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The Church's Mission

The Church's Mission image
Parent Issue
Day
3
Month
January
Year
1889
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

The brotherbood of man at:d the (iuiy of the church in healing difficulties between classes, were the leading tboaghU of Rev. J. T. Sundeiland'g sermón in the Unitarian church last Sunday mornin?. He thought that the very forces of our material progress, such 89 the means of rapid travel and the telegraph, are builJing up walls which run right tlirough society iiself, and which separate class from class. Other religions taught and encouraged the institution of caste, but it was contrary to the spirit of Christianity. "All candid thinkers agree," said Mr. Sunderland, " ihat there is a dark and orninous cloud rislDgin our modern social and industrial sky. Sotnewhat similar clouds havearisen in certain past ages, and out of them have come thunders and lightnÍDgs and awful tempeste; as for example, toe Peasants' war in Germany, the corn-laws riots in England, and the French Itevolution. "Nor are we without warning that the cloud thf.t gathers on our own skies holds in its ciark bosom possibilities of social disrupüons and violence and anarchy aa dite as anything of the past. We in this country have ssen Pittsburg ruled by strikers, and the great Pennsylvania railroad in the hands of a mob. We hve geen Chicago streets barricaded, and trains running in and out of the city stopped and stoned and their windows smashed by crowds of infuriated men whom the police were for days unable to cope with. " Small manufactures are beiug crushed. Small merehant establishments are being killed out. Small buf-iness interests of variou8 kinds are flnding they cannot stand the competitions of great firms and companies and Corporation strong enough to control markets and take every kind of advantage, fair and unfair. Monopolies are last multiplying and teaching out their long fingera to clutch every kind of industrial, miinufacturing and commercial operation. "There is coming to be less and less chance for a man, no matter how good his business abilities may be, to reach any considerable degree ot business prosperity, unless he can manage in some way to get connected with a leading house that has control of the market - that is, unless he can get to be a cog of a wheel in som e one of the great corporations or monopolies of the country that are crushin rivalry." Mr. Sunderland went on to show the terrible chasm between the very rioh anti the very poor in this country, ile thinks that while nations are becoming friendly, and the world as a whole is growing to ward a sort of brotherhood, society in the very foiemost and most enüghtened of our modern nations is being cleft by awful chasms which open everywhere. The speaker thought that we should not flatter ourselves that this. country will escape all these dangero. Tendencies do not change without csusc "What is to be dom? What can be done?" asked Mr. Sunderlani. "For one thing it is clear that we need a wiser, truer, humaner politica! economy than so far for the most part we have bad. Our wisest. most thouglitfu!, most candid minds must turn their attention to these subjects more tlian tney have ever done, and study them more in the interests of man and less of money." Be8des these lie thought the public school and the church were two agencies of immeasuiable value with which to counteraft the tendencias in society to break up into hostile classes. "I should liketo define the irue church as an RssociaHon tb teacli men that they are eech and all their brother's keepers, that do one liveth unto himgelf and no one dietli unto himself, and that being all members oce of atjother, DO member is u=eless or to be displaced, and no member can suffer without all the rest suffering too. "It is hard for different classes of society to realize that otber classes can be as important as they. I is so much easier to despise ami sneer than it is to appreciate and anderstand ! Henee the tendeney on the part of the poor to regaid all rich people no antter how honestly they got their richfs or how u-ifully they are employing it, as enemies ; and the sportdins te.ndency on the part of the rich io denpise the poor, ;)! think of thm as onlv fiï 10 bewftrs of woed aod draw?r ot witer ior thein. Wiiai U the miaion of the chnrch ? It is to mediat-1 uil thfSe clas-s. It is to draw thHMi together to ■ ■ ye to eyp, and fepl heart to liait.. (' is io throw hi'r '.mus ).l)onr il'i-m, and ;-s h common mother, tech '.hem uil i arity, thoughifülness, kindnen. 'It was bv love, hy sy inpathy, by pergonal o intacl with (he iaiul, the we&k, and the poor, more th in ever by bis words ot wisdom aml power, tbt Jesus acoom plished hiti grtat work in ancien t Gaiilee and Jeru mlem. "The cituróh is the oue plsee where all gbould nouii; wlth Urge hearta tid po away with lrgsr heart. It is the one plaox where sympaihy should hu most ahve, and Ih:p8 sunoiegt, and tn w ■ ot."

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Subjects
Old News
Ann Arbor Register