Newspapers / The Star of Zion … / March 15, 1900, edition 1 / Page 1
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ORGAN OF THE AFRICAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL ZION CHURCH IN AMERICA. Volume XXIV. Charlotte, N. C., Thursday, March 15, 1900. Number n TOPICS OF THE TINES. The Philadelphia Religous Cen sus. BY W. H. DAVENPORT. Talleyroad is credited with ob serving that all wise men have but one religion, and upon being ques tioned what that religion was, the evasive and dexterous old French man replied: “It is something wise men do not tell. ” The experience of the zealous Christians who have been engaged in taking a religious census” of the Quaker city has resulted in encoun tering a great number of reticent and secretive persons who doubt less share in the same philosophy. It is the consenus of public thought that accurate information of a statistical character which is designed to classify adherents of the various religious sects, dogmas or opinion is very difficult to ob tain. There are not a few people of denominational connections and affiliations who are somewhat hazy and uncertain as to their “religious belief.” There are others who regard any effort to obtain their religious belief as impodent; and the zeal of denominations in exploi ting their numericnl strength is sometime to be regarded with the same caution with which we regard the padded assessment list of the ward politician for it is frequent ly like the magnifying process in which the valorous. Falstoff said the men in Backram grow on the highway at Gadshill. The Zion church however, has been very modest in its numerical pretensions. It was only a few days ago when a Bethel Bishop credited us with having a few more than nineteen hundred churches, and no one has come forward with accredited figures to dispute it. But while it is believed that the religious census in Philadelphia may not have the most trustwor thy value, yet it is interesting, in complete as it is, to note that there are probably more than 257,000 families in this city which would signify that the present popula tion is at least 1,300,000. But in glancing over the figures of the returns, we are astonished to find that one of the most striking features of this compilation taken under protestant auspices is that out of 121,000 families, 30,220 are credited to the Roman Catholic church, which is nearly twice as many as the next highest, the Methodists. The Roman Catholics have claimed in Philadelphia a population of 340,000, so these protestant figures seem to substan tiate that claim. These figures are also interesting in that the native American party was formed for the express purpose of checking the advance of Roman Catholicism. It has not succeeded, for in the United States there are probably 9,000,000 Catholics, or about one in every eight in the population; in Philadelphia about one in every four. It does not appear that the Methodists, Presbyterians, Epis copalians, Baptists or the Luthe rans have been in a more flourish ing condition. In Philadelphia the Presbyte rians last year laid claim to 46,000 members; Methodists 45,000; the Episcopalians to 35,000; the Bap tists to 31,000 and the Lutherans to 18,000; and the figures of the census taken seem in the main to point to an agreement with the above figures. But there are at least twenty-eight other forms of Christian organization represented in the census, but these are only meagerly reported at this writing. Under the head of “Atheist and Agnostics” the census takers found only eleven persons who openly avowed themselves as such. But it is probable in the.two houses where information was refused, or in the two which are set down in the caU egory of no preference there are others of Atheistic and Agnostic proclivities. But there are more churches in Philadelphia according to the population in 1900 than there were in 1800. Infidelity is not gaining ground nor is the church losing its hold upon the masses. A notable fact however in con nection with this census may be touched upon. The Bishops of the Methodist episcopal church have frankly admitted that American Methodism is facing a grave situ ation, and they have consequently issued sm appeal for a week of ab stinence and prayer for the strengthening of their church along all lines “Our statistics,” they affirm, “for the last year show a decrease in the* number of our members. Year before last our advance was checked. Last year our advance column has been^orc ed back a little. The lost ground is paved with the dead. We are surrounded by powerful enemies. The attack is on every side. It is high time for every Methodist to take himself or herself to prayer, to call mightily on God for help, that each one may know for him self that he is accepted of God, that in this testing time each one may hear the Lord say: Be of good cheer; thy sins are forgiven thee.” - Among other things mentioned in Bishop Clinton’s strong letter about the Chicago church it may be worth while to observe the im possibility of running a great Con nection by passing the hat around to ministers. Sickness, debts, small salaries, connectional obli gations as well as local demands are all against such a scheme. With a church extension depart ment in working order the $3000. 00 could have been secured in a twinkling. And we point no fin ger of scorn at Warner. The cob* lapse of that work was no fault of his, nor our stars, but of us. There was but little for it to rest upon. Camden, N. J. i THE SERMON On the Mount Analized. BY BISHOP C. R. HARRIS, D. D. II Having found a subject and a text for our sermon, let us pro ceed with its analysis. A sermon has three well defined parts : an introduction, a body and a conclu sion. These are analogous to the parts of a man—the head, ‘body and limbs. If you want to get an idea of who or what a man is you look at his head, especially his face ; to judge what a sermon is you look at the introduction. The body of the sermon is the largest portion and contains most of its important matter, like a man’s body. The limbs enable a man to do his work and the conclusion is what makes the sermon effective. The object of the intoduction is to prepare the minds of the hear ers for a favorable reception of the message to be delivered. Scan ning the first part of our sermon we see that verses 3-16 answer this end. The kingdom of heaven was a subject of great interest to every Jew and whatever promised infor mation concerning it would be heartily welcomed. Besides hap piness is sought by all men, and in this portion of the sermon the preacher points out how happiness may be attained. The latter part of this passage verses 13-16 form a transition thought to the main body of the sermon. As a help in understanding and remembering a sermon as well as in delivering it from notes, we usual ly subdivide the main parts desig nating each division by a word or phrase which will suggestthe mat ter contained in the subdivision. We will entitle the first part of the introduction as “The elements of happiness,” or “The elements of character essential to true hap piness,” and the second part as “The value of Christians to the world.” Let us now look for the conces sion of the sermon. We judge it to be verses 15-27 of the seventh chapter. It consists of instruction setting forth a motiive, a warning and an encourgement to duty, to spur the hearers to hearty, sincere and constant obedience to the law of Christ. The intervening por tion of the sermon must be the body—which we now subdivide. 