Page 104 - History of UB Church by A. Funkhouser Ver 1
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representative, Dr. Lewis, that "our first and chief business is to provide for the organic union of
these three bodies;" and later, as a member of the Committee on Polity, both at Pittsburgh and at
Chicago, to share in a small way in the adoption of the Plan of Union, in a very large measure, your
plan of union, which was presented to the churches interested with so much promise for good to
our common Zion. So that having met with these your representatives and having learned to know
your spirit, and having familiarized myself with your people and church life, I am not among
strangers; for indeed I feel like repeating the words of our church founders almost a century and a
half ago—when though strangers, after a heart-searching sermon full of the unction of the Holy
Spirit by the Mennonite preacher, Martin Boehm, a man of small stature and plain garb, the
stalwart and scholarly German Reformed Otterbein with brimming heart and tear-filled eyes, put
his arms about the speaker and exclaimed "We are brethren."
All of these efforts and plans for closer relationship between our churches have had, from the
beginning, our heartiest approval, and our hopes have been high for realization of this forward step
in the meaning of God's forces for the overthrow of sin and wickedness in high places. And my
conviction to-day is that the discontinuance of these efforts for union is most foolish, if not
criminal.
And in this, without a single exception, to the best of my knowledge, on every occasion when
the question has been voted on, in Annual or General Conference, these sentiments echo the
expressed will of our people.
But Christian people do foolish things. We maintain schools and colleges, build churches and
employ pastors, conduct Sunday schools and Young People's Societies to train, culture and save
our children and make of them good men and women, and then we authorize others by law to
destroy our work, degrade and ruin our children; and we build jails and penitentiaries and hire
officers to harvest this crop of destruction, the result of legislation winked at and supported by
Christians.
The Protestant Church in the United States to whom is committed now, as in the past, the
salvation of our people and the making of the greatest nation on the earth, and, through this
nation, to reach every other people on the globe, has divided, according to Dr. Carroll, our religious
census enumerator, into 141 denominations or sects, each more or less against the other, and this
too in the face of the united hosts of darkness. If the Apostle Paul who begs us to "have the mind
which was in Christ Jesus, were writing us now, would he not say, "Oh! foolish brethren, who hath
bewitched you?" Should we not pray, and that right earnestly, like the fellow falling from the high
bridge: "Lord, have mercy, and have it quick!"
What wasted strength, what a weakening of our forces, what a dissipation of our vital
resources!
The tendency of the age is toward organization and consolidation. The trend towards
centralization is universal. These are the days of integration. The day of individual initiative and
effort and great achievement is past. We are in the era of world-wide movement. The world has
become a great community, from all parts of which we may hear daily, and every man has become
our brother. The problems to be solved and the tasks to be done are so large that it takes great
agencies to accomplish them,—not in commercial life only,—but also in the social, educational,
political and religious worlds, the watch words are "Organization" and "Combination!" And is it not
the whole aim of the gospel and will it not be a glorious achievement to put one spirit, the spirit of
our Christ into the whole human family?
Who is urging this union? Jesus, the head of the Church. His last prayer on earth was that "they
might be one." The Holy Spirit is our inspiration and our guide. His first coming was to the disciples
who were in one place and with one accord, and his perpetual ministry is to build us up together.
Common sense and good judgment appeal to us to be as wise in religious affairs as the children of
the world are in business matters; to mass our forces and push the conquest of Satan's kingdom,
never so aggressive and defiant as now.
Our laymen are eager to see the methods of practical efficiency applied to the work of the
churches. The logic of facts is that of such a proposal. They want the comrade touch of shoulder to
shoulder in company rank, the force of the regiment, the strategic power of the well placed
Chapter XXIII 104 Sketch of A.P.
Funkhowser
these three bodies;" and later, as a member of the Committee on Polity, both at Pittsburgh and at
Chicago, to share in a small way in the adoption of the Plan of Union, in a very large measure, your
plan of union, which was presented to the churches interested with so much promise for good to
our common Zion. So that having met with these your representatives and having learned to know
your spirit, and having familiarized myself with your people and church life, I am not among
strangers; for indeed I feel like repeating the words of our church founders almost a century and a
half ago—when though strangers, after a heart-searching sermon full of the unction of the Holy
Spirit by the Mennonite preacher, Martin Boehm, a man of small stature and plain garb, the
stalwart and scholarly German Reformed Otterbein with brimming heart and tear-filled eyes, put
his arms about the speaker and exclaimed "We are brethren."
All of these efforts and plans for closer relationship between our churches have had, from the
beginning, our heartiest approval, and our hopes have been high for realization of this forward step
in the meaning of God's forces for the overthrow of sin and wickedness in high places. And my
conviction to-day is that the discontinuance of these efforts for union is most foolish, if not
criminal.
And in this, without a single exception, to the best of my knowledge, on every occasion when
the question has been voted on, in Annual or General Conference, these sentiments echo the
expressed will of our people.
But Christian people do foolish things. We maintain schools and colleges, build churches and
employ pastors, conduct Sunday schools and Young People's Societies to train, culture and save
our children and make of them good men and women, and then we authorize others by law to
destroy our work, degrade and ruin our children; and we build jails and penitentiaries and hire
officers to harvest this crop of destruction, the result of legislation winked at and supported by
Christians.
The Protestant Church in the United States to whom is committed now, as in the past, the
salvation of our people and the making of the greatest nation on the earth, and, through this
nation, to reach every other people on the globe, has divided, according to Dr. Carroll, our religious
census enumerator, into 141 denominations or sects, each more or less against the other, and this
too in the face of the united hosts of darkness. If the Apostle Paul who begs us to "have the mind
which was in Christ Jesus, were writing us now, would he not say, "Oh! foolish brethren, who hath
bewitched you?" Should we not pray, and that right earnestly, like the fellow falling from the high
bridge: "Lord, have mercy, and have it quick!"
What wasted strength, what a weakening of our forces, what a dissipation of our vital
resources!
The tendency of the age is toward organization and consolidation. The trend towards
centralization is universal. These are the days of integration. The day of individual initiative and
effort and great achievement is past. We are in the era of world-wide movement. The world has
become a great community, from all parts of which we may hear daily, and every man has become
our brother. The problems to be solved and the tasks to be done are so large that it takes great
agencies to accomplish them,—not in commercial life only,—but also in the social, educational,
political and religious worlds, the watch words are "Organization" and "Combination!" And is it not
the whole aim of the gospel and will it not be a glorious achievement to put one spirit, the spirit of
our Christ into the whole human family?
Who is urging this union? Jesus, the head of the Church. His last prayer on earth was that "they
might be one." The Holy Spirit is our inspiration and our guide. His first coming was to the disciples
who were in one place and with one accord, and his perpetual ministry is to build us up together.
Common sense and good judgment appeal to us to be as wise in religious affairs as the children of
the world are in business matters; to mass our forces and push the conquest of Satan's kingdom,
never so aggressive and defiant as now.
Our laymen are eager to see the methods of practical efficiency applied to the work of the
churches. The logic of facts is that of such a proposal. They want the comrade touch of shoulder to
shoulder in company rank, the force of the regiment, the strategic power of the well placed
Chapter XXIII 104 Sketch of A.P.
Funkhowser
