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A New Church Edifice

A New Church Edifice image
Parent Issue
Day
29
Month
September
Year
1887
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

The citizens generally, and the readers 1 of The Register more particularly, have I oí late manifested considerable interest in I e organization commonly known as ''Disciples." This interest has been inf creased by the authoritative statement [ that the various missionary boards oí the church have united in making Ann Arbor a central point of work, and have purchased a lot on the corner of Williams nd División. They have provided funds sufflcient for the erection of a church edifice which will meet all the requirement3 of modern church architecture and o( refined taste, and propose to place in charge of this work a man thoroughly fitted for it. WHAT THET BELIEVE. We shall answer briefly the question often asked during ihe past week, " Who are the Disciples and what is their teaching?" The disticctivfi organization generally known as the Disciple, or, as they prefer to be called, Christian church, is of comparatively recent date, the first published document in its behalf being dated only seventy-seven years ago. In this short time the growth has been so rapid that, according to the report of the Librarían of Uongress, it today takes third place among the protestant churches of America, having nearly, if not quite, A MILLION COMMUNICANTS. There are in the United States thirtyfour journals published in the interest of the Christian Church. They also have periodicals published in Canada, Scotland, England, France, Denmark, Jamaica, and Australia. The circulation of these publications amounts to sotnething over half a million of copies each issue. They have established and maintain forty-four colleges in the various parts of the country ; the matricularon in these schools in 188687 being something over seren thousand. Only within the past ten years has the church turned its attention to foreign missions. Durings this time it has establiahed missions in England, France, Denmark, Jamaica, Turkey, Asia Minor, Japan, India, and China. Why came this organization into existence, and what are the beliefs held by its adherente ? The answer is simply this : A few earnest Christians, becoming dissatisfied with what to them seemed a lack of nuity among the protestant churches, and the resulting inability of protestantism to more thoroughly convert the world, set about trying to find SOME C0M1I0N GROUND upon which all could unite. Thus in the very beginning the movement became known as "a Christian union movement." The questions with these men were, "How should they atteinpt to remove the effects of this disunion?'1 "How were the divided parts to be united ?" They could only see their way clearly by adopting as their foundation principie the doctrine that ':nothing should be required as a term of union, communion, and co-operation which is not as old as the New Testament;" and adopted as their watchword, "Where the Bible speaks we will speak, and where the Bible is silent we will be silent ;" thus being able to say, "the Bible is our creed, and OÜR ONLY CREED." As a result they agree with all evangelical churches in all the more important matters. Thus they believe in the divine inspiration of the holy scriptures ; in the all sufficiency of the Bible as a revelation of the divine will, and as a perfect and a sufflcient rule of faith and practice ; they in8ist upon the acceptance of the divinity of Jesus, the son of God, as the very stone of Christian faith, life and teaching; they believe in the personal mi8sion of the" Holy Spirit to convict the world of sin ; the alienation of the race from God, and their dependence upon his grace ; the necessity of faith and repentan3e ; in baptism and the Lord's supper; the observance of the first day of the week ; the divine institution of the Christian church, and in the fullness and free ne8s of the salvation offered in the gospel to all who will accept it ON THE TERMS PROPOSED. As natural to all organizations formed for a particular purpose, the "Disciples" have forms of their own which perhaps more than the above indícate their methods of work. Thus the suni total of reply to those anxious to become Christians lies in the reüly given by Peter on the day of Pentecost to the enquiring Jews, as follows: "Bepent, and be baptised every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins." They also celébrate the Lord's supper on the first day of each week, freely inviting to partake with them all persons who at any time have publicly professed faith in Christ as the Son of God. Through the courtesy of the Congregational people the members of the Disciples organiztion here in the city will, for the present, meet in social worship Sunday afternoons at two o'clock in the parlors of the Congregational church, and will undoubtedly be glad to see present friends from any and all of the churches.

Article

Subjects
Old News
Ann Arbor Register