Norwich bulletin., 1921-10-10
PASTOR ABBOTT BEGINS
 SERMONS ON THE CHURCHp

The first of series of five sermons on The Church" was preached by Rev. Alexander H. Abbott at the United Con- gregational church on Sunday morning. The subject of Rev. 1Ir. Abbotts sermon was What is the Church" He said in part.
 Only a few weeks ago a number of men of this parish sat down together to con- slider some of their church activities dur ing the church year that has just begun. | Among other things, it was suggested 1 that We ought to find out what church ] membership involves, what duties ana privileges belong to the person who has | united with the church. This series of | sermons, therefore, has been prompted by this very practical request, and it is ] the attempt at answering .u-e very nat ural questionings
 l have just used the phrase natural questionings." How natural and nor mal' the questions are, We can easily see. The parade of churchly circumstance, the march Of church actualities is vast. inn pressive and uninterrupted, and each of us is either onlooker Or particiDant. We march or we watch. And whether We march or watch. we sooner or later ask What is it all about?"
 Suppose We are onIoolers. islanders on | the sidewalk, as the vast pageantrv of ~--NA- l cession of innumerable persons. march ing under kindred aEeriances. different as persons are, always different. alike as ! persons are, always alike. What a mot | ley parade it is Not of siAgle agei i Not~of a single class. Nct ot a single colori Not of 9 single garb. nicety. cuI- | ture or birth Little children, aged men. 1 stalwart youth intermingIe indiscrini- nately. Poverty and wealth, sickness and | health sinners and saint, ,norant and enlightened, and all ara .ne people of l churchdom. And as we watch this | strange procession that seems to have no | beginning and no ending, that displays no single kind of uniform. lIat as rha unequal rhythm of many inner au5 outer l dJfferences-as we watch wa have q gr-a. wonder. Our sidewalk syss sec. aru then our sidewalk minds ash ol :hz marchs,s: | 'Whence do you come and whither do you go?" And they reply: "sTa are chprchdom. We come iron. tie church.
 We go to the church. Follow us ar q
 see.'
 Onlooker and participant! Each of us
 is one or the other. The pageant always
 incites the sidewalk mind The active
 marching always awakens the marching
 mind. And this indictment and awaken
 ing are natural and normal processes. be.
 cause they belong to him who watches
 and to him who walks. That is why all
 Of us, sooner or later, normally and nat
 urally ask, What is the church?
 Now. right here. let us observe one
 fact about this normal and natural oues-
 ton. It is phrased, What is the church:
 The emphasis is on the noun What we
 are inQuiring about is the church" Our
 present interest is not with any adiec-
 tives, not with such words as Baptist
 Congregational. Disciples, Episcopal
 Methodist, Presbyterian. Catholic. These
 are all instances of churches; but ar 1 instance is always an instance of some
 thing. It is that something We are
 searching. Differences did not unite the
 marchers in the parading churchdom
 there was some basic bond. some singl,
 strain of music, some invisible alleEienct
 that welded our Heterogeneous humanity D into a moving line of varied hei:hts anJ
 colors and persons. What was it? Ths church, Not Q particular church. but tho
 church! Through the doors of their par ticular cathedral, meetinghouse, sacred
 home of brick or wood. they came to joir i with others of the church. What is Uni.
 thing? What is this encircling fact
 wherein are so many particular points What is the church?
 . Let us see what Jesus says. He usef
 the word church just twice, so far al We have record. Tn Matthew's Gospel
 l6th chapter, 18th verse. we find thu
 first use. He had asked his disciple. Who say we that I am?" And Peter
 had answered, Thou art the Christ the son of the living oGd." Jesus ther
 spoke to Peter: Blessed are thou. Si
 mon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blooC : hath not revealed 1t unto thee. but my ; Father who is in heaven. And I als, i, , say unto thee, that thou art Peter. ant | upon this rock I will build my church
 This is the first use. The second is ir
 the same gospel. 18th chapter. I7tf verse. Jesus had been talking intimate : ly to his disciples, giving them wordi
 of cocnsel, and he came to the n-omen of their considering what to do with a recalcitraat brother. Jesus spoke thus: If thy brother sin against thee go, show him hiC fault between thee : and him alone; if he hea- thee. thor : hast gained thy brother. But E he hear thee not, take with thee one o1 two more, that at the mouth of two witnesses or three every word may b
 established And if he refuse to hea. them, tel it unto the church; and if h.
 refuse to hear the church also, let hin be unto thee as the Gentle and thu
 publican" This is the second use. Two things ought 10 he clear to U from these two words of Jesus. First