The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, October 14, 1900, Page 9

ze and cons £ L7 { L, able, asp! flecan exemp! V4V s away fr e: but perhaps it - s t doesn’t gen- a resig ungenerous in his s £t wh Ch ity bim to g does not n te itself Into w Ha 0 not 1n n members does not nec- is action that e that ch ssure them- 18 rist’s precepts, n nal i member that and helpful to his fel et rate uselss congrega- 1 s es. When he “-wrneyed [ Je Jer nd went up into the tem- sines sts for ecause t upon finding there trades- v n tering their wares he made a the 8 4 r mon of cord d drove them out. T k he would do the same to-day with . such reasons rt less Christians.” ot t likely that any who e of § entedly stagnating In sel- 11d be alive even to a scourge chances are at a congregation eacher would tax it with an un- n lethar; from recelving the “I believe in pro- ce of the preacher, would belleva ( ght n:nn‘m\e‘ aciior tself falsely accused and would evince e ( tiike ~g-.rit back such indignation as would drive the hold- er of the “scourge” out of the temple r than itself give place. e facility with which ¢church members, think they perceive personal applie of church doctrine (that is to say, pplications touching their own lives and designed to touch them), ask for withe p hasten to attach them= more conservative pulplt to lead a congrega- n preferred to lethar- me food and oxygen week self-satisfied to reach out Dr. Slocombe has been la convietion that imactive themselves to ting. the suffering f =0 comfortable in to exert som g . Should they be TSt be known to all o’ s, Of course withdrawal cards are not be nitestly feels with necessarily applied for by every ome who useless .Christianity feels the Christly scourge lzid on. Thers ove’ aistiekien ihin OF many of us who, having felt the et mnss e sbint can by casting about for a little time forget the st ol S pain and believe the blow acclde ceived. and, In fact, des | more of that kind - signed for Mrs. Smith, the occupant of r or madam, than the next pew. ch discoveries, of course, wi : to concede. salve over the injury and permit continu- ne the aisle in/the ance along the Christian path s thoughts are very /| Dr- Slocombe is'c 1y a man of ana- agareth, It 1vtical mind, who has given his congrega- on its plush tion a great deal of careful study and who surroundings with _has distinguished within it not only the of - the el general type of istianity al- rayers with stiff and mentioned, but a t3 e quasi leth- gactness and listens to the ser- argic. He has a somewhat interesting . w their thought and - way of characterizing this second type o off its churchly and of designating it as a type of active od W its bonnets and its silken and aggressive Christianity, the infre- wne quency of which has given him so much t 1= & comfortable Christianity, after a of pain and has ied to his resignation from his pulpit. “There are within every Christian con- a thoroughiy scif-satisfied t within halling distance of gregation two distinct kinds of activity,” he said to me, his honest blue eyes taking . on a more Intense serlousness than-be- fore. “With one the movement. is strong- ly a forward movement, with the spirit of love and helpfulness essentially Christ- like—the same spirit that was manifested by Christ when for the sake of accom- “1T COMES RUSTLING | UP THE AISLE IN THE VERY LATEST SILKS AND ITS THOUGHTS ARE VERY MUCH .NEARER PARIS THAN g tl"S - GRACE FERN. WH O SCORES INERT USELESS CHRISTIANS . S AMUEL WHO RESIGNED FROM-HIS CHURGH BECAUSE HE BELIEVES IN PROgRESS'VE QUGHT_ AN TH‘\GGRESS IVE ACTION NAZARETH" plishing he went into the highways and byways . of Palestine, unsparing 6f his own energy, unstinting of his own sym- pathy. With the other there i{s move- ment (for this type cannot be classified with the fnert who so grieved and dis- heartened their pastor), but the move- ment is not progressive; it does not tend onward and upward. O.. the contrary, it is like the movement of a door upon its hinges—forward a little, yes; but, alas, backward likewise. No substantial de- parture on the road to that splendid righteousness and that magnificent ac- complishing for which Christianity was ordained.” * posedly ada May I pause here long eno 'S a be f that wh Christ life move ard and bac ward the small measure permitted by the door on Its hinges in conventional re- liglons—those who sound the shallows of mere kindly inten.ons instead of the deeps of aspirations to who affiict the Infinite— San Francisc are the pers with church fa I happen to know several women who fairly justrate In their lives this dooritke movement, which, by the way, is ndt a slow movement at all, but a movement of the upper currents of the mind—those currents that yleld with readiness to every wind that blows. Th hang about their favorite preach peringly and In a fashion that one wou think must lead the object of their atten- tion to feel life decidedly a burden. They like to be ob d floating about In the odor of sanctity. They like to be heard discussing their pastor. They like to be recognized as famillar with all his little ! whims; his method of mar! g of devotion and of tying his o be ey are overjoyed (or profess enabled to take an active part in ating the church on festal occasions. vel In that sort of martyrdom w thither begs] for the sak to them i call “the ca They-delight in filling their rooms now and then bevies of urchins, sup- ted to be choir bo; hich sends them hither and 1 flowers money or books ctor, or that gible somewhat which they of their d ceptible to t talks ~ with “‘bran pluck: pastor or from e bur * Put- ting wings (whether the wings fit or no) upon: youns shoulders is a part of their traqe, if one may be pardoned the irrev- erence of bra word. tians of this tvpe g their activity with so Uglon it- in whatever form it expresses itseif, comes face to face with the same aspect. In the fad of to-day this aspect may be a strawberry festival for the sake of Christ; to-morrow it may be a door-to- door collection to send {lluminated trac to the pagans in China and chocolate fudges to our soldiers who are fighting them. A SCOURGE OF CORD \ ROVE THEM OUT." | {magine the One ean readily of Pa. o detailed mbers of the finest pale sects, not ¢ the pale of Chris- tianity to churches ar Rivalry among arches is neither e nor expedient. There should be To prove this fact sermon before sev- and was recetved the widely differ- ve it before a Pres- it was pronounced Congregationalists the Methodists be- tical religlon.’ I also mon at Stiles Hall, it was considered ‘mod- an Francisco has no has a great purpose. that very “ourth Congrega- ly tend to stir egation to a closer with great embers of the rong n verity th Bar- she ture, : “What I expect is velopment of C nity on to tha churches, and of generally in opposition to the Only within a few days we have been such an ssured by intellectual glant as Hillis of Plymouth ominationalism s constantly growing less and enthusiasm for Christianity s growing more )