The Chattanooga news. [volume] (Chattanooga, Tenn.) 1891-1939, 1919-07-12

Along with us on a trip to Mt Sinai
is the black Berber cook of my Arabic
speaking friend and companion, Prof
C. p. Russell, of Assiut. This man Mo-
manned belongs to some dervish order
or other which finds him friends con-
tinually. On the trains, aboard ship, in
the desert, apparently everywhere in
this part Of the world, he runs across
fellow members of his order who help
him through. | have seen him, IN
strange city, greet one of his fellow
members most solemnly, with three
claps of the hand and three touchings
of the breast and the forehead, The
incident naturally started thoughts OF
the desirabiity of great fraternity
open to all people everywhere, which
would insure comradeship and helpful
ness and all the other obligations OF
brotherhood,
Really, such a tie already exists
There is a fellowship encircling the
world, made up of rich and poor, wise
and unlettered, old and young, and
pledged to just such mutual service as
our man Mohammed has been expert
encing. That fellowship is the Chris
tan faith, and its initiatory rite is the
sacrament OF baptism. Baptized believ-
ers form the greatest order in the
world. They are bound by the strong,
est ties Their common concerns and
obligations are vaster than any that
the Berbers could possibly know.
IN q udy Oh IHGOTltS lIllb 10 IlOt u
DRY. The greatest bonds on earth or in
heaven are those which unite the dis
Ciples of Jesus. For the sake of a Sc
cret society or a social club or polit-
iCal organization few men would care
to die Throughout long centuries,
though men and women and even lit
tie children have gone smilingly 10
death for the sake of the church of
Christ. That church is today the most
widespread, the most potent, the most
hopeful of all organizations into which
mankind has been gathered. Sometimes
she is laggard, and slow to discern the
signs of the times or to hear the voice
of divine opportunity; nevertheless, the
church possesses the power to save our
imperied civilization, and to give vital
effect to the new programs OF human
welfare which have emerged from the
war.
The Admission Fee,
There is a price to membership in
this biggest and best OF bodies. our
vague thinking time is attempting to
in New York and Cairo--a new sort OF
church without tests or obligations.
wherein Christian. Moslem. Jew and
agnostic may stand on common basis
OF membership. This Is no new folly;
but it IL still folly. There is one UNI
changeable condition of membership In
the Christian church, and that is faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior and
Lord.
Societies and clubs galore may be
constituted on a looser foundation; and
in business and politics and social re-
lations people of all creeds may mingle
tremendously But the Christian
church is composed exclusively of the
disciples of Christ, who have paid the
admission fee of surrender of their own
wills to His sovereignty: so that they
no longer belong to themselves, but to
Him This unity Of obligation and of
spirit, so that the mind of Christ may
work out in the acts of His friends. is
what gives the church her unmatched
potentiality as force for good will and
brotherhood and progress among man
kind Through her the sublime ideals
of Jesus become operative. she would
lose her power if she relaxed the es-
sential condition of her membership.
The doors of church membership are
open to all people everywhere who Will
consent to pay the price of entrance.
A Universal Rite.
One condition that Jesus Himself at
tached to the work of discipling the