SUNDAY READING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XVI, Issue 5490, 21 June 1879, Page 6

SUNDAY READING.

THE DOOM OF SECTARIANISM. BY REV. T. DE WITT TALMA.GE, I). D. " Lot every man be fully persuaded in his own mind."—Kom. xiv. 5. There had been a hot discussion upon the subject of dietics. There were some vegetarians in Paul's day who thought it was right to eat nothing but herbs; others thought that men ought to be unlimited in their choice of food. Betwoen these two parties there was a collision, Paul comes in to decide the matter, aud Bays, " Now, let this quarrel stop. You men who want to eat herbs, eat herbs. You men who want to be unlimited in your choice of food, be unlimited in that choice. "Your own consciences must decide the matter. ' Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.' " That is the connection of the text, and it lays down a principle applicable to 10,000 cases of conscience. The religious world is divided into a great variety of parties and sects. Some of them were establish'd by good men, and some by very egotistic men, and soma by very bad men. I have no time to name the Calvinists, and the Antiuomians, and tho Socinians, and Sabbatarians, and Swedenborgians, and Arminians, and Baxterians, and Campbcllites, and Dunkers, and Shakers, and Parkerites, and scores of other denominations of religionists. Between some of these there is only a difference of words; between others there is a difference as wide as between truth and error, between light and darkness, between heaven and hell. While our conscience will not allow us to chooee somo of these beliefs, we must allow to others the liberty of conscience which we demand for ourselves, remembering that they differ no more from us than we differ from them. I wish to advocate the very largest liberty in matters of religious belief and discussion. In all questions of art aud social life, and politics and religion, let there be no intolerance, no moving of the previous question, no gag law, no persecution. You know that the air and the sea keep pure by constant circulation, and there is a tendency in religious discussion towards purification and moral health. Between the fourth and sixteenth centuries, the Church of God proposed to keep down all error by prohibiting free discussion; but the world has found out that you cannot change men's beliefs by twisting off their heads, or make them see things differently by putting out their eyes. There is in every man a conscience which will uphoave the mountain with which you try to crush it, and, unaiuged of tho fire, it will make red wings out of the flame on which the martyr mounted to glory. TVo must let men have differences of theological belief. In those very times that I speak of, between the fourth and sixteenth century, when all RELIGIOUS DISCOSSIOX was prohibited, members of what was called the Church went publicly from the House of God to the brothel, and along by consecrated altars there flowed a tide of drunkenness and licentiousness and abomination, and the very sewers of perdition broke loose, deluging the Church with their filth and rottenness. Then tho printing-press came, and it effected a reformation; but it has also poured upon the earth a great many bad books. Afterwards, and right on the heels of theso foes of Christianity, there camo a healthful literature, such as the world had ncvor seen ; and where thero was one man to malign the Christian religion, there came twenty to defend it; and in reply to the assaults upon Christianity there were written "Butler's Analogy," and "Watson's Apology for tho Bible," and "Campbell's Dissertation on Miracles," and " Newton on the Prophecies," and " Law's Theory of .Religion," and the "Bridgewator Treatises," and scores of other profonud, brilliant, and immortal works, which never would have been written but for the assaults of infidelity. I am not afraid that, in this contest between truth and error, truth will be worsted. I am uot afraid of error if we place close beside it tho truth. Lot error run ! urged on by sceptic about and transcendentalist's spur, let it run ! God's angels 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. Let it run, if yon only let truth run along with it. In this great fight between right and wrong, the right willj.conquer as sure as God la

