When the Ericsson Monitor steamed up Hampton Roads, rebels laughed and our fleet were in great alarm, expecting complete destruction by the iron-clad Merrimac. She had already destroyed several ships. Now, what the rebels called the Yankee cheese box puts in her appearance just in time to save the balance of the fleet from utter destruction. The Monitor had a power out of sight that deceived those that merely saw the outside. This is true of our beloved church. When first launched, she was called a Cheese box—a Dug-out—an old Scow—a Theatre, and many other names she received. Nevertheless,wherever this life-boat touched in former days she took passengers aboard, some from the hedges, lanes, by-ways, the poor, the lame, the halt, the blind, and many from other churches; and with former equipments, rebels are taken upon all seas for King Emanuel—even to-day.
It is an acknowledged fact, past and present, that the F. M. church has been of untold value to all other evangelical bodies, and to Christianity in particular—especially in the United States.It has caused them to consider in a new light the claims that God had upon His people, that holiness of heart and life was binding upon all. I have heard some of the most eminent for piety and usefulness in other churches say that above stated; and that they hoped the free church would continue to succeed, because of the great value she had been to them.
Her position as standard-bearer in all the moral reforms of the day, gives her a prominent position. Our schools, papers, periodicals, are all on that line. Other church papers have often used our editorials, but did not always give due credit.
We are under great obligation to the Almighty, for the schools that have been raised up to us; where the young may be educated in a pure atmosphere, and from these schools many are going out to bless the world with a richer experience; a life more completely consecrated, educated, mentally, morally, socially, and physically. In the moral and social rank, we claim the pre-eminence for our schools and for our literature. There was, and there is, and there will continue to be, a need, for a people to do just this kind of work; and while we continue humble and obedient, God will use us to this end. “But if we forsake Him, He will forsake us.” If we turn aside to other Gods, He will cast us forth as a branch that is withered, and we shall be like other nations.
One of the most wide spread evils of the day, filthy in all its make up, disgusting in the extreme to a clean, well-bred person, robbing men of their manhood, and of their mental and physical powers, is tobacco. Forty years ago it was considered ungentlemanly to smoke in the presence of ladies, but now, in almost every mode of travel, on the street, in the stores, and in nearly all public places, ladies and all are insulted by the filthy fumes of the pipe or cigar, compounded with decayed teeth, and the deadly Upas of the saloon, forming a drug that produces mental derangement, insanity, crime, pauperism, poverty and shortens the life of its victims. The use of tobacco is a bar to membership in the F. M. C. In this, she stands supremely above all other churches. She is doing a glorious work in making war on tobacco, and exposing its effects on the human system. It has been said that some of our preachers were raised up to make tobacco a specialty, as it occupied a corner in every sermon regardless of the text. Well, suppose that is true, is it not a fact that all reformers dwell on the thing that needs reforming? Perhaps this class of preachers are better acquainted with this evil in its length and breadth, and know by a blessed experience the source of deliverance from the habit, and all longing after the same. Such preaching is worth a great deal more than that from those who never knew by experience the power of the habit, and the virtue of the blood that cleanseth from all sin, and all desire for the unclean.
Fashion brings its devotees into servile compliance with its most debasing demands. Those that wear this yoke, are lost, to that which makes humanity lovely, good and beautiful. A remark so commonly made, “that you might as well be out of the world as out of fashion,” is true of this class.
In adhering to this tyrant, millions of women and men have been ruined for life. Those that have labored to live so as to equal or go beyond certain others in matters of equipage, have been compelled to abandon, in order to meet fashion’s demands, the honest mode of life, and resort to fraud and speculation to obtain what their souls lusted after.
Our jails, and portions of Canada, are largely made up of that class. The pressure brought upon men to supply the wife and daughters with fashion’s demands, have driven them to the lodge, the gambling hell, the brothel—and the worst of all—the saloon! What can be more appalling than a lady martyred to fashion? from head to foot out of shape—distorted—compressed—pulled out—cut off in trying to fit the fashion plate. Alas! Alas! We are imitative beings. In this the poor ape the rich so far as they are able. If they cannot wear the glittering gems of great value, they will decorate themselves with shoddy finery. Is it not time to call a halt to this wicked, ungodly mode of life? For any man or woman to come out from this style of things, and endorse plainness in dress, and righteousness all the way through by precept and example, requires a holy heart, filled with love divine. And this manner of life pays bountifully in this present world, and will in the world to come, even life everlasting. During the past fifty years I have noticed those that the Lord blessed the most, and were the most useful in the church and world around them, were that class that conscientiously carried out in their lives the Apostolic plan already referred to.
There is much connected with fashionable attire that is supremely wicked. First, the cost of the material; secondly, precious time spent in its making; thirdly, the wearing of such is in violation of the word of the Lord. 1 Peter 3:3, 4. The only organized opposition to this mode of life is the Free Methodist church. She has stood like a beacon light for nearly thirty years, warning men and women of their imminent danger.
Holiness unto the Lord—is the key to the arch that spans the temple of the living God. It is that which gives symmetry to life and character, a state that we enter into when the soul has been swept and garnished by the Holy Ghost and the blood of the Lamb, which greatly enlarges our views of Christ and His powers to save, that brings perpetual sunshine to the soul, that makes earth a paradise, that causes flowers to bloom in the desert, and the water of life to spring from the flinty rock, and the heart of the needy to rejoice with joy that is unspeakable and full of glory. It is food to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, and comfort to the weary and heavy laden. It is full of hope; big with immortality. Over this boundless plain comes the odor of Eden, fresh from the throne of God. This holiness is a state, an experience, “where only Christ is heard to speak, where Jesus reigns alone.”