Self-Surrender

1902

There will come to every manly man times in his life when he will see that there is something which is legitimately his, something which he has a right to, something which nobody can blame him if he takes and enjoys to the fullest, and yet something by whose voluntary and uncompelled surrender he can help his fellow man and aid the work of Christ and make the world better.

Then will come that man's trial. If he fails and cannot make the sacrifice, nobody will blame him; he will simply sink into the great multitude of honorable, respectable, self-indulgent people who take the comfortable things which everybody says they are entitled to, and live their easy life without a question. But if he is of better stuff, and makes the renunciation of comfort for a higher work, then he goes up and stands humbly, but really, with Jesus Christ.

He enters into the other range, that other sort of life where Jesus Christ lived. He is perfectly satisfied with that higher life. He does not envy, he does not grudge, the self-indulgent lives which he has left behind. He does not count up what he has lost; he does not ask whether he is happier or less happy than he would have been if he had kept what everybody said he had a right to keep. It is not a question of happiness with him at all, but gradually, without his seeking it, he finds that the soul of the happiness which he has left behind him is in him still. Like fountains of sweet water in the sea it rises up and keeps him a living soul. He has left the world's pleasures and its privileges only to draw nearer to its necessities, which are its real life.

So what he gave he keeps a thousand fold in this present time, and eternity is still before him, in the end everlasting life. — Phillips Brooks.

Sermons the Preacher's Deepest Thoughts

1902

"Almost no preacher to-day dwells exclusively upon sin, salvation and the relation of Christ to the sinner," says the Congregationalist, of Boston and Chicago. "Important as these themes are, other aspects of the mission of Christ in the world and of the purpose of Christianity are being brought to the front. We regard this as extremely desirable.

"Preaching is something more than the reiteration of traditional truths in conventional ecclesiastical language. A sermon is the embodiment of a man's deepest and most real thought, phrased in words which everybody can understand and addressed to the real needs of real people.

"Jesus Christ was a popular preacher. He employed parables and talked about the lilies and the clouds, the barrel of meal and the play of little children, and weighed carefully all His words with a view to making the truth which filled and flooded His own soul plain, winsome and powerful in the eyes of others."

Mother

1902

God gave us but one mother. Remember, she has borne for you that which no other human being has or can. Remember that in the natural course of events the grave will in a few years, at most, close over her, leaving you behind. Remember that, when she is gone, you will think of her faults and her failings with pitiful tenderness, and want to cover them from all human eyes. And remember, also, that the deepest sting which sorrow has for us is hidden in those soul-harrowing words. "If I only had!" or "had not!" It would be blessed to live, no matter what the provocation, so that, standing beside an open grave those words could have no sting for us. - Mrs. G. R. Alden.

God's Mercy

1902

The more we fear crosses the more reason we have to think that we need them. Let us not be discouraged when the hand of God layeth heavy woes upon us. We ought to judge of the violence of our disease by the violence of the remedies which our spiritual physician prescribes for us. It is a great argument for our own wretchedness and of God's mercy that, notwithstanding the difficulty of our recovery He vouchsafes to undertake our cure. Let us, then, draw from our afflictions a source of love, of comfort and trust in God, saying with His apostle: "Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." "Blessed are they that mourn, and sow in tears, because they shall reap with joy the harvest of eternal glory." — Fenelon.

Talks on American Sunday

1902

Cardinal Gibbons Declares That the Rich Man Desecrates the Day by Newspaper Reading

In his sermon on the American Sunday at the cathedral at Baltimore, Cardinal Gibbons, among other things, said:

"It has been the boast of our country that in no nation of the world was the Christian Sabbath better respected than in the United States, but a close observer cannot fail to note the dangerous inroads that have been made on the Lord's day in this country during the last 30 years.

"The average business man of America is in a state of habitual feverish activity. He rushes through life at full steam. The one aim of his existence is to become rich. Money making is not the means, but the end, of his life. He increases his wealth, not so much for the love of it as from the fascination attached to the accumulation of a fortune.

"On Sunday mornings, as he is debarred from the conventionalities of life in going to his place of business, he seizes the morning paper and devours its contents of 20 or 30 pages, its news of stocks and bonds, or pleasures and amusements, of crime and scandal, until his whole being is saturated with this unhealthy diet. Like animals gorged with food, he spends the morning in a comatose condition."

—The Indiana Democrat, Indiana, PA, Nov. 26, 1902, p. 5.

A Turkey's Opinion

1902

"What dost thou think of drumsticks?"
I asked a barnyard bird.
He grinned a turkey grin, and then
He answered me this word:
"They're good to eat, they're good to beat,
But sure as I am living,
They're best to run away with
The week before Thanksgiving."

—Anna M. Pratt.

