1900
A teacher, wishing to impress upon the minds of her pupils the full nature of faith, took them one day to the riverside and, seeing a boat in the middle of the stream, said:
"Now, my little dears, if I were to tell you that there was a leg of mutton in that boat, would you believe me?"
"Yes."
"Well, then," she said, "that is faith."
Some time after the same children were going through an examination when the question was asked, "What is faith?" and all the class, as with one voice, shouted out, "A leg of mutton in a boat!"
Friday, February 29, 2008
Manna a Fungus
1900
It seems that in the present day Arabs who are obliged to traverse the sandy wastes of Arabia depend to a large extent upon "angel's food" both for themselves and for their camels. The manna is in reality a fungus which is found in great quantities on the sand after rain. Of a gray color and of the size of a pea, it has a pleasant, sweet taste, and although its analysis shows that it is by no means a perfect food, it is sufficiently rich in nitrogenous matter and carbohydrates to sustain life for a long period. — Chambers' Journal.
It seems that in the present day Arabs who are obliged to traverse the sandy wastes of Arabia depend to a large extent upon "angel's food" both for themselves and for their camels. The manna is in reality a fungus which is found in great quantities on the sand after rain. Of a gray color and of the size of a pea, it has a pleasant, sweet taste, and although its analysis shows that it is by no means a perfect food, it is sufficiently rich in nitrogenous matter and carbohydrates to sustain life for a long period. — Chambers' Journal.
What Should Ministers Preach?
1900
An opinion as to what ministers should teach in from The Presbyterian:
Perhaps better and larger gains from the world would follow if ministers not only expected, but taught their people to expect, conversions through the ordinary preaching of the word. We have got so much into the habit of awaiting the arrival of the evangelist or of relying upon spasmodic and special revival work that we do not either look or work for the salvation of souls in ordinary church conditions.
God is not confined to extraordinary operations. He has his regular agencies. He has promised to bless them where faith, earnestness and energy accompany them. Healthy developments in Christian activity and in religious life greatly justify God and advance his kingdom.
An opinion as to what ministers should teach in from The Presbyterian:
Perhaps better and larger gains from the world would follow if ministers not only expected, but taught their people to expect, conversions through the ordinary preaching of the word. We have got so much into the habit of awaiting the arrival of the evangelist or of relying upon spasmodic and special revival work that we do not either look or work for the salvation of souls in ordinary church conditions.
God is not confined to extraordinary operations. He has his regular agencies. He has promised to bless them where faith, earnestness and energy accompany them. Healthy developments in Christian activity and in religious life greatly justify God and advance his kingdom.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
A Heifer on Her Haunches
1918
The speaker in the evening was Dr. Leon Tucker, whose subject was "A Heifer on Her Haunches." In his address, Dr. Tucker compared wayward mankind with the heifer of the ark which was unwilling to be a sacrifice on the altar of the Lord and only by force gave itself up. Dr. Tucker emphasized the need of workers to go out "into the highways and the byways of life" in Christian teaching, and in response to a call for those who would devote their lives wholly to the work of Christ, some 150 young people pledged themselves to do so.
—Racine Journal-News, Racine, Wisconsin, Nov. 11, 1918, p. 11.
1916
A Treat Promised
Dr. Tucker to Preach at Presbyterian Church Sunday
W. Leon Tucker will be the preacher at the Presbyterian church tomorrow at both services. His subject in the morning will be "A Corrupt Leper and Two Clean Birds." His subject in the evening will be "A Heifer Upon Its Haunches." This will be the last opportunity for Tyronians to hear this wonderful Bible teacher.
—Tyrone Daily Herald, Tyrone, PA, Nov. 11, 1916, p. 2.
1917
REFORMED
Dr. W. Leon Tucker will preach to the two congregations, the Presbyterian and the Reformed, in the Presbyterian church at the morning service. In the evening he will preach to the two congregations in the Reformed church. His topic in the evening will be "A Heifer on its Haunches." This is a wonderful sermon and should be heard by everybody. The usual church offerings will be taken, at the morning service, but the offering in the evening will be for Dr. Tucker. Dr. Tucker will also give one of his lectures in the Reformed church Sunday afternoon at 2:30 o'clock.
—Daily Gazette, Xenia, Ohio, Jan. 13, 1917, p. 3.
1921
In Lima Churches Sunday
First Baptist, High and McDonald Sts, Warren L. Steeves, minister. Morning service at 10:30, subject, "A Heifer on Her Haunches."
—Lima News, Lima, Ohio, July 9, 1921, p. 4.
Note: No mention of Dr. Tucker being there. There was a book called "A Heifer on Its Haunches and Other Sermons" by Dr. Tucker, and he published numerous other books.
The speaker in the evening was Dr. Leon Tucker, whose subject was "A Heifer on Her Haunches." In his address, Dr. Tucker compared wayward mankind with the heifer of the ark which was unwilling to be a sacrifice on the altar of the Lord and only by force gave itself up. Dr. Tucker emphasized the need of workers to go out "into the highways and the byways of life" in Christian teaching, and in response to a call for those who would devote their lives wholly to the work of Christ, some 150 young people pledged themselves to do so.
—Racine Journal-News, Racine, Wisconsin, Nov. 11, 1918, p. 11.
1916
A Treat Promised
Dr. Tucker to Preach at Presbyterian Church Sunday
W. Leon Tucker will be the preacher at the Presbyterian church tomorrow at both services. His subject in the morning will be "A Corrupt Leper and Two Clean Birds." His subject in the evening will be "A Heifer Upon Its Haunches." This will be the last opportunity for Tyronians to hear this wonderful Bible teacher.
—Tyrone Daily Herald, Tyrone, PA, Nov. 11, 1916, p. 2.
1917
REFORMED
Dr. W. Leon Tucker will preach to the two congregations, the Presbyterian and the Reformed, in the Presbyterian church at the morning service. In the evening he will preach to the two congregations in the Reformed church. His topic in the evening will be "A Heifer on its Haunches." This is a wonderful sermon and should be heard by everybody. The usual church offerings will be taken, at the morning service, but the offering in the evening will be for Dr. Tucker. Dr. Tucker will also give one of his lectures in the Reformed church Sunday afternoon at 2:30 o'clock.
—Daily Gazette, Xenia, Ohio, Jan. 13, 1917, p. 3.
1921
In Lima Churches Sunday
First Baptist, High and McDonald Sts, Warren L. Steeves, minister. Morning service at 10:30, subject, "A Heifer on Her Haunches."
—Lima News, Lima, Ohio, July 9, 1921, p. 4.
Note: No mention of Dr. Tucker being there. There was a book called "A Heifer on Its Haunches and Other Sermons" by Dr. Tucker, and he published numerous other books.
Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Exploring Our Friends
1915
One day I found an exquisite clump of sweet violets hiding in the very heart of a bed of nettles! And I think this discovery gave me more pleasure than those I found in the protective company of the harmless ivy! That is what Froude tells us he found in Thomas Carlyle. That is what we should find in one another, if only we had eager, patient, and love-washed eyes.
Human life is not all nettles; to affirm it is the perverted judgment of the cynic; they who have a passion for God will find the Godlike everywhere; they will find the violets of moral loveliness even in the midst of the noisome waste. And when they have found them their fellow searchers shall hear an exultant shout and they shall come together, and in the gracious discovery there shall be a common rejoicing in the truth. — J. H. Jowett, D. D., in the Christian Herald.