stronger than the devil. The Church never lost anything by generosity on this subject, and we cannot have onr own rights of religious belief respected unless we respect the rights of those who differ from us. I thank God that men do not all think alike on religious subjects. You cannot see through my eyes. I cannot hear through your ears. No man shall lord it over our consciences. You may have heard of a king who had a great deal of trouble with his subjects. He was afterwards imprisoned, and, to while away the time, he made watches and clocks ; and after he had made them, ho tried to make the watches tk-k alike, and all the clocks strike alike. Of course he failed. Then he said to himself what a very foolish king he was, " How could I expect to make all these watches tick alike, and all my subjects think alike ?" I propose to speak of sectarianism—ita causes, its evils, and its cure. Men have tried to make ns believe that this monster with horns and hoofs is religion. We shall try to hunt it down and drag it out of the caverns of darkness, and rip off its hide. Distinguish between bigotry and lawful preference for any religious belief or form. 1 have no faith in a NOTHIXO ARI AN. In a world of tremendous temptation and vicissitude, and with a soul capable of gigantic joy or suffering—a soul that will have to stand before a throue of insufferable brightness id the day when the rocking of the mountains, and flaming of the heavens, and upheaval of the sea will be amid the least excitements, to give an account of every thought, and wish, and preference, and dislike —I Bay, in such a world, and with these considerations, that man who has no religions preference is mad. We will, by our early education, and by our physical temperament and mental constitution, have proclivities towards certain churches and certain forms of worship. That psalmody whic i I like might displease you. Some people like to see a minister of Christ in gown and binds or surplice ; others prefer to see him in plain citizen's apparel. Some people are mors impressed when they see a little child presented for baptism, and its white brow is sprinkled with water in solemn benediction in the name of the Father, and the Son, • and the Holy Ghost; while others are more impressed when the penitent comes up out of the river, his garments dripping with the waters that typify the washing away of sin. Some persons like no noise in prayer—not a whisper, not a word ; others, just as good, prefer, by gesticulation and exclamation, to utter their devotional aspirations. Now, let there be no dispute on this subject. You like one \v;»y best, and I like the other way. I have no quarrel with my neighbours ; they have quiet in their house ; I have quiet in mine. They do not think that tho prosperity of their house depends on upsetting the fpeace of mine ; nor do I think that the prosperity of my house depends upon destroying theirs. So it ought to be in the kingdom of Christdifferent religious homes, but good neighbourhood. " Peace on earth and good will to men." That is the way it was when the Quaker talked with George Whitefield. They had some hot words on nnimportaut things, and the Quaker turned to George Whitefield and said: " George, lam as thou art; I am for bringing all men to the hope of the Gospel. Therefore, if thou wilt not quarrel with me about my broad brim, I will not quarrel with thee about thy black gown. Give me thine hand." In the first place, sectarianism often starts in wrong education in the home circle. There are very good people who educate their children in the wrong direction in this respect, saying things about other denominations of Christians,

AND CARICATURING them, and throwing slurs upon them, which always have a baleful influence in the household. Sometimes children come up and go out into the world, and look into these churches against which they have been specially warned, and find that in these churches the people love Gnd and keep His commandments, and by a natural reaction they go there. I could mention the names of prominent ministers oE the Gospel who once , spent much of their time in bombarding certain denominations of Christians, who lived to see their own sons preach the Gospel in those very denominations. But we must admit the instruction in the wrong direction in this respect is most baleful, and that there are little bigots ten years old. Then the superior power of any one denomination in a community often makes bigots. Don't think that all other churches are wrong, and that theirs is right, because it happens to be more fashionable, more wealthy, or more influential; and they talk about "our choir," and " our minister," and "our church," and they toss their heads and have a patronising air, wanting other denominations to know their places. Now, I think itis far betterthat, in every community, the great denominations have about equal influence, marching side by side in the world's conquest. Let us remember that mere outside prosperity and worldly power are no evidence that a church is acceptable to God. Better a stable with Christ in the manger, than a cathedral with arches like those of St. Michael's, and traceries like those of Bayeux—magnificent harmonies rolling through long-drawn aisles, and an angel from heaven proclaiming from the pulpit—if there be no Christ in the chanc-1, and no Christ in the robes. That religion is a poor mean starveling thing which is made up by bookbinders and upholsterers. The religion of Christ oftener sits on the kerb-stones with Lazarus than in the palace with Dives, and helps Naboth cultivate his viueyard oftener than Ahah rule hiß kiogdom. Men often do the opposite to what people suppose. They sometimes go up to hell and down to heaven. Dives went up and Lazarus went down. JDo you know where they came out ? Transpose the positions. Further, ignorance is the mother of sectarianism. Knowledge enlarges the mind. You seldom find AN INTELLIGENT MAN who is a thorough bigot: it is the man who thinks he knows a great deal, but does not. Tn the far East there is an obelisk ; I have been told, one side of it is white, another side of it is blue, and another side of it is green. The story says that once some travellers went to Jook at the obelisk. They did not take the trouble to walk round it, but each looked at one side and came back. The travellers met, and they got into a fierce contest—one saying that the obeliak was white, another that it was blue, and another that it was green. " Stop this contest," said some one coming in. "I walked all around that obelisk, and find you are all right and all wrong." Look out for a man who sees but one side of a question and takes but one view of anything. Better a man, who, by hia intelligence and Christian faith, can walk all around the religious subject and know all sides. If there is any man to be pitied, it is the man who has just one idea in bis head—no more, no less. Better an entire blank, as we sometimes find it, overthrowing tho philosophic theory that an entire vacum is impossible ; better vacuity than just one idea in the head. It wanders up and down seeking rest, but finding none, in perpetual loneliness and bachelorhood, wailing through the desert of man'B intellect. Let a man give his life to the discussion of the doctrine of election, or the doctrine of free agency, or the subject of baptism, or the perseverance of the saints, and ho will prove imbecile in body and in mind. Bigotry puts its hand upon a man's head and flattens hia skull, and makes him lean and cadaverous, and exhausts him. Build up your colleges and your schools and universities. Bigotry cannot live under theso influences. You must kill it with sunshine. Look now at the evilß of sectarianism. In the first place, investigation. The different denominations were extended by holy rivalry and honest competition to keep each other awake. If one denomination of Christians shoul'l garble the Word of God, there would bo hundreds to cry out against the sacrilege. While each denomination of Christians ought to preach all the doctrines of the Bible, I really think that it is the mission of each denomination more emphatically to preach souio one doctrine. For instance, I think it is the mission of the Calviuistic Church to preach the complete sovereignty of God; of the Arminian Church to preach man's free agency ; of the Episcopal Church to show the importance of order and solemn ceremony; of the Baptist Church to Bhow the necessity of ordinances ; of tho Congregational Church to show the individual responsibility of its members ; of tho Methodist Church to show what holy enthusiasm and good, hearty work can accomplish. While, as I say, each denomination ought to present all doctrines, each denomination ought to make one of those doctrines emphatic. Now sectarianism shuts one out from all these lessons. The man will not make an impartial investigation, and he cannot reason. "All others are wrong, and I am right, and there the matter ends." Prom the glorious realm of God's truth, over which THE ARCHANGEL might fly from eternity to eternity without

