving grace of the
gospel forever and has condemned
the vast majority of the human fam
| lily to Writhe in everlasting pain
Such ideas arc absolutely incompat-
! ihle wrn the thought expressed IN
John 4:S, God is love- This does
not mean. however, that IT is impos-
sble for any Of Gods children to ba
| LOST We must ever keep in mind al
| the facts with which We have TO deal
If It tx possible for son to go away
from home and continually grieve his
pa rents hearts, it is also possible for
Gods sons persistently to refuse to
surrender their wills to Him who
seeks to benefit them. We arc deal
ing here With the divine and human