One day I found an exquisite clump of sweet violets hiding in the very heart of a bed of nettles! And I think this discovery gave me more pleasure than those I found in the protective company of the harmless ivy! That is what Froude tells us he found in Thomas Carlyle. That is what we should find in one another, if only we had eager, patient, and love-washed eyes.
Human life is not all nettles; to affirm it is the perverted judgment of the cynic; they who have a passion for God will find the Godlike everywhere; they will find the violets of moral loveliness even in the midst of the noisome waste. And when they have found them their fellow searchers shall hear an exultant shout and they shall come together, and in the gracious discovery there shall be a common rejoicing in the truth. — J. H. Jowett, D. D., in the Christian Herald.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Development of Man
1911
Man does not develop in the highest sense until he comes into a conscious need of spiritual attainment, until there is a hungering and thirsting after the fruits of the spirit — gentleness, long suffering, goodness, temperance, love. — Rev. Gay Arthur Jamieson, New York.
Seed of the Church
The blood of the martyrs is the church, the giving up of life is at heart in all great movements, expiatory. — Rev. Allyn K. Foster, Baptist, Brooklyn.
Man does not develop in the highest sense until he comes into a conscious need of spiritual attainment, until there is a hungering and thirsting after the fruits of the spirit — gentleness, long suffering, goodness, temperance, love. — Rev. Gay Arthur Jamieson, New York.
Seed of the Church
The blood of the martyrs is the church, the giving up of life is at heart in all great movements, expiatory. — Rev. Allyn K. Foster, Baptist, Brooklyn.
Supremacy of the Soul
1911
Link soul with all that is worthy, with all that is true, with all that is good, with all that is noble and then when you go out into the world of nature you will be enabled to say, I have walked with God upon the hills and have seen each morn arise new, bathed in light of Paradise. — Rev. E. L. Powell, Louisville.
Love Your Enemies
The call from the great teacher to love even enemies is really a call to get acquainted with folks as they really are. — Rev. A. G. Singsen, Congregationalist, Providence.
Link soul with all that is worthy, with all that is true, with all that is good, with all that is noble and then when you go out into the world of nature you will be enabled to say, I have walked with God upon the hills and have seen each morn arise new, bathed in light of Paradise. — Rev. E. L. Powell, Louisville.
Love Your Enemies
The call from the great teacher to love even enemies is really a call to get acquainted with folks as they really are. — Rev. A. G. Singsen, Congregationalist, Providence.
Help Through Hindrance
1910
Out of the thing that is hardest, we often may get the greatest blessings. Out of the thing in your life by which you are nearly crushed, you are to have your grandest victory. Out of the thing that seems ready to conquer and destroy you, God wants to bring to you a faith that you never had before, and a revelation of his love and power that you never dreamed of. That very thing you thought a stumbling-stone, God means to make a pillow for your head, and a ladder of ascension to his very presence. — A. B. Simpson.
Unfailing Trust
What a serene and quiet life you might lead if you would leave providing to the God of providence! With a little oil in the cruse, and a handful of meal in the barrel, Elijah outlived the famine, and you will do the same. If God cares for you, why need you care too? Can you trust him for your soul, and not for your body? He has never refused to bear your burdens, he has never fainted under their weight. Come, then, soul! have done with fretful care, and leave all thy concerns in the hand of a gracious God. — C. H. Spurgeon.
Out of the thing that is hardest, we often may get the greatest blessings. Out of the thing in your life by which you are nearly crushed, you are to have your grandest victory. Out of the thing that seems ready to conquer and destroy you, God wants to bring to you a faith that you never had before, and a revelation of his love and power that you never dreamed of. That very thing you thought a stumbling-stone, God means to make a pillow for your head, and a ladder of ascension to his very presence. — A. B. Simpson.
Unfailing Trust
What a serene and quiet life you might lead if you would leave providing to the God of providence! With a little oil in the cruse, and a handful of meal in the barrel, Elijah outlived the famine, and you will do the same. If God cares for you, why need you care too? Can you trust him for your soul, and not for your body? He has never refused to bear your burdens, he has never fainted under their weight. Come, then, soul! have done with fretful care, and leave all thy concerns in the hand of a gracious God. — C. H. Spurgeon.
Pentecosts and Conversions
1910
When a revival has obtained many converts we commonly call it a Pentecost. The three thousand converts to Christianity were a result of what happened on that famous fiftieth day after the Great Passover, but they were not an essential of it; nor are Pentecosts always attended by conversions, though they are likely to be.
The narrative of that first Christian Pentecost is very simple and very wonderful. The conditions were these: A risen Christ, fully apprehended in his divine majesty, ardently loved for his marvelous gifts to men. His followers united in this understanding and love — not in a theological system, since there had been no time to form one, nor in ecclesiastical bonds, since there was happily as yet no ecclesiasticism to separate them; but they were united in love and in faith, which alone can unite men. Finally, Christ's followers, thus united, were all in one place, the physical basis of the spiritual miracle that was to follow. Those conditions being granted — and they are possible anywhere where there are Christians, If only two of them — what are the essentials of Pentecost? They are three.
First, Pentecost consisted of a sound from Heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, filling all the houses where the disciples were. What is essential in this? The sound of the wind? We can get it any day when the wind is blowing. We can imitate it any day when the wind is not blowing. The essential is that "from Heaven." The essential is the feeling of the other world, of supernatural power, of the divine moving upon the human.
The One Essential.
Second, Pentecost consisted of the mysterious light filling the room, centered in tongues of light flaming from each head. What is essential here? The actual vibrations of the ether? Surely not. Every living body, as the scientists are beginning to prove, gives out some light. What is essential is the spiritual clarity, the divine illumination, in the radiance of which men see what they have not before seen of themselves and God and God's universe.
Third, Pentecost consisted of the speaking with tongues. What is essential in this? That each heard his own language spoken from those previously one-languaged men? No, for they had heard their own language before, and would hear it again. The essential was that they heard "the wonderful works of God." It was what the disciples said that brought conviction, rather than the exceptional fact that each heard it said in his own tongue.
If these are the three Pentecost essentials, as I think they are, then we can have a Pentecost in any prayer meeting or Sunday school class or in the church on any Sunday morning, though only Christians are present, and only three or thirty of these and nowhere near three thousand. We can have a feeling of God's presence, and a clear vision of divine truth, and a free utterance of our spirits in view of God's presence and this new vision.
Same Joys Are Ours.
I am not denying the reality of the supernatural occurrences on the day of Pentecost. I believe in them wholly. I am not "spiritualizing them away." They may not occur to us in the same outward form, but I do believe that everything most precious and valuable in them occurs to us, and that the first Pentecost is a paradigm of the Pentecost that may be yours and mine today.
Nor will our Pentecost be less marvelous than Peter's and John's. To realize the presence of God is more wonderful than to hear the wind blow, though it blow from the skies of paradise. To see God's truth is more wonderful than the aura of any saint, and to speak of God's wonderful works in the English language to any set of Americans is as great a deed as to speak in a single breath all the tongues of Pentecost.
—Oelwein Daily Register, Oelwein, IA, Sept. 20, 1910, p. 3.
