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JTIIE SUNDAY OltEG ONTAX. PORTLAND. FEBItijATtY ' 18. 'l017 , !
CAMERA
Views Taken Daring Ceremony at Crossway Between Washington and Oregon Show
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PASTOR
BT "WTLEIAM G. ELIOT, JR.
) Minister ot the Church of Our Father.
ABRAHAM LIXCOLN once said:
"When any church will inscribe
over its altar, as its sole qualification
or membership, the Savior's condensed
statement of the substance of both law
and gospel, "Thou shalt love the Lord
thy God with all thy heart and with all
xny soul ana with alLsp'-nw'p
thy mind, and thy
neighbor as thyself,"
that church will I
join with all my
heart and all mv
soul." I
I cite these words'
trate and make:
plain a situation
which
obtains t "L
It is as-, ?t - -
througho
tendom
true now as It wasfK
EO years aeo that
many men of earn
est character, gen-
ulnA ielirioii failh
Mifl true devotion
nre as unable as
Lincoln was to joiu Kc, , v . I,. t,,io j
. cnurch; because ' like Lincoln they
know of none whose tests of member
ship for minister or people do not con
stitute a barrier to conscience for those
who cannot accede to those tests: be
cause they feel that the issue teaches
them personal veracity, and they feel
that a man is more of a Christian who
for conscience's sake is outside the
visible church than inside at the cost
of any conformity which his con
science does not approve; because they
feel that it is of the essence of Chris
tianity that conscience should be sov
ereign. This explains, in part at least, why
a great many men who ought to be
. members of a church are unchurched
and adrift, and why many others are
pore perplexed as to the sincerity of
their standing.
Ideals of Church EaentlaL
On the other hand, the forces of or
ganized religion that distrust freedom,
do so with honesty of purpose and, as
they believe, in the interest of vital
essentials that they fear might be put
In jeopardy.
Between the forces favorable to free
advance (sometimes no doubt too
rapid and reckless), and the forces
which, speaking from my own point of
view, would restrain and retard, there
hits come about a sort of impasse or
deadlock. And lest this situation be
MAN HELPS TO MAKE HISTORY AT
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GIVES THREE ESSENTIALS
come hopeless, all who have the cause
of Christ and his Church at heart, all
who fervently desire a true inward and
organic unity of that church and all,
who are sincerely devoted to the spiri
tual welfare and advancement of man,
ought to consider thoughtfully, peni
tently, sacrif icially. the state of the
church speaking in the most general
way, but if you prefer of the churches.
This sermon invites such considera
tion. But 1 do not here elaborate
upon the defects of the churches. My
aim is rather to speak constructively;v
to Inquire what are the Ideals of a per
fect church. Are there essentials with
out which no church can reach per
fection? If so, what are they?
But before proceeding I ought to
acknowledge that no one can follow
me any farther in this argument if he
will not agree that all churches are im
perfect, including his own, and if he
will not agree that other churches than
his own' may embody principles for
which martyrs have suffered and may
enshrine memories and hopes, ideas and
Ideals, that ought never to be sur
rendered and without which the whole
would forever be incomplete.
From this point of view, the re
mainder of what I shall say readily
divides into three heads when I af
firm my hearty approval of the opening
words of a recent article by Dr. Dugald
Macfadyn in the Constructive Quarter
ly: "To be permanent a church must
be catholic; 'to be alive It must be
evangelical: to be progressive it must
be free" for surely permanency, life
and progress are essentials for the per
fecting of the church if the church is
at heart what we believe It to be.
Three Essentials Outlined.
I proceed to take' up' these three
points, premising that I shall be unable
In the brief time permitted me to
elaborate the argument. I shall let a
few paragraphs under each head suf
fice paragraphs which I vtrust will be
good starting points for further think
ing upon your part.
1. "To be permanent a church must
be catholic."
Some of my Protestant hearers will
be shocked at my use of the word
catholic I judge from anonymous let
ters that I receive now and then that
there are some men who would rather
perish than wear an amulet and "yet shy
at the word catholic as if It had the
evil eye!
Now the word catholic Is a perfectly
good English word, derived from the
Greek, and means general or universal.
It is usually more appropriate and ap
plicable than the word general, asso
ciated M tb latter is with sundry ob
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jects from army officer to anything, or
than the word universal, associated
with everything from the universe it
self to the latest meat-mincer or washing-machine.
Nor, so far as I know,
does any church claim a monopoly o'
the word. The Roman Catholics ac
knowledge the catholicity of the Greek
Catholics, and the Anglicans acknowl
edge the catholicity of both Romaiwmd
Greek branches. And to allay all fur
ther doubts, I hasten to say that the
author of the quptation I am discussing
is a Congregational clergyman. Now is
it not true that if a church is to possess
that essential of perfection which we
have named as permanency it must be
catholic? Surely permanency is im
possible without universality. A per
manent church must meet universal
human need, the total human problem,
not under the aspect of the present mo
ment alone, but in all time. Nor may
it rightly assume that the most uni
versal truth would be that irreducible
minimum of belief to which a thousand
billion Toms. Dicks and Harrys could
agree to off hand.