touching the limits, they shut themselves out, and die like blind moles under a cornshock. =i . . . , ~. Another evil of sectiananism is, that it prejudices people against Christianity. The churches of God were not made for war barracks. This perpetual bombardment of other sects drives men away from religion. People are afraid of riots. You go down the street and you see a contest —men fightiug with men, and missies thrown. You hear the report of firearms. You are not foolish enough to go through that street; you go round the block. Well, men have looked off somestimes upon the narrow path to heaven, and they have said, " I believe I will take the broad road. There are so many ecclesiastical brickbats being thrown iu that narrow path, and there is so much sharpshooting, I think I will take broad road." Ah ! my friends, that religion is not worth much which 13 not tall enough to look over the fence. I have more admiration for a Spanish bull-fight, and believe it to be more merciful and honourable than the combating of these carnivorous ecclesiastics. Francis I. was so_ prejudiced against Lutherans that he said, if there was a drop of Lutheran blood in his veins he would puncture them with a knife, and let that drop out. If men have such hostility against other denominations of Christians, they drive men from the Cross. So, also, sectarianism hinders the Church's triumph. How muoh wasted energy; how many men of large intellect who have given their time to abstract and controversial dispute, when, if they had devoted it in the right direction, they would have been gloriously useful! Their books lie on the shelf of college and .State libraries, sleeping the long sleep of ages. Who cares now which of the doctors of divinity got the victory in that thirty years' war about a particle? Suppose there were a common enemy riding up the Narrows to-morrow morning, and our batteries around New York were to firo into each other, you would cry out. " National suicide !" And yet that very thing is often /lone in the Churgh of Christ. Wbi.'eall tho navies of darkness have been riding up the bay, Beet has been warring with sect, and theological l.e'i.f with theological belief, and there has bean suicide instead of conquest. I go out some summer day and I find that there are two beehives quarrelling with each other. I come up towards them. Ido not come near enough to get stung, but I come near enough to hear the contest between them. The one cries out, " That field of clover is the sweetest !" Tho other hive cries ont, "That field of clover is the sweetest !" I say, " Stop this quarrel. If you think that is the sweetest, go there ; if you think that is the sweetest, go there. I want you to understand that that Live is the be-st that gets the most honey." I see different denominations of Christians in contest with each other, some preferring this field of evangelical belief, and others that field. I say, "Take your choice. If you like that evangelical belief the best, take it; if you like this evangelical belief the best, take it; but understand Christ thinks most of that Church which gets the most of the iionky . of Christian grace in the heart, and the most of the honey of Christian grace in the life." How are we to war against this bigoted feeling which lingers in tho hearts of hundreds and thousands of Christians ? We do

