Norwich bulletin., 1921-10-17
TELLS THREE GREAT CONDITIONS
 OF ENTRANCE INTO THE CHURCH

that word Fellowship is It is the word of personal relationships It is the com rnunion of mind with mind, spirit with spirit It is all that man is to brother man. It is all that man and God may be to each other What a word it is as marking the first great step into the Christian church. That man shall make his fellowship with the mind and spirit Of Christ the standard for all his person al fellowships. Does this sound unreal to you on the outside of the church? Does 1t sound impossible? And if none of us were able to have communion with a mind and spirit that has no visible body, even if they did possess one two thousand years ago. But are We not do- ing that very thing day in and day out? We walk with men we see. but even more We walk and talk and think and act and live with men whom we have never seen. And shall there be no fellowship with Christ?
 The second condition follows from the first It Is this: That in the estab- lishment of this fellowship a man shall institute progression Think of Christ's word again. Come ye after Me. and will make you to become" It is a beconlmfng. It is process. a progress, Why is it that we find so many church members losing the first freshness of l their Christian faith, and giving so many evidences of paucity of spiritual accom- 1 plisilment: mean. ugly, trivial cynical, 1 shining, people? It is because they have 1 stopped Even Peter came to a denial, 1 that is. he halted his progress. We ] think that Jesus was some necdomancer. i standing over a man with a. wand, and 1 saying, Be thou clean for all time" But i Jesus knew the human spirit better than 4-A- -1 1 lowship must be repeated over and over i again, to lay hold of the increasing rich ness that exists in every fellowship. You must come into the church once; but l you must enter into it's spirit thousands of times. if you are to know it's life.
 The third condition of entrance into 1 the Christian church is this: That 1 through the influence of this progressive fellowship you shall enter into redenlp- ! tive action. The whole purpose of Chrisl 1 is to make men fishers of men; - te 1 redeem them from low aims, to reclaim 1 their arid souls. to life them from slime
 and dirt and dust into the region of tht lSstars. This means that we shall nu
 change our occupations, but use them fol
 great ends that the business man shar
 remain business man to lift the whol,
 realm upon the level of the rightness O I Christ that the housewife shall continu, her duties illuminating them by the ligh
 of Christian love
 Here. then, are the three great condi
 tons of entrance into the church. All oth
 erthings are subordinate The sacra
 ments are the outward symbols of tn
 beginning and continuance of these In
 ner and more essential dedications l What difference does 1t really make tha
 a man believes thus and so about tn
 doctrines of the church, her modes. he
 forms her gestures? It makes none a 1 all The central thing is that he shal
 fellowship with Christ and grow an
 serve Peter was not called because O
 any belief; he was called because h
 was a man with whom Christ desired t 1 work great ends That Is the whole storJ
 Believe what you want, but live with th
 spirit and mind of Jesus Christ. c
 Into the church on that basis, for the d rection of the spirit of a man is tn central thing.