Foundation Mast Be Firm.
To be truly catholic a church must
face the whole of truth, unafraid to re
ject the false, however venerable,
equally unafraid to cling to and con
serve the true and significant however
ancient.
To be truly catholic a church must be
conscious of a corporate spiritual life
outlasting the passing day,- and not to
be measured In terms of calendar or
clock.
Churches commonly called catholic
reckon readily with the past. To be
truly catholic they must reckon also
with the future.
If a church holds itself together by
force or compulsion, or if it is born in
controversy, or if it comes into exist
ence as an organization to meet some
passing mood of a transition age, if it
specializes in only one kind of human
problem, and above all if its plea is
selfish or superstitious, it surely lacks
or is likely to lack some of. the attri
butes without which it cannot be final
ly and perfectly catholic, and without
which it cannot be permanent except as
it strives in spite of its defects to ap
proach the perfection of its own hidden
and central ideals.
The more nearly catholic, the more
nearly permanent; and the more nearly
permanent the more nearly perfect a
church will be.
Second "To be alive a church must
be evangelized."
I am confident that many of my lib
eral friends will object to the word
evangelical. In their minds it ia apt
Throngs of Patriotic Citizens
-
r
1 Rufus Holman speak
ing at Vancouver ex
ercises. 2 Governor Withycombe
in action at the cele
bration. 3 Samuel Hill orating as
ceremony formally
opens the bridge.
4 Mayor Albee, of Port
land, driving home a
point.
5 Mayor Evans, of Van
couver, addressing cel
ebrators. 6 Automobile parade
leaving Portland Hotel
before the opening.
7 Mrs. Fred L. Olson
singing "The Star
Spangled Banner" at
Vancouver exercises.
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Catholicity, Evangelic Spirit and True Freedom Are Defined.
to be associated (alas, not without
some Justification) too exclusively with
commercialized gospel-mongers and
get-rich-quick promoters of salvation
more or less reckless Itinerants who
are the acknowledged bane of churches
in rural districts and smaller towns
and an outstanding scandal In some re
spects everywhere.
But again I must plead for the word
evangelical as I plead for the word
catholic. It is too good a word to lose!
Like the word catholic, Jt ought to be
"music to our ears." If liberals do not
wish to have their word freedom looked
upon askance and with antipathy and
fear, they -must begin by trying to un
derstand and to do justice to the heart
of meaning and the wealth of truth in
the. words catholic and evangelical.
EvMnxellral Ia Denned.
It Is a happy augury that free Chris
tian churches are, becoming increas
ingly animated by evangelical motive
and are increasingly cutting forth
evangelic effort. W have been notori
ously lacking in this regard: and we
shall fall again if we mistake mere
denominational propaganda for the
true evangelical spirit. That spirit,
whatever may be our differences of be
lief about religious ' truth, is nothing
less than a veritable prayer and pas
sion and toil for the redemption and
nurture of the spiritual life of man and
society. "Who, in any church, will con
cede that we can ever have too much of
that?
To be evangelical is to seek and save
the lost, and to fortify and inspire the
found. To do these two things is for a
church to live. To fail to do these two
things is to die.
To be perfect, nay, even to aspire
toward perfection, a church must be
alive. But to be aliveMt must be evan
gelical. Third "To be progressive a church
must be free."
Professor George Burham Foster has
said, in effect, that one of the perfec
tions of Christianity is its perfectibil
ity. What does this mean, but that the
possibility of progress is one of the es
sentials of a'perfect church? - But as
surely as progress is essential to per
fection, so surely is freedom requisite
for progress.
The "modernist" movement In all or
thodox churches, Protestant and Cath
olic, has been in its best aspects a
more or less concerted plea for intellec
tual liberty.
i The forms of belief, the formularies
of organization, system and office, the
tests of membership.- are all liable to
human error in their matter and in J
Who Walked, Motored and Used "Old Dobbin" to Witness
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OF A PERFECT
their application. The Living Spirit
that alone. In any final sense, is per
fect. Loyalty to that may often re
quire rejection of antiquated error.
Intellectual fetters are intolerable. We
are adjured to love the Lord our God
with all our mind, as well as with all
our heart and soul and strength. We
are willing to submit our minds to the
spirit that we believe seeks to guide
and inspire the church, but we are not
willing to submit to the very human
persons and the very human creeds
that undertake to state in irrevocable
terms the facts-about - which honest
and intelligent men must of necessity
differ from age to age as knowledge
grows from more to more.
Freedom of Thought marr.
A church cannot progress, in some
Important particulars, unless it is free;
unless freedom of thought is not only
allowed but encouraged; unless a pre
mium, rather than a discount. Is placed
upon the utmost sincerity the lack of
which anywhere Is Dad, In religion a
calamity a sincerity which is diffi
cult if not impossible for many minds
under any forms of official authority
or literal and stereotyped infallibilities
that block the free motions of a rea
sonable mind.