so by the realization of our own infirmities and weakness. If we make so many mistakes about other things, ought we not to be a little modest in regard to our religious belief ? I suppose that tho light from the eternal throne in the last day will show us that there was something wrong in all our creeds. We will overthrow sectarianism by dwelling chiefly upon those things on which we agree, rather than upon those in which we differ. Here is the great broad platform of the Gospel. I see a mm coming up on one side of the platform. He says:—"l don't believe in baby-sprinkling." Must I shove him off? Here is auuther man coming up on this tide. He says :—"I don't believe in the perseverance of the saints." Must I shove him off ? No ! Do you believe in Jesus Christ? Then come on ! Brother now, brother for ever ! The Gospel platform is large enough to hold all who put their trust in my Lord Jesus Christ. War ayainst sectarianism by realizing that all denominations of Christians have yielded benificent institutions, and noble men, and therefore, are to be respected. One of the denominations gave to the world a .Robert Hall, and an Adoniram Judson; another gave a Latimer and a Melville ; another a John Wesley and the blessed Summerfield ; our own yielded a John Knox, and the Alexanders —men, of whom the world was not worthy. All these denominations have produced noble men and blessed institutions, and they demand our respect. So, I cry to the Churches of America, come od, ye ninety thousand communicants of the .Episcopal Church, ye four hundred thousand of the Presbyterian Church, ye nine hundred thousand of the Baptist Church, ye two millions of the Methodist Church—come on ! Let us marcn shoulder to shoulder; for there is a world to be saved, and God demands that you and I help to do it. But, more than all, will you overcome this evil of sectarianism, by toling in Christian work with men of other beliefs. Here are two men in hostility. Let them go and kneel by that dying woman, and commend Christ to her soul. If they went into that room with antipathies, they will come out with love. Men who toil together in Christian work can never fight in bitter hostility. So I am glad when the SPRINGTIME COSIES, and in the great anniversaries ministers of Christ and laymen of all denominations gather on one platform and talk in behalf of the same great cause, and pray in behalf of the same beneficent institutions. Men who toil together must be somehow somewhere in sympathy. Ido not know that I make this idea plain, so I will illustrate it by something that happened four or five years ago. One Monday morning, at 2 o'clock, when her 900 passengers were sound asleep in their berths, dreaming of home, crash went the Atlantic into Mar's Head. Five hundred souls in ten minutes landed in eternity. The rush through the gangways of agonized men and women, the clutching for the rigging, the plunge of the helpless steamer, the clapping of the hands of the merciless sea over the drowning and the dead, threw two Continents in anguish. But I see there the brave quartermaster striking out for the rocks with the "life-line," and in another place you see the fishermen coming out and picking up the shipwrecked and carrying them into cabins, and wrapping them up in blankets, snug and warm. Here puts out a life-boat; in it a minister of Christ • aid four oarsmen. Pull ! Pull! They reae- the wreck ; they throw a rope; another life saved. Oh ! can the men who toiled on that dark night at the ropes, at the oars, ever forget each other ? If there Bhould ever come a time of animosity, would they not think of that dark night, and of the life-line, and of the boats, and of the fishermen ? No animosity would be retained in such a memory as that. Well, my friends, our earth has foundered in a worse shipwreck. Sin drove it on the rocks. The old ship has lurched and reared in the tempests of six thousand years. Out with tne "life-line!" Ido not care what denomination carries it! Out with the life-boat! I do not care what denomination rows it. Plenty of room for all to toil, for all to pray, for all to work. You do your work in your way ; Ido my work in my way. But know this, that that Church, and that denomination which is most fearlsss of surf and tempest, anti that brings the most souls to the shore of eternal safety, will be the one upon which God will put the brightest honours, and the one that heaven will greet with the loudest anthem. Toiling in such service, side by side, what though we belong to different denominations, shall we not, by the memories of common hardships and common toils, and common prayers and common tears, be sympathetic with each other ? Oh ! that God would hasten the day when all the great denominations of Christians shall join hands arouud the cross of Jesus, 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. Amen and Amen."

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