When a revival has obtained many converts we commonly call it a Pentecost. The three thousand converts to Christianity were a result of what happened on that famous fiftieth day after the Great Passover, but they were not an essential of it; nor are Pentecosts always attended by conversions, though they are likely to be.
The narrative of that first Christian Pentecost is very simple and very wonderful. The conditions were these: A risen Christ, fully apprehended in his divine majesty, ardently loved for his marvelous gifts to men. His followers united in this understanding and love — not in a theological system, since there had been no time to form one, nor in ecclesiastical bonds, since there was happily as yet no ecclesiasticism to separate them; but they were united in love and in faith, which alone can unite men. Finally, Christ's followers, thus united, were all in one place, the physical basis of the spiritual miracle that was to follow. Those conditions being granted — and they are possible anywhere where there are Christians, If only two of them — what are the essentials of Pentecost? They are three.
First, Pentecost consisted of a sound from Heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, filling all the houses where the disciples were. What is essential in this? The sound of the wind? We can get it any day when the wind is blowing. We can imitate it any day when the wind is not blowing. The essential is that "from Heaven." The essential is the feeling of the other world, of supernatural power, of the divine moving upon the human.
The One Essential.
Second, Pentecost consisted of the mysterious light filling the room, centered in tongues of light flaming from each head. What is essential here? The actual vibrations of the ether? Surely not. Every living body, as the scientists are beginning to prove, gives out some light. What is essential is the spiritual clarity, the divine illumination, in the radiance of which men see what they have not before seen of themselves and God and God's universe.
Third, Pentecost consisted of the speaking with tongues. What is essential in this? That each heard his own language spoken from those previously one-languaged men? No, for they had heard their own language before, and would hear it again. The essential was that they heard "the wonderful works of God." It was what the disciples said that brought conviction, rather than the exceptional fact that each heard it said in his own tongue.
If these are the three Pentecost essentials, as I think they are, then we can have a Pentecost in any prayer meeting or Sunday school class or in the church on any Sunday morning, though only Christians are present, and only three or thirty of these and nowhere near three thousand. We can have a feeling of God's presence, and a clear vision of divine truth, and a free utterance of our spirits in view of God's presence and this new vision.
Same Joys Are Ours.
I am not denying the reality of the supernatural occurrences on the day of Pentecost. I believe in them wholly. I am not "spiritualizing them away." They may not occur to us in the same outward form, but I do believe that everything most precious and valuable in them occurs to us, and that the first Pentecost is a paradigm of the Pentecost that may be yours and mine today.
Nor will our Pentecost be less marvelous than Peter's and John's. To realize the presence of God is more wonderful than to hear the wind blow, though it blow from the skies of paradise. To see God's truth is more wonderful than the aura of any saint, and to speak of God's wonderful works in the English language to any set of Americans is as great a deed as to speak in a single breath all the tongues of Pentecost.
—Oelwein Daily Register, Oelwein, IA, Sept. 20, 1910, p. 3.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
THE BEAM AND THE MOTE.
Matt. VII: 1-6.
Fault-finding is not in itself a sin; on the contrary, it is often a duty. The old Levitical law said: "Thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbor, and not suffer sin upon him." Under the New Testament law of love there is the exhortation: "Reprove, rebuke, with all long-suffering and doctrine;" but, as some one has well said, "A duty may become a sin if wrongfully done." The spirit of the Christian is the spirit of love and gentleness. Yet there are times when he must rebuke sin and take no compromising position in the presence of evil. To be censorious, however, is to be un-Christlike and disobedient to His wish.
There are certain thing to be said about mote-pulling and beam-pulling. The first is:
I. Take care that you get them in the right order. Beam-pulling comes first. "First cast out the beam that is in thine own eye." Following that simple direction would stop a lot of mote-pulling. "Physician, heal thy self." "Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest; for wherein thou judgest an other, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things."
II. Secondly, bear in mind that mote-pulling is dangerous business. In judging others we court judgment on ourselves. A Spanish proverb says: "If our faults were written on our foreheads we should have to go with out hats pulled over our eyes." Another familiar proverb says that "people who live in glass houses ought not to throw stones."
"Before you mark another's sin
Bid thine own conscience look within."
Mote-pulling is often the unconscious result of an unforgiving spirit. If we do not forgive others God cannot forgive us. So, both from his fellowmen and from God, there is danger to the man who judges his brother.
III. Thirdly, mote-pulling is frequently a very hypocritical performance. If we have studied ourselves carefully most of us have found that in proportion as we have become quick to discern the faults of others we have less and less discerned our own shortcomings. Frequently when we have found faults in others they were but reflections of faults in our own lives. "It takes a rogue to catch a rogue." There are a good many sins that, if we did not indulge so much ourselves, we would not see so plainly in others.
IV. Fourthly, mote-pulling is often times a most useless performance. It certainly is useless so long as there is plainly visible inconsistency, in our own lives.
V. Therefore, mote-puller, take care. It is a delicate matter to pluck a mote or a cinder out of an inflamed eye. Take care how you do it. First be sure your hands are clean. That does not mean we must live sinless lives before we begin to help others; but it does mean that we must be right with God, and right with our fellowmen. Take care that you do your mote-pulling very tenderly and gently, also. It requires a great art of tact and tenderness to help a brother by finding fault with him, though it can be done.
VI. Before your begin change places. It is best to begin that way; for you will have to change places before you get through. "For with what measure ye mete it shall be measured unto you again." As a man soweth in his judgment of others, so shall he reap.
VII. Put on charity as a garment. Recognizing the danger, the delicacy, the importance of the work; being in right relations with God and with your fellowmen; resolve on great tact and tenderness, with a clear conscience, clean hands and clothed in the white robes of charity, you are in a condition, like Christ, to do good in the ministry of reproof. Do not forget this last condition: Put on charity as a garment. "Charity suffereth long" etc.
Fault-finding is not in itself a sin; on the contrary, it is often a duty. The old Levitical law said: "Thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbor, and not suffer sin upon him." Under the New Testament law of love there is the exhortation: "Reprove, rebuke, with all long-suffering and doctrine;" but, as some one has well said, "A duty may become a sin if wrongfully done." The spirit of the Christian is the spirit of love and gentleness. Yet there are times when he must rebuke sin and take no compromising position in the presence of evil. To be censorious, however, is to be un-Christlike and disobedient to His wish.
There are certain thing to be said about mote-pulling and beam-pulling. The first is:
I. Take care that you get them in the right order. Beam-pulling comes first. "First cast out the beam that is in thine own eye." Following that simple direction would stop a lot of mote-pulling. "Physician, heal thy self." "Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest; for wherein thou judgest an other, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things."
II. Secondly, bear in mind that mote-pulling is dangerous business. In judging others we court judgment on ourselves. A Spanish proverb says: "If our faults were written on our foreheads we should have to go with out hats pulled over our eyes." Another familiar proverb says that "people who live in glass houses ought not to throw stones."
"Before you mark another's sin
Bid thine own conscience look within."
Mote-pulling is often the unconscious result of an unforgiving spirit. If we do not forgive others God cannot forgive us. So, both from his fellowmen and from God, there is danger to the man who judges his brother.