A Thankful Note

1902

Let's be thankful that we're livin',
That the good God is forgivin',
That His heaven ain't far above us,
That His world has friends to love us;
That for all its sorrows — sighs,
Weary hearts and weeping eyes,
We can see bright suns arise
In the stormiest o' skies.


Human Vanity

Don't imitate the turkey's strut,
Because he has you beat.
You may be quite as handsome, but
You aren't good to eat.

A World Beautiful

1902

Don't crowd your world with hate, anger, envy, regrets, fears, disorder, discord and disharmony. Every second brighten your world with love and joy and peace and hope, every minute expand your world by unfolding yourself. Every hour open your eyes wider to the grand and beautiful sights in your world; open your ears to the delightful and inspiring strains of divine music which comes of love, brotherhood, tenderness, kindness, gentleness, cheerfulness and contentment. Then from hour to hour, day by day, year by year your world will become more beautiful.

The Way to the Cross

1902

None of us can tell for what God is educating us. We fret and murmur at the narrow sound and daily task of ordinary life, not realizing that it is only thus that we can be prepared for the high and holy office which awaits us. We must descend before we can ascend. We must take the way of the cross submissively and patiently if we would tread the way of light. We must endure the polishing if we would be shafts in the quiver of Emmanuel. God's will comes to thee and me in daily circumstances, in little things usually as in great; meet them bravely; be at your best always, though the occasion be one of the very least; dignify the smallest summons by the greatness of your response. — F. B. Meyer.

Sitting Still

1902

To the best comes the time when their very good is evil spoken of. It takes goodness to understand goodness. The pure in heart see God, and only such can recognize the life of God when manifested in the saints. Few trials are more keen than the misrepresentation of goodness. An evil motive imputed to a saintly deed is as the sting of a serpent. The clouds of defamation lower at some time over every saintly heart. The life of the saint is hidden and cannot be understood by the worldling. "Sitting still" is the only possibility. Time exerts a remedial influence, and such remedy that it cannot exert the One to whom the saints are dead will. He will bring out our goodness as the light and our righteousness as the noonday. — Episcopal Recorder.

Spear Points

1902

Purpose is what gives life a meaning.

Circumstances may change, but God never does.

The breadth of Christianity depends on its depth.

God puts consolation only where He has first put pain.

Early athletics will not suffice for the heavenly race.

In this life there is but one sure happiness— to live for others.

Expect God to help you when you have prayed for His assistance.

True greatness is ability to serve coupled with a meek and quiet spirit.

When the Lord is in our hearts His hand will be seen in our works.

Never take your eye off the cross, as all the lines of salvation center there.

Poverty of possessions need not be discreditable; poverty of life always is.

A thousand times better are the men who do than the weaklings who only know.

The loving judgments of friends are harder to bear than the harsh ones of foes.

All God's providences are but His touches of the strings of the great instrument of the world.

When you step up on one promise you will always find a higher and a better one before you.

The self-centered life comes to naught; the Christ-centered life ever continues in enlargement.

There are some lessons which can only be learned in the garden, and beneath the shadow of the cross. — The Ram's Horn.

More Words of Wisdom

1902

Sincerity is the secret of success.

It takes more than money to make a living.

Self-surrender is the secret of soul-satisfaction.

The tree of knowledge is not the tree of life.

To break our mirrors will not make us beautiful.

The heart is only clean when it is wholly clean.

You cannot make an enemy without losing a friend.

Sympathy for others is a salve for our own sorrows.

It is a vain hope that the chains of habit will rust off.

The supreme art of living may be summed up in giving.

When a father is too tender his sons usually balance things.

Life is a man's opportunity for the realization of his ideals.

To be at our best to-morrow we must be at our best to-day.

When ambition is the child of envy it will be the mother of sorrows.

The lights of the world are not illumined by the fires of controversy.

He who has friends only to use them will have them only to lose them. — Ram's Horn.

Words of Wisdom

Words of Wisdom

1902

In the noonday of life only short shadows are cast.

In order to find out how strong a stick is you must break it.

A good fisherman always provides himself with plenty of bait.

The man who borrows and seldom pays is one who seldom lends.

When you confess a fault to a friend, confess one that you know he also has.

The man who is above imitating the methods of others need never be afraid of being imitated.

Sometimes the loftiest monument towers above the grave of the poet who starved to death.

Women were formed to temper mankind and soothe them into tenderness and compassion. — Addison.

Those who go slowly through life have an opportunity of reading the guideboards along the way. The riches of the world and the
gratifications they afford are too apt when their evil tendency is not opposed by a principle of religion to beget that friendship for the world which is enmity to God.

Prayer is so mighty an instrument that no one ever thoroughly mastered all its keys. They sweep along the infinite scale of man's wants and God's goodness. — Hugh Miller.

