Rensselaer Republican, Volume 19, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 August 1887 — CONCERNING BIGOTRY. [ARTICLE]

CONCERNING BIGOTRY.

A Weakness Among Christians That Should Never Exist. The Origin of Mect:iriaul*m, It* Evils and It* Cnre*-Imperfect Education of tlie Home Circle Tend* to Aggravation, and Intolerance Will Never Succeed lu Hooting OutWickedne**.Rev. Dr. Taimage preached at “The Hamptons” last,Sunday. Subject “Concerning the Bigots.'” Text: Judges xii , 6: He said: > The Church cf‘G?d i: divided intc a great many denominations. Time would fail me to tell of the Calvinists, and the Armenians, and the Sabbatarians, and the Baxterians, and the Dunkerß, and the Shakers, and the Quakers,' and the Methodists, and the Baptists, and the Episcopalians, and the Lutherans, and the Congregationalists, and the Presbyterians, and the Spiritualists.and ascoie of other denominations of religionists, some of them founded by very good men, some of them founded by very egotistic men, and soqie of them founded by very bad men.» Bilt as I demand for myself liberty of conscience, I must give that same liberty to every other man,remembering that he no more differs from me than I from him. I advocate the largest liberty in all religious belief and form of worship. In art, in politics, in morals and in religion let there be no gag law, no moving of the previous question, no persecution, no intolerance. You know that the air and water keep pnre hy constant circulation, and I think there is a tendency" in religious discussion to purification and moral health. Between the fourth and the sixteenth centuries the Church proposed to make people think aright by prohibiting discussion, and by strong censorship of the press, arid, by rack and gibbet and hot lead down the throat, tried to make people orthodox; but it was discovered that you can not change a man’s belief by twisting off his head,and thaCvou can not make a man see things differently by putting an awl through his eyes. There is something in a man’s conscience which will hurl off the mountain which you threw 1 upon it,and, unsinged of the fire, out of the flame will make red wings on which the martyr will mount to glory. ’ln that time of which I speak, between the fourth and sixteenth centuries, people went from the house of God into the most appalling iniquity, and right along by consecrated altars there were tides of drunkenness and licentiousness such as the world never heard of, and the verv sewers of perdition broke loose and flooded the Church. After awhile the printing press was freed, and ’t broke the shackles of the human mind. Then there came a large number of bad books, but where there was one man hostile to the Christian religion there were twenty men ready to advocate it; so I have not any nervousness in regard to this battle going on between Truth and Error. The Truth will conquer just as certainly as that God is stronger than the devil. Let Error run if you only let Truth run along with it. Urged on by skeptic’s shout and transcendentaFist’s spur, let it run. God’s angeis of wrath are in hot pursuit, and quicker than eagle’s beak clutches out a hawk’s heart God’s vengeance will tear it to pieces. I propose this morqing to speak to you of sectarianism —its origin, its evils, and its cures. There are those who would make us think that this monster, with horns and hoofs, is religion. I shall chase it to its hidingplace, and rip off his hide. But I want to make a distinction between bigotry and the lawful fondness for peculiar religious beliefs” and forms of worship. I have no admiration for a nothingarian. —i v In a world of such tremendous vicissitude and temptation, and with a soul that must after a while stand before a throne of insufferable brightness in a day when the rocking of the mountains and the flaming of the heavens and the upheaval of the sea shall be among the least of the excitements, to give account for every thought, word, action, preference and dislike—that man is mad who has no religious preference. But our early education, our physical temperament, our mental constitution, will very much decide our form of worship. A style of psalmody that may displease you. Some would like to have and others prefer to have a minister in plain citizen’s apparel. Some are most impressed when a little child is presented at the alter and sprinkled of the waters of a holy benediction “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy •host;” and others are more impressed when the penitent comes up out of the river, his garments dripping with the waters of a baptism which signifies the washing away of sin. Let either have his own way. One man likes no noise in prayer, not a word nor a whisper. Another man just as good, prefers by gesticulation and exclamation to express bis devotional aspirations. One is just as good as the other.