III. Thirdly, mote-pulling is frequently a very hypocritical performance. If we have studied ourselves carefully most of us have found that in proportion as we have become quick to discern the faults of others we have less and less discerned our own shortcomings. Frequently when we have found faults in others they were but reflections of faults in our own lives. "It takes a rogue to catch a rogue." There are a good many sins that, if we did not indulge so much ourselves, we would not see so plainly in others.
IV. Fourthly, mote-pulling is often times a most useless performance. It certainly is useless so long as there is plainly visible inconsistency, in our own lives.
V. Therefore, mote-puller, take care. It is a delicate matter to pluck a mote or a cinder out of an inflamed eye. Take care how you do it. First be sure your hands are clean. That does not mean we must live sinless lives before we begin to help others; but it does mean that we must be right with God, and right with our fellowmen. Take care that you do your mote-pulling very tenderly and gently, also. It requires a great art of tact and tenderness to help a brother by finding fault with him, though it can be done.
VI. Before your begin change places. It is best to begin that way; for you will have to change places before you get through. "For with what measure ye mete it shall be measured unto you again." As a man soweth in his judgment of others, so shall he reap.
VII. Put on charity as a garment. Recognizing the danger, the delicacy, the importance of the work; being in right relations with God and with your fellowmen; resolve on great tact and tenderness, with a clear conscience, clean hands and clothed in the white robes of charity, you are in a condition, like Christ, to do good in the ministry of reproof. Do not forget this last condition: Put on charity as a garment. "Charity suffereth long" etc.
A GOOD MAN'S PERPLEXITIES IN VIEW OF THE MYSTERIES OF LIFE.
(By Benjamin D. Thomas, D. D., Toronto, Canada.)
"I have heard, but understand not: then said I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things? . . . Go thou this way till the end be: for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot in the end of the days." - Dan. 12:8,13.
We learn from this Scripture:
1. That the history of humanity is full of perplexities even to the good man.
Daniel felt it in this instance. David felt it. Job, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and all prophets felt it. No thoughtful soul has ever lived but has felt it. We seem to be standing beside this seer of a bygone age, looking into the same darkness, disturbed by the same mysterious, agonized by the same apprehensions. Life is full of anomalies and contradiction.
II. That even the good man must be satisfied to leave many of the problems that fill him with perplexity unsolved.
He cannot successfully grapple with them. They are immeasurably beyond his capacity. His relationship to God will serve to give him a better standard of judgment, will quicken thought, and enlarge the hemisphere of vision, but it will not serve to lift him out of his perplexities. He may be at rest because he knows that God is on the throne, but it will be the rest of faith, not of sight.
III. That the perplexities which present themselves in life must not be allowed to interfere with the good man's fulfillment of his duties and responsibilities.
"Go thou thy way till the end be." Your supreme business is not to know, but to do. It is not for the workmen who are engaged in the construction of a magnificent pile which is to be the wonder and admiration of the age to have a clear knowledge of the architectural ideal. All they need to know is how to use the tools that have been placed in their hands; all they need be anxious about is the particular piece of wall given them to build. They labor necessarily in the dark. All they need be assured of is that they are working under the guidance and inspiration of the great Master-Builder. Be true, be honest, be diligent, be faithful, fill the particular position into which Providence hath introduced you as well as it can be filled by the grace of God and the great Architect under whose superintendence the vast structure is being upreared will take care of the congruities and harmonies. Do not agitate yourself with questions which are beyond your capacity to understand. Do not permit the inexplicable and the perplexing in human phenomena to disquiet you. Do not obtrude into the domain of the Infinite. "Go thou thy way." Do thou thy work. Discharge thou with fidelity thy duty in the sphere into which Providence hath introduced thee. The mysteries and the incongruities, the anomalies and the perplexities, are not for thee to decipher and understand. "Go thou thy way till the end be."
IV. That there will be a period in the future when all that now perplexes the good man will be seen not to have been out of harmony with his best interests.
"For thou shalt rest and stand in thy lot at the end of the days." There is a momentous crisis toward which the whole of life is tending. Righteousness must be vindicated. The dark, mysterious, inexplicable, must be seen to have the light of an infinite beneficence flashing through them. If not, what is there to hope for? Then God is not a God of justice. Then the Bible has been luring us with. incentives only to culminate in anarchy and despair. As God liveth there must be a judgment, there must be a period in which wrong shall be righted, in which the false shall be uncovered and the true approved, in which the purpose of God shall shine forth commanding universal admiration, in which infinite love shall be seen to have been ever operant in the affairs of the universe. It must be so, else the whole scheme of life is in explicable and unutterably unjust.
When the great consummation shall come —.
(1.) The good man shall rest — no more shall there be experienced aught to disturb, to agitate, to perplex.
(2.) The good man shall stand in his lot — his character and circumstances will correspond. The good man's "lot and the end of days" will be worthy of the great Lord to whose grace he owes it.
The time is coming when the good man shall be lifted above all his perplexities, when he shall understand why he could not understand, and see why he could not see, and know what was aforetime unknowable.
"I have heard, but understand not: then said I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things? . . . Go thou this way till the end be: for thou shalt rest, and stand in thy lot in the end of the days." - Dan. 12:8,13.
We learn from this Scripture:
1. That the history of humanity is full of perplexities even to the good man.
Daniel felt it in this instance. David felt it. Job, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and all prophets felt it. No thoughtful soul has ever lived but has felt it. We seem to be standing beside this seer of a bygone age, looking into the same darkness, disturbed by the same mysterious, agonized by the same apprehensions. Life is full of anomalies and contradiction.
II. That even the good man must be satisfied to leave many of the problems that fill him with perplexity unsolved.
He cannot successfully grapple with them. They are immeasurably beyond his capacity. His relationship to God will serve to give him a better standard of judgment, will quicken thought, and enlarge the hemisphere of vision, but it will not serve to lift him out of his perplexities. He may be at rest because he knows that God is on the throne, but it will be the rest of faith, not of sight.
III. That the perplexities which present themselves in life must not be allowed to interfere with the good man's fulfillment of his duties and responsibilities.
"Go thou thy way till the end be." Your supreme business is not to know, but to do. It is not for the workmen who are engaged in the construction of a magnificent pile which is to be the wonder and admiration of the age to have a clear knowledge of the architectural ideal. All they need to know is how to use the tools that have been placed in their hands; all they need be anxious about is the particular piece of wall given them to build. They labor necessarily in the dark. All they need be assured of is that they are working under the guidance and inspiration of the great Master-Builder. Be true, be honest, be diligent, be faithful, fill the particular position into which Providence hath introduced you as well as it can be filled by the grace of God and the great Architect under whose superintendence the vast structure is being upreared will take care of the congruities and harmonies. Do not agitate yourself with questions which are beyond your capacity to understand. Do not permit the inexplicable and the perplexing in human phenomena to disquiet you. Do not obtrude into the domain of the Infinite. "Go thou thy way." Do thou thy work. Discharge thou with fidelity thy duty in the sphere into which Providence hath introduced thee. The mysteries and the incongruities, the anomalies and the perplexities, are not for thee to decipher and understand. "Go thou thy way till the end be."
IV. That there will be a period in the future when all that now perplexes the good man will be seen not to have been out of harmony with his best interests.
