Democratic Sentinel, Volume 22, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 December 1898 — RELIGIOUS COLUMN. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

RELIGIOUS COLUMN.

STEMS OF INTEREST TO ALL DENOMINATIONS. Words of Windom, and Thoughts Worth Pondering; Upon Spiritual and Moral Subjects—Gathered from the leligioM and Secular Prana.

Dr. Thomas E. Green. Rev. dr. thos. E. Green, of Cedar Rapids, who was recently chosj]| en by the Episco1 • PaJiaus of lowa to figM I succeed Right Rev. i / Wil Ham Stevens Perry as Bishop of lowa, has declined the position until his election be ratifled by a regular convention. Rev. Dr. Green was born in Pennsyl-

vanla in 1857, and after finishing his collegiate and theological studies at Princeton University was pastor of

the Eighth Presbyterian Church in Chicago until he enter e d the Episcopalian ministry and was assigned by Bishop McLaren to St. Andrew’s, across the street from the Eighth Church. Ten years ago he went to Grace Church, Ce-

dar Rapids, and there has built up the largest parish church in the State. Moody’s Definitions of Faith. “Bishop Ryle has very well likened faith to a root whose flower is assurance,” writes Evangelist Dwight L. Moody to his Bible class In the Ladles* Home Journal. “To have the latter,” he says, “it is necessary that there must first be the hidden source of faith. Faith is the simplest and most universal experience in the world. Call it by whatever name you may—confidence, trust, or bellefi—lt is inseparable from the human race. The first sign of a dawning intelligence in the mind is the exercise of the infant’s faith toward those it knows, and its fear toward those It does not know. We cannot even remember when we first began to have faith. “Faith is the foundation of business. It Is an essential asset to every bank and mercantile house in existence. Many a thriving business and successful enterprise has been carried through dark days of reverse on no other capital; and without such capital the markets of the world would soon come to a standstill. I have known njen whose ruin has been brought about by some little insinuation relative to their credit—the business equivalent for trustworthiness. The loss of public faith has brought the darkest reverses to the richest of corporations, and even nations have felt the ruin which it entails. “Faith is the bond which holds family with family. If once this bond is dissolved there would exist a state of barbarism and anarchy like that which marked the close of the eighteenth century In Paris. With every one distressing his neighbor and fearing his nearest friends, progress is Impossible, civilization inconceivable.”

All serve One God. The late Archbishop of Canterbury practiced in a marked degree the spirit of toleration toward those who were doing religious work In other ways than by the methods he followed. In one of his sermons he spoke of traveling with a literary man who had just returned from India. Speaking of religious dissensions; the observer of Oriental men and things remarked: “When a man has passed some years la a country where people worship cows, he comes to think comparatively little of the controversies which separate Christians.” The Archbishop said he had never forgotten the moral of that random saying. One Important lesson from the useful life of this eminent man is that fidelity to one’s principles may consort perfectly with the highest courtesy and kindness to those who bear another denominational name, but are serving the same God and Father of us all. Heroism Without Suffering. There is sometimes as much merit in taking pains for Christ’s sake as in suffering pain. We are more apt to conceive of a saint as one ready to expire for Christ’s cause than as one ready to perspire for it; but the call to duty is oftener one of patient, plodding, thoroughgoing fidelity in little things, rather than one to yield up the life in some supreme act of sacrifice. A mother who takes the trouble daily to teach her child, patiently and wisely, how to conquer the evil in the world against which it needs to guard, may be more truly the savior of the child than if she threw herself into the flames to rescue its body from death. The fidelity to details that makes a life luminously consistent and OhrtetHke may be a stronger argument than martyrdom for the truth. Conscientious living often counts for more than conscientious dying. Meeting Trials. The God-stayed imagination has no space for the trials and perplexities of this world. It meets them with a victorious indifference that is the wonder of the tempest-tossed worldling. Yet when the believer bears witness to the source of his marvelous peacefulness, his words find too often only deaf ears and stony hearts; and those whom he would help to the same source of comfort keep struggling along 'until they go down. Has 252,725 Members. , Rev. H. M. Dubose, of Nashville, Tenn., General Secretary of the Epworth League, reported to the recent conference of the Methodist Church South that the present membership of the League is 252,725. Fnap Shots. The kingdom of God is never ahead; it is here. No one can walk with God who runs after the world. “Marriage is a lottery,” when it is a corner lot-ery. Friendship, like phosphorus, gives its light in the dark. When one is low enough to Insult you, be too high for him to reach. The law is a schoolmaster to bring us to Ohrtet, but Christ is a Savior to bring us to God. Adversity shows a true man, as the niglbt brings out the stars obscured while the sufi is shining. Poverty is an, icy wind, and the higher the situation of the impoverished, the colder it blows. Educating your children is investing at a high rate of dividend. Lay up Id

them, and they w® lay up for themselves. The preacher is commissioned to deliver an invitation, and not armed to execute a threat. He should be a loadstone, and not a whip. When God’s hand is on Gideon’s sword, the Midianites are routed. When God’s breath thrills Joshua’s Ram’s Horn, Jericho is doomed. When a man preaches as though he is mad at sinners, he will make sinners mad. Love wooes; gentleness wins. “I beseech you by the gentleness of Christ,” “by the mercies of God.” Thai is fuH of magnetism;

DR. GREEN.