( outside prosperity, mere wordlv power/ is np evidence that the church is acceptable to God. Better a bam with Christ in the manger than a cathedral with magnificent harmonies rolling through the long-drawn aisle, and an angel from heaven in the pulpit, if there he no Christ in the chancel/and no Christ in the robes. Bigotry is often the child of ignorance. Yon seldom find a man with a large intellect yrho is a bigot. It is the man who thinks he knows a great deal, but does not. That man is almost always d bigot. The whole tendency of education and civilization is to bring a man out of that kind of state of mind and heart. . Look out for the man who sees only one side of a religious truth. Look out for the man who never walks, around about these great theories of God and eternity and the dead. He will bb a bigot ipevitably—the man who only sees one side. There is no man more to be pitied than he who has in his head just one idea—no more, no less. More i light, less sectarianism. There is nothI ing that will so soon kill bigotry as sunshine —God’s sunshine. 2. So Jhave set before you what I consider to be the causes of bigotry. I have set before you the origin of this great evil. What are some of the baleful effects? First of all, it cripples investigation. a Francis I. so hated the Lutherans that he said if he thought there was one drop of Lutheran blood in his veins he would puncture them and let them drop out. Just as long as there is so niuch, hostility between denomination and denomination, or between one professed Christian and another,or between one Church and another, just so long men will be disgusted with the Christian religion, and sqy. “If that is religion,l want none of it.” Again, bigotry and sectarianism do great damage in the fact that they hinder the triumph of the Gospel. Oh, how much wasted ammunition. How many men of splendid intellect have given their whole life to controversial disputes, when, if they had given their life to something practical, they might have been vastly useful. I sometimes see in the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ a strange thiDg going on —church against church, minister against minister, denomination against denomination, firing away into their own fort, or the fort which ought to be on the same side, instead of concentrating their energy and giving one mighty and everlasting volley against the navies of darkness riding up through the bay. Igo out sometimes in the summer, and I find two bee-hives, and these two hives are in a quarrel. I come near enough, not to be’stung, but I coaae just near enough to hear the controversy, and one bee-hive says, “That field of clover is the sweetest.” and another beehive says, “That field of clover is the sweetest.” I come in between them, and 1 say. “Stop this quarrel: if you like that field of clover best, go there; if-you like that field of clover best, go there; but let-me tell you that hive which gets the most honey is the best hive.” So I come out between the churches of the Lord Jesus Christ. One denomination of Christians say “That field of Christian doctrine, is beet and an another says, “This field of Christian doctrine is best.” Well, I say, “Go where you get the most honey.” That is the best church which gets the most honey of Christian g race for the heart, and the most honey of Christian usefulness for the life. Besides that, if you want to build up thy denomination, you will never build it up by trying to pull some other down. Intolerance never put anything down. How much has intolerance accomplished, for instance, against the Methodist Church? For long years her ministry were forbidden the pulpit of Great Britain. Why was it that so many of them preached in the fields? Simply because they could not get into the churches. And the name of the Church was given in derision and as a sarcasm. The critics of the Church said, “They have no order, they have no method in their worship:” and the critics, therefore, in irony called them “Methodists.” lam told that in Aslor Library, New York, kept as curiosities, there are 707 books and pamphlets against Methodism. Did intolerance stop that Church? No; it is either first or second amid the denominations of Christendom, her missionary stations in all parts" of the world, her men not only important in religious trusts, hut important also in secular trusts. Church marching on, and the more intolerance against it the faster it marched. What did intolerance accomplish against the Baptist Church? If laughing scorn and tirade could have destroyed the Church would not to-day have a disciple left. The Baptists were hurled out of Boston ip olden times. Those who sympathized with them were confined, and when a petition was offered asking leniency in their behalf, all the men Who signed it were indicted. Has intolerance stopped the Baptist Church?' The last statistics in regard to it showed about *O,OOO Churches and two and a half million communicants. Intolerance never put down anything. But now, my friends, having shown you the origin of bigotry or sectarianism, and having shown you the damage it does, I want briefly to show you how we aro going to war against this terrible evil, and I think we want to begin our war in realizing our own weakness and our imperfections. If we make so many mistakes in the common affairs of life, is it not possible that we may make mistakes in regard to our religious affairs? Shall we take a man by the throat, or by the collar, because he cannot see religious truths just as we do? In the light of eternity it will be found out, I think, there was something wrong in all oar creeds, and something right in all oar creeds. Bat since we may make mistakes in regard to things of the world, do not let us be egotistic and so puffed? up as to have an idea that we can not make any mistakes in regard to religious theories. And then I think we will do a great deal to overthrow the sectarianism from our heart, and the sectarianism from the world, by chiefly enlarging upon those things in which we agree rather than those on which we differ. I think wp.rpay overthrow the severe sectarianism and bigotry in our hearts, and in the church also, by realizing that all the demoninations of Christians have yielded noble institutions and noble men. There is nothing that so etire my soul as this thought. One denomination yielded a Robert Hall and an Adonirain Judson; another yielded a Latimer

and a Melville; another yielded John Wesley and the blessed Summerfield, while our own denomination vielded John Knox atjd the Alexanders—men of whom the world was not worthy. Now, I say, if we are honest and fairminded men, when we come up in the presence of such churches and such, denominations, although they may be diffeient from our own, we ought to admije them, and we ought to love ana honor them. Churches which can produce such men, and such large-hearted charity .and such magnificent martyrdom, ought to win our affection—at any rate, our reapect. '" So come on, ve four hundred thousand Episcopalians in tLis country, and ye eight hundred thousand Presbyterians, and ye two and a half million Baptists, and ye nearly three and threequarter million Methodists—come on, shoulder to shoulder we will march for the world’s conquest, for all nations are to be saved, and God demands that you and I help do it. Forward the whole line. Moreover, we also overthrow ths feeling of severe sectarianism by joining other denominations in Christian work. I like when the springtime comes and the anniversary occasions begin, and all denominations come upon the same ?latform. That overthrows sectarianism, n the Young Men’s Christian Association, in the Bible Society, in the Tract Society, in the Foreign Missionary Society, shoulder to shoulder, all denominations. * I expect to see the day when all denominations of Christians shall join hands around the cross of Christ and recite the creed: “I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, and in the communion of Saints and in the "life everlasting.” May God inspire us all with the ' largest-hearted Christian charity!