"For thou shalt rest and stand in thy lot at the end of the days." There is a momentous crisis toward which the whole of life is tending. Righteousness must be vindicated. The dark, mysterious, inexplicable, must be seen to have the light of an infinite beneficence flashing through them. If not, what is there to hope for? Then God is not a God of justice. Then the Bible has been luring us with. incentives only to culminate in anarchy and despair. As God liveth there must be a judgment, there must be a period in which wrong shall be righted, in which the false shall be uncovered and the true approved, in which the purpose of God shall shine forth commanding universal admiration, in which infinite love shall be seen to have been ever operant in the affairs of the universe. It must be so, else the whole scheme of life is in explicable and unutterably unjust.
When the great consummation shall come —.
(1.) The good man shall rest — no more shall there be experienced aught to disturb, to agitate, to perplex.
(2.) The good man shall stand in his lot — his character and circumstances will correspond. The good man's "lot and the end of days" will be worthy of the great Lord to whose grace he owes it.
The time is coming when the good man shall be lifted above all his perplexities, when he shall understand why he could not understand, and see why he could not see, and know what was aforetime unknowable.
THE LITTLE REMNANT.
"Except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah." Isaiah 1:9.
I. The Little Remnant in History.
1. The Jews were a small people, comparatively.
2. The power of God was made manifest in them throughout.
3. The little-minority—the hope of the world.
II. The Remnant Essential.
1. Abraham interceding for Sodom and Gomorrah.
2. Christianity saved the Roman Empire under Tacitus.
3. Christianity is the core of civilization.
III. The Method of the Survival of the Remnant.
1. Scattered to the four winds of the earth.
2. Scattering increases—as said Solomon.
3. The artist spends much time and material, etc.
4. The sculptor cuts away the stone, etc.
IV. The Gospel of the Remnant.
1. Good news to us today—the few have conquered.
2. Revolutions in creeds, theology, doctrine, society.
3. "Sifted as corn is sifted" (Amos), none lost.
V. The Remnant and the Individual.
1. The individual hates the remnant. Does not like to he classed with the minority.
2. Success depends on how we work the remnant — in others, in ourselves.
3. Make the most of the little good In your own life.
VI. The Remnant and the Other Fellow.
1. The animal of humanity.
2. Not yet entirely emerged from the savage state.
3. Yet there is goodness in every individual, after all.
4. Stand by the remnant of good in the other fellow.
5. Examine the remnants in your own life. How little of good in man, yet Christ died to save him.
6. Get nearer to your fellowmen and save him.
7. Remember the text and apply yourself to wisdom.
— REV. W. H. BAKER.
I. The Little Remnant in History.
1. The Jews were a small people, comparatively.
2. The power of God was made manifest in them throughout.
3. The little-minority—the hope of the world.
II. The Remnant Essential.
1. Abraham interceding for Sodom and Gomorrah.
2. Christianity saved the Roman Empire under Tacitus.
3. Christianity is the core of civilization.
III. The Method of the Survival of the Remnant.
1. Scattered to the four winds of the earth.
2. Scattering increases—as said Solomon.
3. The artist spends much time and material, etc.
4. The sculptor cuts away the stone, etc.
IV. The Gospel of the Remnant.
1. Good news to us today—the few have conquered.
2. Revolutions in creeds, theology, doctrine, society.
3. "Sifted as corn is sifted" (Amos), none lost.
V. The Remnant and the Individual.
1. The individual hates the remnant. Does not like to he classed with the minority.
2. Success depends on how we work the remnant — in others, in ourselves.
3. Make the most of the little good In your own life.
VI. The Remnant and the Other Fellow.
1. The animal of humanity.
2. Not yet entirely emerged from the savage state.
3. Yet there is goodness in every individual, after all.
4. Stand by the remnant of good in the other fellow.
5. Examine the remnants in your own life. How little of good in man, yet Christ died to save him.
6. Get nearer to your fellowmen and save him.
7. Remember the text and apply yourself to wisdom.
— REV. W. H. BAKER.
PURIFICATION BY FAITH.
Acts 15:9.
I. Why Does God Purify the Heart by Faith?
1. Man was ruined by believing the Devil, so God has planned that man shall be saved by believing on Christ.
2. Faith gives God the glory for our salvation through Christ. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son," etc.
II. What Is Faith?
1. Faith is a living conviction not only of the divinity of Jesus Christ, but of His efficiency and mission as our Saviour.
2. Such a conviction is not a mere assent to the truth that He died for our sins.
3. It is a trust from the heart in Jesus to now save me, to now lift me out of this horrible pit.
I. Why Does God Purify the Heart by Faith?
1. Man was ruined by believing the Devil, so God has planned that man shall be saved by believing on Christ.
2. Faith gives God the glory for our salvation through Christ. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son," etc.
II. What Is Faith?
1. Faith is a living conviction not only of the divinity of Jesus Christ, but of His efficiency and mission as our Saviour.
2. Such a conviction is not a mere assent to the truth that He died for our sins.
3. It is a trust from the heart in Jesus to now save me, to now lift me out of this horrible pit.
WHAT THE SHEPHERDS SAW IN THE CRADLE.
Luke 2:13-15.
We are told what the shepherds said: "Let us go even now unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass." And what did they see when they got there? This is the question we should ponder this Christmas morning.
I. They saw a Child through whom had come to man the greatest revelation of God.
II. They saw a child born to give earth the greatest revelation of man.
III. They saw Him who was born to be the world's Saviour.
IV. They saw a Child who was born to be the earth's greatest Teacher.
V. They saw a Child who alone had the right to the sovereignty of the world. Lowly, but King! Jesus, Son of man, Son of God! We worship Thee this morning. Amen. - Alpha.
We are told what the shepherds said: "Let us go even now unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass." And what did they see when they got there? This is the question we should ponder this Christmas morning.
I. They saw a Child through whom had come to man the greatest revelation of God.
II. They saw a child born to give earth the greatest revelation of man.
III. They saw Him who was born to be the world's Saviour.
IV. They saw a Child who was born to be the earth's greatest Teacher.
V. They saw a Child who alone had the right to the sovereignty of the world. Lowly, but King! Jesus, Son of man, Son of God! We worship Thee this morning. Amen. - Alpha.
THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT.
"Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift." — II. Cor. 9:15.
I. It is the best of gifts. The heart naturally yearns for love. "Greater love hath no man than this," etc. "Herein is love, not that we loved God," etc. "God so loved the world," etc.
II. Because it includes other gifts. Have you Christ? If you trust and serve Him you have the guarantee of all.
III. Because it improves other gifts. The presence of one possession may add to the worth of all else. Examine, sight. Thus it is with the gift Christ. And we all seem better for it. It improves everything.
1. We value nature more.
2. We value human nature more.
3. We value the Bible more.
IV. Because it makes us givers. When we receive it we become like it.
V. Because it is a gift to all. "To all people."
1. A gift, not a loan.
2. A gift, not a purchase.
"'Tis only God that is given away, 'Tis only Heaven may be had for the asking!"
3. How shall we express our "thanks?"
(a) By giving this gift to others.
(b) By giving ourselves to the Giver. - Rev. Thomas R. Stevenson.
I. It is the best of gifts. The heart naturally yearns for love. "Greater love hath no man than this," etc. "Herein is love, not that we loved God," etc. "God so loved the world," etc.
