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.

Feeble Saints.—It is an amusing distortion of a good hymn, but there was not a little sound philosophy in it when the old negro preacher sang, "Judge not the Lord precisely what the great majority of unconverted men are doing all the time. They will not go to the Bible and give heed to what God Himself says. They have no ear for His voice of mercy that offers them salvation for the taking. They do not pay any attention to the solemn warnings that the Scriptures utter. They judge the Lord by "feeble saints." They attempt to feed their starving souls on the imperfections of Christians—poor food enough they find it! Because God's people are not all that they ought to be, therefore these cavilers will keep aloof from the religion which they profess. Because God's believing followers are not perfect—they do not claim to be—therefore, say these unbelievers, there is no power in religion. Christians cannot claim exemption from criticism. They do not expect it. They know that the eyes of the world are upon them. But they say to the believer, "If you would know the truth go to the Word; go to him who is the truth; judge not the Lord by feeble saints."

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