1. The first thought presented is “The value of the Mosaic Law” or “Obedience to Law essential to Salvation.” Chapter five verses 17-20. 2. Next, verses 21-18, come ex positions of the Mosaic law or Christ’s construction of certain laws. These relate to (1) murder (2) adultery (3) profanity, (4) the fluty of non-resistance (5) the prin ciple underlying all obedience to law, namely love. 3. The next portion, chapter six verses 1-18, we identify as “Means of Grace” such as (1) charitable deed, (2) prayer, (3) fasting. 4. Next follow, “Motives” a dapted to lead to a Christian life [6 : 19, 7 : 6] namely (1) true rich es (2) sincerity of purpose (3) trust in God (4) reluctance in condemn ing (5) Christian reticence or self respect. In the conclusion as we have seen are striking illustrations of the benefits of conforming to the law of obedience, containing (1) warning to Christians (2) to hy pocrites and finally and illustra tion calculated to vividly impress the whole sermon upon the minds and hearts of the audience. For convenience we will now form the heads and subheads in to an OUTLINE OF THE SERMON. Sub j ect—Obedience to God’s Law Necessary to Salvation. Text—“Obey my voice and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people.” —Jeremiah 7:23. I. [Introduction.] 1. Elements of happiness. [5:3-12] 2. Value of Christians to the world. [13-16] II. ~ [Body of the Sermon.] 1. Value of the Mosaic Law. 2. Expositions of the Law: (1) Murder (2) Adultery (3) Profanity (4) Duty of Non-resistance (5) Principle underlying all law— Love. 3. Means of grace. (1) Charitable deeds (2) Prayer (3) Fasting. 4. Motives of the Christian life (1) True riches (2) Sincerity of purpose (3) Faith (4) Reluctance to condemn (5) Christian reticence or self respect . It. [Conclusion.] (1) Warnings to the Christians (2) Warnings to the hypocrites (3) Illustration: The house built on the Rock. How necessary to salvation is obedi ence to God’s Law! Rev. R. Seymour, of Chicago, writes: In your issue of February 22 appears an unfair statement from Bishop G. W. Clinton relative to me, giving the rea son why Zion did not secure the Rail road Chapel in Chicago. He leads the public to believe that Seymour was the cause of Zion not getting it. After I came to Chicago in September I received an option on the property for Zion which I sent to Dr. Goler to siga, and then sent it to Bishop Clinton. That indenture held good until January 15th, and had I told the company a hundred times that Zion did not want the prop erty, that would have amounted to nothing, if they had come with the money on or before the option expired. I am accused of something that I am no more guilty of than a man who never heard of the affair. Kindly publish this. Bishop Hood’s Appointments. Mch 18th.Brooklyn, N.Y “j 20th.. Mamaroneck “ 21st....... Port Chester “ 23rd..New Haven “ 25th, at night, Bridgeport, Conn “ 28th, “ 29th " 30tb Waterbary Providenc Derby ) - any IS REV. JONES RIGHT? “Some General Rules, etc.,” Reviewed. GEO. CLINTON CLEMENT. For several weeks a series of articles upon the General Rules coming from the pen of our good & friend and brother, Rev. E. D. W Jones has solicited attention in the Star. It seems from a careful reading of these same articles that the writer is seriously impressed with what he deems the “irrelevancy” of many of the specifications in • the aforesaid Rules; and being de sirous of conferring a benefit up on the Church of to-day and also of bequeathing a gracious love to posterity. Bro. Jones proceeds to set forth in general and in par ticular the defects as he sees them. He draws our sympathy, if for no other reason than that his articles express the fullness of his heart. Recognizing that such a discussion would being criticism, he declares his willingness to receive all the execrations that may be -hurled against him—provided his paper helps the Church. We accept what he says in good faith and presume that the pur pose is to advance the Kingdom of Christ, at least so much of it as is embodied in the A. M. E. Zion Church. It is with the same friendly and loyal intentions that we attempt to examine his recent contribution “Some General Rules etc.” remaps wnile iSro. Jones was writing it did not occur to him that the Church is not to be classed with other institutions. There is no such thing as progressive Christianity, subjectively, surely not, as a system of religion, with basic tents and principles the Church does not admit of change nor can it be improved. It is the perfect creature of an infinitely perfect mind. The earliest formulated Rules of this same Church are found in Exodus the ?0th chapter—I re fold to the Ten Commandments. Now our brother proceeds to brand the rules of the A. M. E. Zion Church as superfluous and incompetent because^ as he de clares.) They are antiquated and disregarded. Is that a valid rea son 1 Certainly not. The Dec alogue is rather ancient. It was not yesterday that Linai trembled while the breath of the Almighty traced the “Thou Shalt” upon the quivering stone, and yet Christ himself declared that heaven and earth shall sooner pass away than that one jot or tittle of the law should. Again suppose our General Rules are not heeded—admit that they are daily broken; still such a condition does not mofe the obso leteness and inrrelevancy of the rules themselves “Thou shalt not steal,” is just as binding to day as (Continued on fifth page.)
The Star of Zion (Charlotte, N.C.)
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March 15, 1900, edition 1
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