II. Because it includes other gifts. Have you Christ? If you trust and serve Him you have the guarantee of all.
III. Because it improves other gifts. The presence of one possession may add to the worth of all else. Examine, sight. Thus it is with the gift Christ. And we all seem better for it. It improves everything.
1. We value nature more.
2. We value human nature more.
3. We value the Bible more.
IV. Because it makes us givers. When we receive it we become like it.
V. Because it is a gift to all. "To all people."
1. A gift, not a loan.
2. A gift, not a purchase.
"'Tis only God that is given away, 'Tis only Heaven may be had for the asking!"
3. How shall we express our "thanks?"
(a) By giving this gift to others.
(b) By giving ourselves to the Giver. - Rev. Thomas R. Stevenson.
THE GOLDEN RULE.
Matt. VII:7-12.
In this part of a sermon on the Mount our Lord begins to draw His discourse to a conclusion. The lessons He enforces becomes less specific. They are broad, general, and full of the deepest wisdom. The golden rule, so called from its great value, stands here for a summary of our relative duties, as they are taught in the moral law. It lays down a general principle, and one especially valuable for our guidance in all doubtful questions between man and man. We are to do unto others as we would that others should do unto us. This is a golden rule indeed. This is real Christianity. It does not merely forbid all petty malice and revenge, all cheating and over-reaching. It goes much further, and settles a hundred difficult points which, in a world like this, are continually arising between man and man. It prevents the necessity of laying down endless little rules for specific cases. It sweeps the whole debatable ground with one mighty principle.
I. The excellence of this rule.
1. It is golden. It is sound through and through and very precious. The heathen emperor, Alexander Severus, is said to have been so charmed by this rule, when he heard it, that he made a crier repeat it whenever he had occasion to punish any one, and caused it to be inscribed in the most frequented parts of his palace and on many public buildings. He also professed so high a regard for Christ, as having been the author of so excellent a rule, that he desired to have Him enrolled among the deities.
2. It is brief. It is very easy to understand and easy to remember. Some one has well called it "the portable law," It is portable, easy to remember, always at hand. It is like the "two-foot rule" which the wise carpenter always carries with him ready to take the measurement of any work to which he is called.
3. It is comprehensive. "All things." It takes in the full round of life and living.
4. It is reasonable, being founded or exact justice and the original equality of all men.
5. It is beneficent. Its beneficence is seen in its relation to ourselves. As one has well said: "God seems to let us make our own laws." It is beneficent in its operation, also in its relation to others.
6. It is an ideal principle. The ideal must always be higher than present achievement, or progress ceases. Porter says: "The one must flee before the other like its shadow, and cannot be overtaken." Ultimate perfection depends on a perfect standard. This principle of the "golden rule" is perfect.
II. Some of the ways in which it may be applied. It may he applied to the civilities of social intercourse, to the practice of high neighborly charities and compassions; to the rights, properties and good name of all around us; to the social duties falling under no special name; to the matter of our regard for the opinions of others, to the question of our acceptance of a God-provided salvation. Our duty toward our neighbor takes in consideration for his soul, and the promotion of its welfare by our prayers, our persuasions, our example.
III. Some of the results of its observance.
1. Social disorders would cease. Its general application would bring the desired peace in the industrial affairs of our country. Harmony would come in the moral relationships of men; honesty and good feeling into national politics; brotherly love into a divided Christendom, and the spirit of truth and righteousness into the conduct of international affairs.
2. Mutual benefit would be gained by disaffected parties. Men would share in the prosperity and privileges and rights of properly conducted government and a free Christianity.
3. Universal harmony would prevail in church and state. The proper application of the golden rule would solve all sociological problems; it would preserve human rights, conciliate capital and labor, and extinguish Socialism. — Selected.
In this part of a sermon on the Mount our Lord begins to draw His discourse to a conclusion. The lessons He enforces becomes less specific. They are broad, general, and full of the deepest wisdom. The golden rule, so called from its great value, stands here for a summary of our relative duties, as they are taught in the moral law. It lays down a general principle, and one especially valuable for our guidance in all doubtful questions between man and man. We are to do unto others as we would that others should do unto us. This is a golden rule indeed. This is real Christianity. It does not merely forbid all petty malice and revenge, all cheating and over-reaching. It goes much further, and settles a hundred difficult points which, in a world like this, are continually arising between man and man. It prevents the necessity of laying down endless little rules for specific cases. It sweeps the whole debatable ground with one mighty principle.
I. The excellence of this rule.
1. It is golden. It is sound through and through and very precious. The heathen emperor, Alexander Severus, is said to have been so charmed by this rule, when he heard it, that he made a crier repeat it whenever he had occasion to punish any one, and caused it to be inscribed in the most frequented parts of his palace and on many public buildings. He also professed so high a regard for Christ, as having been the author of so excellent a rule, that he desired to have Him enrolled among the deities.
2. It is brief. It is very easy to understand and easy to remember. Some one has well called it "the portable law," It is portable, easy to remember, always at hand. It is like the "two-foot rule" which the wise carpenter always carries with him ready to take the measurement of any work to which he is called.
3. It is comprehensive. "All things." It takes in the full round of life and living.
4. It is reasonable, being founded or exact justice and the original equality of all men.
5. It is beneficent. Its beneficence is seen in its relation to ourselves. As one has well said: "God seems to let us make our own laws." It is beneficent in its operation, also in its relation to others.
6. It is an ideal principle. The ideal must always be higher than present achievement, or progress ceases. Porter says: "The one must flee before the other like its shadow, and cannot be overtaken." Ultimate perfection depends on a perfect standard. This principle of the "golden rule" is perfect.
II. Some of the ways in which it may be applied. It may he applied to the civilities of social intercourse, to the practice of high neighborly charities and compassions; to the rights, properties and good name of all around us; to the social duties falling under no special name; to the matter of our regard for the opinions of others, to the question of our acceptance of a God-provided salvation. Our duty toward our neighbor takes in consideration for his soul, and the promotion of its welfare by our prayers, our persuasions, our example.
III. Some of the results of its observance.
1. Social disorders would cease. Its general application would bring the desired peace in the industrial affairs of our country. Harmony would come in the moral relationships of men; honesty and good feeling into national politics; brotherly love into a divided Christendom, and the spirit of truth and righteousness into the conduct of international affairs.
2. Mutual benefit would be gained by disaffected parties. Men would share in the prosperity and privileges and rights of properly conducted government and a free Christianity.
3. Universal harmony would prevail in church and state. The proper application of the golden rule would solve all sociological problems; it would preserve human rights, conciliate capital and labor, and extinguish Socialism. — Selected.
THE CHURCH AND THE SALOON.
Text: "For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? and what concord hath Christ with Belial?" 2 Cor. 6:14, 15.
I. As to the church. What is it? The word is ekklesia; that is, "called out." The church is an association of persons called out of the world to perform definite service for God.
1. It is not a holy club.
2. It is not a social coterie.
3. It is not a company of truth seekers. We are not seeking truth; we have found it.
4. It is not an ethical society. We are not casting about for a system of morals. Our moral code is in the Bible.
5. The church is a great living organism through which God is working for the tearing down of evil and the building up of truth and righteousness on earth. The emblem of our service is the sword and trowel. What is the sword for? To make war on iniquity. What is the trowel for? To build up all forms of goodness on earth; to lay grace upon grace, as the mason lays stone upon stone, until our world shall be a temple fit for the Holy Spirit to dwell in. Thus with sword and trowel we clear the way and rear the fabric of the Kingdom of God.
