In Temptation, Look to the Saviour's Greater Glory

Ohio, 1902

Discussed by Rector of All Saints Church Sunday

Church Members Should Pray Over Their Amusements — Where to Draw Line

Rev. J. D. Herron, of All Saints Episcopal church, preached Sunday morning on the "Temptations of Christ." His sermon was a timely one, treating as it did of amusements of the day. After treating of the "lust of the flesh" and the only hope for the drunkard he spoke as follows on the "lust of the eye" and the "pride of life."

The lust of the eye, the power of the world to make us forget God, to make us worship and serve the creature more than the Creator, to choke us with cares and riches and pleasures, so that we may bring no fruit to perfection, this lust, what life is there which has not felt its blight?

It is a hard temptation to decline, for it changes with the circumstances of each life. It is not the same for any two individuals. There are sources of temptation to every life. All seek naturally after pleasure. Pleasures are not evil in themselves, but all of them, when touching upon our bad hearts, are prime causes of evil. People say that they must have pleasures, that it is a natural hunger of the heart, and they say rightly. But pleasure has its limits. To escape the poison of worldly lust, it must be sanctified by the word of God and by prayer.

Do dancing, card playing, theatre-going, croquet, billiards, lawn tennis, novel reading, music, painting, gossiping, lunching interfere with the flow of your religious life, benumb your soul from prayer, from desire for the Holy Feast, from thoughts of Heaven, from meditations upon the life and the love of Jesus? "If thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out and cast it from thee, for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should be cast into Hell."

Do you ask, how can we draw the line? How can we know when these pleasures of life are hurtful to us? Would it not be better for the church to give us rules, and tell us what we may do, and what we should not do? Dear friends! the Saviour gave us no rules. He gave us simply himself. Let the Holy Feast of the altar, where He comes to meet you, be your guide. For there you will be with the Saviour upon the top of an exceeding high mountain, the mountain of human aspiration, from which the evil one has been dethroned, and as the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them pass before your imagination, the vision of a greater glory will fill the eye of your soul.

—The Portsmouth Times, Portsmouth, Ohio, Feb. 22, 1902, p. 7.