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THE K I N G ' S B U S I NE S S
EMASCULATED CHRISTIANITY As I was passing Queen’s Chapel in Boston, I saw a notice that at noon there .would be a sermon and musical recital. It went in and found about fifty people scattered among the high pews, sitting in dead silence. Back of the pulpit I saw the figure of Christ in stained glass with a halo about His head, and the chalice on a table in front of Him. Below the picture was a cross. I remembered that before 1776 that haloed figure of Christ meant to the worshippers in Queen’s Chapel God Incarnate before whom they bowed the knee in adoration and praise. That chalice meant the atoning blood of a Savior whose sacrificial death had forever removed the guilt and defile ment of their sins. That cross was the symbol of a complete salvation wrought out for them on Calvary. . Now the halo means that Christ, a mere man, was a little better than other men: the chalice means that wine was at that day the usual drink of the people, and we may today substitute water for it at the Lord’s Supper; the cross means that Jesus died a martyr to a noble mission, simply setting us an example as todiow we ought to live and die. I sat in the silence, waiting for the preacher to begin and wondering what he could say, worth while, with all the fundamentals of Christianity eliminated from his creed. His text gave promise of something, for it was Acts 7:55: “ But Stephen, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up steadfastly into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing on the right hand of God.” But from this great text he gave the tiniest little bit of a sermonette in which he told us that Stephen and Saul were two young men with different points of view. Stephen saw heaven, and Saul saw only hatred, which prompted him to persecute those whose opinions were different from his. He urged us, therefore, to be careful about our points of view. There was no semblance of power. As I glanced through the “ Queen’s Chapel” hymn book, which I found in the pew, I wondered if there was anything better in that; and among the first hymns my eyes rested upon was, “ Come, Thou Almighty King, Help us Thy name to sing;” but the second verse, “ Come Thou Incarnate Word,” has been changed to “ Come, Thou all-graciolis Lord,” and the last verse, “ Come, Thou Great One in Three,” is omitted altogether. I felt as if I had met an old friend whose heart has been torn out and his face so disfigured as to make him almost unrecognizable. When the little sermonette was finished, the people began to pour in for the organ rehearsal, and in a few minutes the room was well filled. It looked as if they knew that there was nothing worth coming for before the music began. Before the Revolution Queen’s Chapel pulpit was occupied by men who gave to Christ the crown of Deity; but during the Revolution Episcopal rectors, as representing the Church of England, were in bad odor with the colonists, and most of .them returned to the mother country. Queen’s Chapel was closed as a church, but was used as a storehouse for Govern ment supplies. After the Revolution a few former members met and, under the leadership of a young Unitarian preacher, every reference to the .Deity of Christ in the Book of Common Prayer was eliminated; and
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