II. As to the saloon. What is it? A definition must be an indictment. It is the focal expression of almost everything evil.
1. It is an enemy of man.
2. It is an enemy of the home.
3. It is the worst enemy of the State. On last election day I took occasion to make the round of the polling places in the lower part of New York City. I saw scores of sovereign citizens staggering to the ballot box. Here is the Gibraltar of evil politics. Are there witnesses to verify this indictment? Aye, thousands of them reeling about our streets. See them issuing from the dram shop; mark their flushed faces; their shuffling gait; see them as they pass by hiccoughing down to death.
Are more witnesses needed? Let the wives and children of this drunken multitude pass by. Oh, these sad-eyed, pale-faced women; God pity the drunkard's wife; and his little children, ill-clothed and hungry, shrinking from the pointed finger and the taunt, "A drunkard's child!"
More witnesses still? Let me stand by the doorway of one of our multitudinous dive, and hear the laughter of lost womanhood. The evils which are wrought in this place of infamy are scarcely to be spoken of in this presence. But inmates and patrons alike are devotees of Bacchus.
Is more evidence needed? Let us pass through the corridors of our prisons. Here are thieves, murderers, and wrongdoers of every sort. Chief Justice Coleridge says more than eighty per cent of all these commitments are due to strong drink. Put one of our daily newspapers in evidence; cast your eyes over the police reports. What is it that nerves men to deeds of shame and violence?
There are criminals of many sorts and degrees, but the rum-seller is the criminal of all criminals; for it is scarcely beyond the bounds of simple fact to say that he is the maker of them all.
Still farther. Let us visit our insane asylums. See these poor demented creatures, driveling idiots, raving madmen. It was long ago that a wise student of human nature exclaimed: "Alas, that men should put an enemy into their mouths to steal away their brains!" It is stated that seventy per cent of the inmates of our lunatic asylums have dethroned their reasons by inebriety, or else are paying by inheritance the penalty of parental indulgence.
Or pass through our poorhouses. Many of the paupers are old before their time, watery-eyed and decrepit through drink.
Or go through the potter's field. Oh, what tragedies of pain and sorrow lie hidden under these grounds! Here are men who struggled vainly in the grip of habit and died in drunken frenzy; here are wives whose life was starved and beaten out of them until they were laid out for their burial in borrowed shrouds; here are little children whose fathers were so impoverished by drink that not enough was left to purchase a meager four feet of earth to lay them in.
III. Now as to the relation of the church to the saloon. We have seen that the church is an appointed organism through which God is building up truth and goodness on earth. We have seen that the saloon is the practical expression of nearly all that is iniquitous among men. How shall the two stand in relation to each other? Or what in these premises is the church to do?
1. It can choose to do nothing. It can supinely fold its hands and say: "The saloon has come to stay." God save us from that cowardly sophism!
2. The church may sanction the saloon — that is, license it. The word license is from the word licet, which in the original is an impersonal verb meaning "it is permitted;" but brought over into the English tongue it becomes intensely personal and means "I permit it." And that is the meaning of a vote for license — "I permit it." What is it that we permit? The dram shop is authorized to do what?
3. The church may undertake to sanction the dram shop — that is, throw the cloak of ecclesiastical help and comfort over it. That is the last proposition which, in certain ecclesiastical quarters finds favor. It is incredible that so preposterous a thing should be seriously proposed. The saloon is totally bad; it has done evil and only evil all the days of its life.
4. There is but one other attitude which the church may assume, namely, it may antagonize the dram shop to the uttermost. War to the knife and the knife to the hilt! No quarter! There are thirty continuous miles of saloons in the City of New York, and every red light that streams from them marks an open mouth of hell. What can the church do but antagonize this thing? What shall ministers do but denounce it? If the trumpet give an uncertain sound, what shall the suffering people do? Let us befriend the drunkard and the drunkard's wife and children, and defend them from their foe. Let us not undertake to cleanse what has been proven in the nature of things to be essentially unclean. Let us not lay a blessings upon that which God has cursed. We must needs do our best and uttermost to rescue the dram-seller from the error of his way, to break the chains of the inebriate and set him free; to heal the wounds of the poor and helpless whom the drink horror has stricken down. But as to that unmitigated evil — the dram shop — we can offer naught but bitterest enmity. The vow of Cato, "Carthago delenda est," must be ours. No quarter to the dram shop! The thing must die, because it is accursed of God. — D. J. Burrell.
I. As to the church. What is it? The word is ekklesia; that is, "called out." The church is an association of persons called out of the world to perform definite service for God.
1. It is not a holy club.
2. It is not a social coterie.
3. It is not a company of truth seekers. We are not seeking truth; we have found it.
4. It is not an ethical society. We are not casting about for a system of morals. Our moral code is in the Bible.
5. The church is a great living organism through which God is working for the tearing down of evil and the building up of truth and righteousness on earth. The emblem of our service is the sword and trowel. What is the sword for? To make war on iniquity. What is the trowel for? To build up all forms of goodness on earth; to lay grace upon grace, as the mason lays stone upon stone, until our world shall be a temple fit for the Holy Spirit to dwell in. Thus with sword and trowel we clear the way and rear the fabric of the Kingdom of God.
II. As to the saloon. What is it? A definition must be an indictment. It is the focal expression of almost everything evil.
1. It is an enemy of man.
2. It is an enemy of the home.
3. It is the worst enemy of the State. On last election day I took occasion to make the round of the polling places in the lower part of New York City. I saw scores of sovereign citizens staggering to the ballot box. Here is the Gibraltar of evil politics. Are there witnesses to verify this indictment? Aye, thousands of them reeling about our streets. See them issuing from the dram shop; mark their flushed faces; their shuffling gait; see them as they pass by hiccoughing down to death.
Are more witnesses needed? Let the wives and children of this drunken multitude pass by. Oh, these sad-eyed, pale-faced women; God pity the drunkard's wife; and his little children, ill-clothed and hungry, shrinking from the pointed finger and the taunt, "A drunkard's child!"
More witnesses still? Let me stand by the doorway of one of our multitudinous dive, and hear the laughter of lost womanhood. The evils which are wrought in this place of infamy are scarcely to be spoken of in this presence. But inmates and patrons alike are devotees of Bacchus.
Is more evidence needed? Let us pass through the corridors of our prisons. Here are thieves, murderers, and wrongdoers of every sort. Chief Justice Coleridge says more than eighty per cent of all these commitments are due to strong drink. Put one of our daily newspapers in evidence; cast your eyes over the police reports. What is it that nerves men to deeds of shame and violence?
There are criminals of many sorts and degrees, but the rum-seller is the criminal of all criminals; for it is scarcely beyond the bounds of simple fact to say that he is the maker of them all.
Still farther. Let us visit our insane asylums. See these poor demented creatures, driveling idiots, raving madmen. It was long ago that a wise student of human nature exclaimed: "Alas, that men should put an enemy into their mouths to steal away their brains!" It is stated that seventy per cent of the inmates of our lunatic asylums have dethroned their reasons by inebriety, or else are paying by inheritance the penalty of parental indulgence.
