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Show To Get Together H AN eminent clergyman, speaking at an evan- H gelist meeting three nights ago, declared H that while Christians, for Ave hundred years had been trying to get together and failed, H still his faith was fixed that it would not always H bo so; that a time, now not very remote, would M come when all creeds that believe in the Messiah . would wheel Into line and in solid phalanx, under J one standard, would take up their march of con- - 1H quest, which was to bo the emancipation of all H mankind from the darkness of sin, to lift up be- IH fore them the gates which open into the realms IH of everlasting light. And surely 'to tho simple H reasoning of the ordinary sinner, this would seem ( a reasonable belief. How out of a simple formula, I such as the New Testament outlines, men can H build up a hundred creeds, and each one in his H zeal grow to think ho is right and every one H B else is wrong, and pursue tlieir faith to war and H.' carnage and do it all in the name of the Prince H of Peace, is beyond comprehension. Where is H the authority for it found in the scriptures, at Hi least, where in the teachings of the Master? H Nations frequenly revise their civil and crim- H lnal codes to make sure that in their practice, or H in the application of the laws ,or in the decisions H of learned judges, which have grown to he ac- H cepted as correct legal interpretations, wrongs H have not crept in, which are working injuries to H the state or to individuals. Ought not church- H men to follow this practice? If they look around H them they see the world constantly progressive, H every year taking on new lights, hut looking back H they will discover that the original simple state- H ment of the Christian faith does not change, that H it does not need to change, that it not only keeps H up with all progress, but rather the more the H progress the plainer in -the increasing light that H code reads, and when they advance far enough H they discover that the sermon on the mount H hay become a classic, and that when their bright- H est and most gifted ones try to improve on it, H they stand baffled, and perhaps for the first time H realize the difference between the workings of H divine and merely human thought. What would H they answer were the Master to come and ask H them how out of the simple definition he gave of H religion, and the simple directions which he gave H of how to manifest that religion to the under- H standings of men, they had built up the varied H structures which they called creeds? H When the master was here he declared his H code, and selected to present it to a waiting H world, some simple, unlearned fishermen. H There was not one scholar or orator in the H. company. Was not that a hint that the mystery H of salvation was not to be found in the schools; H that it was open to the unlearned as well as to H those wise in worldly wisdom? Was not the H widow's mite more acceptable than the offerings H of the rich because it went with a contrite heart? H Whose door would the master enter were he to H return to earth? Better revise the creeds and H try to get together. |