Article July 31, 1902 ISSUE

Religious Items

with contributions from Hannah More, G. Peabody

The following words, spoken at a funeral service, are attributed in the St. Louis Globe Democrat to Rev. Dr. Edmund Duckworth, rector of St. James Memorial Church, and said to have "surprised some of his auditors and impressed them as being something out of the ordinary:"—

"On the authority of the sacred teachings, it may be said that righteous conduct and living is infinitely more acceptable in the sight of God than hymns of praise, songs of gladness, and elaborate and expensive rituals. The righteous people who win eternal life are not all Church members. God's flock and God's family must not be measured by the Church lists. The faithful followers of the Churches are doing a good work in promoting the aims of their Churches and assisting in their forms, but these formal acts are only subsidiary to the great essentials; they are not the required things that separate the just from the unjust. The Church members are not the whole of God's family. God has a people who are hidden in this helpful neighbors and loyal citizens. They are the children of the Lord whether they attend the Churches or not. Their manifestations are not the manifestations of loud professions, fervid prayers, and wild exhortations, but loyalty to justice, purity, and righteousness. They are of God's family because they are righteous and shall live forever.

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