Arizona republican., 1917-01-01
CHR|ST'S SECOND
 COMING, SERMON BY REV. vARNEY

Dr. Varney took for his text yes terday morning Luke l2:40-"So be ready yourselves, for the Son of man Is coming at an hour you dc not eA- Icct.'
 My subject is Readiness for Christ's Second Coming" l must make extended introductory remarks. The newspapers have acquainted us With the anxiety of Germany for separate peace with her enemies and of her diplomatic efforts to secure such peace. She knows that il she can divide her enemies. she can con- quer them; hut that so long as they stand together she can never conquer them.
 The devil has been decidedly mora successful in dividing his church foes. Had Protestantism stood together, humanly speaking the kingdom Oi God would have come long ago hut the devil broke us into fragments and dissipated our efforts against him. We have wasted ont ammuni- tion on one another, instead of using it on him
 His same divisive tacucs are seen m individual denominations. The BaptiSts of Oregon were early Sorely divided over the mOmentous CD uues-
 
 used in the meeting house or not. We organized the first evangelical church ever known in oregon. and We ought 10 have taken the state; out our silly division weakened us. Then when we glL stronger and able to threaten the devil again, he introduced the question of whether We should recog- nize alien" baptism. the immersion of . candidate at the hands of anoth er than a Baptist minister Three of the associations withdrew, organized their own convention. established their own paper and proceeded to fight the other Baptis,s of the state. Thus did the devil weaken us by di- vision.
 In 1927 Alexander Campbell was excluded from membership in a Bap- tist church He believed in Christian union, and believed that the only way to secure that union was by the destruction of all human creeds and confessions of faith, since human creeds and confessions had destroyed Christian union. If there had been one half the breadth of vision and charity in the Baptist denomination that there is today, the million and half of Disciples would now be a constituent part of our denomination. and we should be the nightiest forca for righteousness that the world has today
 Slavery divided every great denont- ination of the nation and fifty years have not entirely healed the sore. The two greet branches of Methodism are getting together. some branches of Prestyterianism have come togeth- CT and others are coming; and there is sweeter feeling between the jet r,A ho northern Baptist convention than ever before since the days of the civil war
 Protestantism is getting togothe-. We are on the point of becoming a miehty army to march against the devil and his hosts. Now if there is anything in our claim that History repeats itself we should experr the devil to begin his divisivc tactics again. Never was there 90 much money pitted against him. Neve- did we have such an army of able. conse- crated men standing against him Surely 1t is time for the devil to get in somewhere the thin edge of the entering wedge of division.
 Ard he is doing it. strange to say, through this very doctrine that I am speaking on; namely. the second ad- vent of orr Lord. An able Preshy- terian minister told me two years ago that their churches in southern California were being threatened with division by the doctrine. Dr Steven son. one of the ablest men of that communion. could not be spared to our local Prasbvterian church largely because his great mind and heart were needed to save the situation in southern California One of my warmest friends in the Baptist min istry. now pastor of one of our larg- est churches in southern California