In pleading for freedom from fixed
standards of doctrine as essential to a
perfect church. I am not asking for
any unchartered freedom. I am plead
ing that charters be altered so that
the freedom of all may be guaranteed.
I am not pleading for license or for
anarchy or for uncharted idiosyncracy
or for acute paranoia. I leave these to
the civil law. I acknowledge that he
who does not voluntarily submit to
something is liable to become the in
voluntary victim of anything! Only
that submission, not to be bondage,
must be a submission to the highest.
Such an act of submission of the mind
yes. of the whole soul is the high
est act of freedom of which man is
capable. Toward a church. If that
church would be progressive, it ought
to be a submission not to letter, form
or officer, but to an imperishable
Spirit; and that must be the Highest
Spirit; and to a Christian that ia the
Spirit of the Highest in Christ and in
his Church alas, and as I must be
lieve, not yet the Church Visible, but
the Church Invisible the Spirit of the
beloved and loyal community of earth
and heaven!
If every church -could come to some
such catholicity, evangelic spirit and
true freedom, as I have tried, how
ever inadequately,, to set forth, creeds
would become monuments to progress
BRIDGE OPENING
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to be used and valued for their his
tory and for their witness to faith in
their own day and epoch, sacraments
would be for many a soul more really
what they are. officers would be not
masters but servers of the people, and
freedom would be Justified of her mar
tyrs! Man Is Finding- Himself.
Evidence comes to me almost daily
that thinking 'men. heretofoi ) indiffer
ent or rejecting, are changing in their
feeling - about religion. The world
tragedy has overwhelmed all their outer
walls and put their naked souls at bay.
They must own themselves vanquished
or else acknowledge that life is more
than meat. They are forced to think
with new units. They are getting some
inkling of what It is "to bet one's lira
there is a God." .There is many a man
who never in the world could Join a
church if to do so his conscience must
capitulate, and who never could be
scared into church membership by
threat of physical torment hereafter,
and' who never could be lured Into
church membership by hope of reward
In material wealth, physical health or
social standing. But that same man is
finding himself at last and discerning
at last the central Intention and signifi
cance of the Christian Church, its heart
and souL ' He has come to the point in
his life where he hates to live any
longer and would bate to die. without
any act or sign upon his part that shall
testify on which side he stands in the
age-long struggle toward perfect hu
man character and toward perfect re
lations between one and another, in
home, in industry and commerce, and
in the world-order; in the age-long
striving toward a communion witn
heaven in thought and Heed that shal'
touch with altar-glow the world of
Nature and the life of man! And then
he seeks a church and fellowship and
too often comes upon a barbed-wire en
tanglement that makes membership for
him impossible.
God speed the day of the perfect
church permanent, alive and progres
sive; catholic, evangelical, free!
DWARF GOES TO PRISOM
Small Man Wears First Male Attire
at Reformatory.
JEFFERSONVILLE. Ind.. Feb. II. At
tired in female apparel. Ral..a Barger.
a dwarf, who is 26 years old. arrived in'
JeHersonviile in charge of. the Sheriff
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Historic Event Last Week
'fi'--iY ' ritlifi i iiri.in i-- - i - - 1 ' ir"i
CHURCH
of Johnson County and was taken to
the Indiana Reformatory to begin serv
ing a sentence from two to 21 years,
convicted with killing his father. Mack
Barger. near Whiteland, Ind., August 1.
1916. wit a shotgun
Barger is about four feet tall, stocky
in build and weighs 85 pounds. He has
never worn anything but girls' clothes
and had on a skirt. that reached to his
ankles. After his arrival at the insti
tution he was fitted with a boy's suit,
made in the tailor shop of the institu
tion. In a short time Barger will be
fitted with the regular olive drab uni
form worn by the inmates.
Intense Etching
Of Large Blotches
On Child's Head
Face and Limbs, . Red and Fiery,
Could not Sleep. In Two Months
Cuticura Healed Sound and Well.
"My little daughter bejjan. breaking
out on her head in small pimples or
blisters which discharged a watery fluid.
In a day or two these dried and formed
a rough, scaly surface, 'i his continued
to break out about every two weeks,
spreading out larger until her scalp,
face, and limbs were covered with large
blotches, red and fiery. The itching was
so intense we had to keep her hands tied
and she could not sleep or let any one
else. It was a life of torture.
"We heard of Cuticura Soap and Oint
ment, and began to use them. A won
derful change took place at once and in
two months time she was healed sound
and well." (Signed) Mrs. Arch Lagle,
Depauw, Ind., Oct. 4, 1916.
Why not prevent these distressing skin
troubles by making Cuticura your every
day toilet and nursery soap aided by
touches of Ointment now and then to
remove the first signs of pimples, rashca
and dandruff. Do not confound these
delicate emollients with coarsely medi
cated soaps and ointments.
For Free Sample Each by Return
Mail address post-card: Cnticnra,
Dept. H, Boston." Sold everywhere.
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