Article November 8, 1900 Issue

Religious Items

Under the head of "The Secret of Happiness," the Christian Advocate quotes the answers of the Emperors of Germany, Austria, and Russia, and the Prince of Wales to the question as to whom each of them envies. All professed weariness of their distinction, and the editor adds this comment of his own: "A life governed by a noble principle, a heart at peace with God, a nature in which no passion rules, but all unite to subserve the higher purposes of our being, a love for humanity as such, a few real friends, an occupation pleasing in itself or made so by a lively appreciation of good results, a happy combination of mental and physical activity with days polluted by no sin, vice, or crime, and nights given to earned sleep,— these are the elements of happiness. A true philosophy and a true religious experience can make a virtuous king happy."

E. T. Hiscox, D.D., writing on the subject "Clergy and Laity not Primitive," says in the (Baptist) Standard: "When persecution scattered the early disciples, they went everywhere preaching Christ. They all preached the gospel. That is, they proclaimed Christ, as the Messiah and the Saviour of men. They told the simple story of what Jesus had done for them, as the Samaritan woman told her neighbors, and the demoniac of Gadara published it through all that region, and even as those whom Jesus commanded to silence, published his wonderful works so much the more. Will the time ever come when all whom Christ has saved shall preach him to the world as they did at the first? If it does, we shall have not only more preaching, but better preaching. It will be out of personal experience."

Discussing the question of the present influence of the pulpit, the (Episcopalian) Church Standard says: "The preaching to which our Lord sent his disciples was a preaching of the Kingdom of God; their teaching was to be such teaching of the Kingdom as they had heard from his own lips. Now, if any man will compare the 'powerful preaching' of last century and of the first part of the present century, with the preaching of Christ, he will find a marvelous difference between the two. Our Lord proclaimed the Good News of the Kingdom; the 'great preachers.' with hardly an exception, ten times as much on the bad news of hell as our Lord ever did."

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