Or pass through our poorhouses. Many of the paupers are old before their time, watery-eyed and decrepit through drink.
Or go through the potter's field. Oh, what tragedies of pain and sorrow lie hidden under these grounds! Here are men who struggled vainly in the grip of habit and died in drunken frenzy; here are wives whose life was starved and beaten out of them until they were laid out for their burial in borrowed shrouds; here are little children whose fathers were so impoverished by drink that not enough was left to purchase a meager four feet of earth to lay them in.
III. Now as to the relation of the church to the saloon. We have seen that the church is an appointed organism through which God is building up truth and goodness on earth. We have seen that the saloon is the practical expression of nearly all that is iniquitous among men. How shall the two stand in relation to each other? Or what in these premises is the church to do?
1. It can choose to do nothing. It can supinely fold its hands and say: "The saloon has come to stay." God save us from that cowardly sophism!
2. The church may sanction the saloon — that is, license it. The word license is from the word licet, which in the original is an impersonal verb meaning "it is permitted;" but brought over into the English tongue it becomes intensely personal and means "I permit it." And that is the meaning of a vote for license — "I permit it." What is it that we permit? The dram shop is authorized to do what?
3. The church may undertake to sanction the dram shop — that is, throw the cloak of ecclesiastical help and comfort over it. That is the last proposition which, in certain ecclesiastical quarters finds favor. It is incredible that so preposterous a thing should be seriously proposed. The saloon is totally bad; it has done evil and only evil all the days of its life.
4. There is but one other attitude which the church may assume, namely, it may antagonize the dram shop to the uttermost. War to the knife and the knife to the hilt! No quarter! There are thirty continuous miles of saloons in the City of New York, and every red light that streams from them marks an open mouth of hell. What can the church do but antagonize this thing? What shall ministers do but denounce it? If the trumpet give an uncertain sound, what shall the suffering people do? Let us befriend the drunkard and the drunkard's wife and children, and defend them from their foe. Let us not undertake to cleanse what has been proven in the nature of things to be essentially unclean. Let us not lay a blessings upon that which God has cursed. We must needs do our best and uttermost to rescue the dram-seller from the error of his way, to break the chains of the inebriate and set him free; to heal the wounds of the poor and helpless whom the drink horror has stricken down. But as to that unmitigated evil — the dram shop — we can offer naught but bitterest enmity. The vow of Cato, "Carthago delenda est," must be ours. No quarter to the dram shop! The thing must die, because it is accursed of God. — D. J. Burrell.
CONFORMING TO THE LOWER.
I asked the secretary of a well-known Christian organization why it was they were changing their button from a good sized, conspicuous to a much smaller one, and he said, "Well, you know such and such an organization uses small buttons, and the boys think people will take our button for theirs when it is smaller because, they look so much alike." That is the great trouble in the world today. Too many are compromising their Christian life and trying to bring it down on a level with worldly things instead of having the worldly things come up to a higher level with them.
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Wants No Modernized Bible
1910
King James Version the Best of All, Says Writer in Success Magazine
We are just old-fashioned enough to take no stock in the modernized Bible which is shortly to appear, "couched in every-day language, with obsolete words and phrases eliminated." The King James Bible has done more to preserve the good old Saxon words and style, which are the best English literature has produced, than anything else.
Instead of a movement to get us further away from that vigorous, simple, classic style, and in the interest of establishing the finest literary ideals possible to a people destined to use the curious hybrid which the English language has become, it would be more sensible to frown upon all efforts to improve on the King James Bible. It is the greatest treasure house, inspiration and teacher of good English that we possess. — Success Magazine.
King James Version the Best of All, Says Writer in Success Magazine
We are just old-fashioned enough to take no stock in the modernized Bible which is shortly to appear, "couched in every-day language, with obsolete words and phrases eliminated." The King James Bible has done more to preserve the good old Saxon words and style, which are the best English literature has produced, than anything else.
Instead of a movement to get us further away from that vigorous, simple, classic style, and in the interest of establishing the finest literary ideals possible to a people destined to use the curious hybrid which the English language has become, it would be more sensible to frown upon all efforts to improve on the King James Bible. It is the greatest treasure house, inspiration and teacher of good English that we possess. — Success Magazine.
You'll Not Be Sorry
1910
If You Follow the Following Suggestions
You'll never be sorry—
For living a straight life.
For doing your level best.
For being kind to the poor.
For looking before leaping.
For hearing before judging.
For thinking before speaking.
For harboring clean thoughts.
For standing by your principles.
For stopping your ears to gossip.
For being as courteous as a duke.
For asking pardon when in error.
For bridling a garrulous tongue.
For being square in business dealings.
For giving an unfortunate fellow a lift.
For promptness in keeping your promises.
For putting the best construction on the acts of others.
You will never never be sorry, for giving light to the blind, knowledge to the ignorant, strength to the weak help to the struggling and a Savior to the heathen. — New Orleans Times Democrat.
If You Follow the Following Suggestions
You'll never be sorry—
For living a straight life.
For doing your level best.
For being kind to the poor.
For looking before leaping.
For hearing before judging.
For thinking before speaking.
For harboring clean thoughts.
For standing by your principles.
For stopping your ears to gossip.
For being as courteous as a duke.
For asking pardon when in error.
For bridling a garrulous tongue.
For being square in business dealings.
For giving an unfortunate fellow a lift.
For promptness in keeping your promises.
For putting the best construction on the acts of others.
You will never never be sorry, for giving light to the blind, knowledge to the ignorant, strength to the weak help to the struggling and a Savior to the heathen. — New Orleans Times Democrat.
Friday, February 22, 2008
Life Saving on Conditions
Sept. 1910
A treatise on "How to Be Kind but Cautious" might be written by a woman who played the part of good Samaritan in a New York subway station. Another woman had fainted. What she needed to bring her to in a hurry was smelling salts, but nobody had smelling salts.
"I think she has a vinaigrette of her own in that bag," said the Samaritan, "but in the absence of a policeman I am afraid to open it to find out." Something that looked like a small bottle could be discerned through the meshes of the chain bag, and the crowd, valiantly shifting responsibility, said: "Go ahead and open it."
"On one condition I will," said the Samaritan. "I want three bystanders to watch me and sign a written statement that I have taken nothing from the bag but the vinaigrette. I know this town too well to take any chances of being accused of theft."
The oath was drawn up in a jiffy, three signatures were appended, the Samaritan opened the bag, found the vinaigrette, and proceeded with restorative measures.
A treatise on "How to Be Kind but Cautious" might be written by a woman who played the part of good Samaritan in a New York subway station. Another woman had fainted. What she needed to bring her to in a hurry was smelling salts, but nobody had smelling salts.
"I think she has a vinaigrette of her own in that bag," said the Samaritan, "but in the absence of a policeman I am afraid to open it to find out." Something that looked like a small bottle could be discerned through the meshes of the chain bag, and the crowd, valiantly shifting responsibility, said: "Go ahead and open it."
"On one condition I will," said the Samaritan. "I want three bystanders to watch me and sign a written statement that I have taken nothing from the bag but the vinaigrette. I know this town too well to take any chances of being accused of theft."
The oath was drawn up in a jiffy, three signatures were appended, the Samaritan opened the bag, found the vinaigrette, and proceeded with restorative measures.
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