docs'nt realize it." Then he says, "In some directions she has learnt nothing; she is making a desperate endeavour to live her past over again." But surely that is a sign that the church is all alive, for she might do very much worse than live her past over again. Five thousand people were converted on the day of Pentecost. That wouldn't be a bad thing to "live over again." Then he makes some awful charges against her: "She is not sure of her message", ''The world does not believe in her honesty." This is the kind of address that has been given all over our country.
Now, however, against all this ignorant criticism, I call your at-Mention to two features in the church of Christ, which more than make up for all her mistakes. If it is only for the two qualities that Tam going to name, she is entitled to the admiration and loyalty of all sincere and honest souls. With wonderful insight, Isaiah names them both. Being' a hero, he can, of course, recognize the heroic.' I say further, that the two qualities that I am going to name, when exhibited in any other sphere of life, always do command admiration and reverence. But I don't know how it is, yet it is a fact, that when the church exhibits them, she is smothered in abuse. Doctors of Divinity, as well as ignorant young whipper-snappers hold the venerable church of up to ridicule.
First, then, there is the quality of endurance. Her watchiien "shall never hold their peace day nor night." We all admire endurance. It is a great thing in a world of changes, and of destructive forces like this, just to hang on. Nothing is such a test of quality as enduring, holding on, clinging to a thing. Our race reckons to admire bulldog tenacity. This is true all round. en was in Turin, I saw the old Roman gate, built inthe reign of Augustus, some years B., Whether beautiful or not, you had to respect that gate. It had seen all the hordes of barbarians sweep over Italy; and there it is, venerable with age. I know an old bridge over the Tees. It is about 400 years old. Ice-floes pile up against it in spring, and floods toss against its piers; it may not be a graceful bridge, but it has endured four centuries. That is enough. So it is with men and women. The faces of ofa people, showing the scars of life's battle, are really more beautiful than the unseamed faces of the young. Now, say what you like about the church of Christ, here she is, at any rate. Nearly 2,000 years old. Time sifts out frauds. But she stands. Businesses go bankrupt; she doesn't; the most feeble "little Bethel", sniffed at, as it often is, by the mighty, always pays its way anyhow. There is a loyalty to the Lord of the Church that would make the few people sell their shirts rather than go bankrupt. The Church is the oldest institntion. I believe the oldest business in England is a snuff factory at Devizes, and the oldest in Scotland the Carton iron-works, both dating from about 1740. Where is vaunted business beside _—tthe Church? There must be, as she claims, solid truth in her to have survived so Jong, Her members have made enough mistakes to sink her; yet here she is, alive, spreading; American Methodists have just given $80,000,000 to push her work. Critics talk about her adherents as "paper adherents." But "paper adherents" don't give dollars. No. She is alive, and taking her bearings for a new voyage. As a recent critic has bitterly remarked, no institution has been so "utterly—discredited" as the church; all her defences have been "blown up", yet she will not give in nor die, which is very annoying to able critics.
Think of the obstacles of an ezternal character, that she has over. come. She has lived through ré-" volutions, and upheavals of nations, compared with which the late war has been a trifle. There was the swarming into Europe of-our Teutonic races, the rawest of heathen. She got over that catastrophe. What other institution did! She entered a world that God had a religion and moral system of its own; men don't abandon these things easily; yet Christ won _his way over them. The whole society of the ancient world was founded on slavery. She overcome that. "All ye are brethren", was the weapon, that slew it, and that weapon was in the hand of the church. The endurance of the church of Christ has no parallel in history, There must be a wealth of truth in her to have lived through all these con-I] vulsions, that wiped out pretty well all other organizations. Think further on the fact that God sent Christ into human life and history. It has had to be subject to all the ignorance and mistakes and _imperfections of men. Yet here it is as fresh as ever.
Consider too, how tenaciously the church has stuck to her original message, that salvation is in Christ only. The cross is still the symbol of all churches. That is a piece of endurance, that ought to fill us with reverence. All kinds if temptations have been dangled before her to whittle down her Gospel. If the church would only cut out this and that doctrine, she would be just about right. But, with—insignificant exceptions, she has stuck to her guns. Cultured people, ancient and modern, have disliked her doctrine of the cross; they think a little educational soap, can
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.