Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1921-06-29

gospel according to st. john II am
the door; by me If any man enter
in, he shall be saved, and shall go in
and out and find pasture" He in
stituted the sacrament of baptism as
the way of becoming a Christian and
told the questioning Nicodemus that
except a man be born OF water and
of the spirit, he cannot enter into the
kingdom of God" He was Himself
baptised of John in order to fulfill all
righteousness, and after his talk with
Nicodemus, Jesus and His disciples
came into the land of Judea and tar
ried there while the disciples bap-
tized many-more, the Pharisees
heard, than John baptized.
No; we do not believe in un-Chris-
tan society but a large share OF 1t
is non-C Christian and thoughtlessly so:
People have Christian ideals and
practice Christian virtues oftentimes
with vastly more success than the
protested believers IN Christianity,
but by remaining outside the fold, by
refusing to recognize the. church of
Christ, by standing aloof from its
work and declining to support It's I'M
dertakings, they are in effect Grip
ping it's efforts and casting reproach
upon God-given institution In whose
principles their very lives show that
they heartily believe and with whose
aims they cannot help to be IN sym,
pathy. Nobody expects to be called
a Mason until he has joined the lodge,
nor an Odd Fellow until he has been
initiated into the mysteries OF that
fraternity. Then just why should ne
be called a Christian until ne has at
least been baptized of the Founder OF
Christianity ordained!
To remain outside of church be-
cause all the members in it do not
test 100 per cent. according TO the
outsiders standpoint, is poor ex-
cuse. Not all Masons, Odd Fel!oWs,
Changers, Red Men, Woodmen, OF the
members of any other society are
credit to the organizations to Wnlcn
they belong, but they might be a good
deal worse than they are II they ala
not feel some measure OF restraint
because of their associations. Inc
church was established more Tor the
benefit of sinners, than OF saints; then
why all this horror and amazement at
finding sinners in it? Ii the godil-
ness of church members seems to be
EXCEPTIONALLY below par. it is certain
ly the duty of the moral, uprlght and
irreproachable outsider to join 1T and
raise the average just so much.
1t seems strange that with ITO or
more different sects in the United
States, those people who are hunger
ing and thirsting after Righteousness
are not able to find something in the
way of religion which will satisfy
them. From one table Of eccieslas-
tical statistics it is learned that there
are II varieties of Presbyterians, Is
of Methodists, II of Baptists, Il OF
Lutherans, ID of Mennonites, six OF
two of Catholic Apostolic,
seven of Eastern Catholics, three of
Western Catholics, two of Protestant
Episcopalians, and a host of others,
all of which are merely different man.
of the same thing and SIM
ply cater to different tastes in mat
ters religious. The Lords Prayer, the
Apostles Greed and the Ten Com
mands contain all that a Christian
need to know and believe for his
souls health, and when you get right
down to essentials, the extreme rit-
ualist and the Salvation Army shout
er have the same belief in God, the
Father, who made them; in God, the
son, who redeemed them, and in God
the Holy Ghost, who sanctified them.
Let the fastidious yearner for the
Bread of Life be thankful to get it in
any form and not be too critical of
the way an inestimable gift is pre-
scented.