The Rev. E. Winchester Donald delivered the address in Appleton Chapel last evening. The sermon dealt chiefly with freedom in religion.
The natural man says that he does not understand the spiritual life and truth, and for this reason does not care for religion. Christ lived for all men and not for the Jews alone, and they denied Christ for the very reason that he would not confine himself to them alone. In the same way God is always seeking and claiming us all, and calls us his own. The fruits of the spirit are manifest in those men who have nothing to do with the church and are in no way connected with it. However, in these same men is found lacking that uniformity and spiritual responsiveness which is so necessary toward the character of the spiritual man. The natural man who claims that he cannot understand all the outward forms and feels himself therefore a sort of outcast is taken at his words too often. There are few, who though not understanding some of the forms, do not feel deeply the influence of our church. We of one church, in all justice, have no right to insist that the tests of other churches are the same as those of our own. To any Christian organization perfect loyalty must be extended, for it is our duty to reach out to everybody as a Christian. Neither must we condemn a non church-going man. Often he cannot understand the forms of the church and stays away; yet he believes implicitly in Christ and wants him for a friend. For him there is no real need of all that is outward and formal but he must cleave to the right and shun wrong with unswerving steadiness. Finally the natural man is he to whom duty and truth are foolishness; to the spiritual man they are everything and the lesson for us all to learn from this is always to recognize God's children where and in whatever state we find them.
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Final Examinations Monday.