Teach self-denial and make its practice pleasurable, and you create for the world a destiny more sublime than ever issued from the brains of the wildest dreamer. — Sir Walter Scott.

Nothing is more dangerous than a friend without discretion; even a prudent enemy is preferable. — La Fontaine.

Prudence yields to circumstance, folly quarrels with it, pride defies it, wisdom uses it and genius controls it. — J. S. Blackie.

A Sporting Parson

1902

Miss Mary Louise Boyle, who counted Dickens, Lever, Browning, Lowell and Tennyson among her friends, records in her "Book" a story about a sporting parson she knew, the Rev. Loraine Smith, who hunted in purple instead of pink because the former was the correct episcopal color:

"His reverence was always well mounted and was a keen sportsman. He had a pretty living and a good church in the neighborhood, but he surprised his parishioners very much by altering the whole disposition of the tombstones. He thought they looked awkward and untidy in their actual position, so he had them all taken up and rearranged according to his fancy in lines, crosses, squares, etc. One Sunday morning, a very cold winter's day, he had performed the service to a scanty congregation, and on going up into his pulpit, instead of opening his sermon book, he pronounced the following address: 'My dear friends, you require it I will preach you the sermon which I have brought with me, but if you are as cold and hungry as I am I think you will prefer going with me to the rectory, where you will find some cold beef and some good ale.'"

Two Pictures

1902

It is related that two painters each painted a picture to illustrate his conception of rest. The first chose for his scene a still, lone lake among the far-off mountains. The second threw on his canvas a thundering waterfall, with a fragile birch tree bending over the foam. At the fork of the branch almost wet with the cataract's spray, a robin sat on its nest.

Henry Drummond, referring to the two paintings, so unlike in their make-up, said:

"The first was only 'stagnation;' the last was 'rest.' Christ's life was outwardly one of the most troubled lives that was ever lived; tempest and tumult, tumult and tempest, the waves breaking over it all the time, till the worn body was laid in the grave.

"But the inner life was a sea of glass. The great calm was always there. At any moment you might have gone to Him and found rest. And even when His enemies were dogging Him in the streets of Jerusalem He turned to His disciples and offered them, as a last legacy, 'My peace.'"

How a Business Man Was Saved

1902

An incident is related which occurred during Mr. Finney's meetings in New York City and which well illustrates the value of a little tact in the great struggle for souls. The big cutlery firm of Sheffield, England, had a branch house in New York. The manager was a partner of the firm, and very worldly. One of his clerks, who had been converted in the meetings, invited his employer to attend. One evening he was there, and sat just across the aisle from Mr. Arthur Tappan. He appeared affected during the sermon, and Mr. Tappan kept his eye on him. After the dismissal, Mr. Tappan stepped quickly across the aisle, introduced himself, and invited him to stay to the after-service. The gentleman tried to excuse himself and get away, but Mr. Tappan caught hold of the button on his coat and said, "Now, do stay; I know you will enjoy it;" and he was so kind and gentlemanly that the cutlery man could not well refuse. He stayed, and was converted. Afterwards he said, "An ounce of weight upon my coat-button saved my soul."

Man's Influence

1902

The only responsibility that a man cannot not evade in this life is the one he thinks of least — his personal influence. Man's conscious influence, when he is on dress parade, when he is posing to impress those around him — is woefully small. But his unconscious influence, the silent, subtle radiation of his personality, the effect of his words and acts, the trifles he never considers — is tremendous. Every moment of life he is changing to a degree the life of the whole world. Every man has an atmosphere which is affecting every other. So silently and unconsciously is this influence working that man may forget that it exists. — W. G. Jordan.

Work, Our Highest Privilege

1902

Whoever attempts to escape work avoids his best friend. We read the story of man's fall in the light of subsequent revelation, only to find that work is not a curse, but our highest privilege. The fact that the seasons end urges us on to do our best. An endless probation is simply none at all. There is no more pathetic lamentation in all literature than this. The summer is ended and we are not saved. Probation is over. The Judge enters the field and counts the sheaves. The summer ever reproduces itself. They come in their annual succession, but each holds its own place. This summer will be this but once. Another will come, but it won't be this. Nothing is ever repeated. The second resembles the first, but is not to be identified with it. The sun never greets the earth twice the same. Probation is written everywhere. — Presbyterian Journal.

The Book of Jude

1902

Jude's is one of the briefest of all the letters in the New Testament, containing only twenty-five verses. It is, perhaps, the last of the epistles. Though the date is not infinitely settled, it was probably written after the destruction of Jerusalem, when most of the apostles had finished their work. There is a most delightful spirit of humility in the letter. The writer called himself a servant, and the bondsman of Jesus Christ and the brother of James, and that is a beautiful modesty, for, in fact, it is generally believed that he was the Lord's own brother and the son of Joseph and Mary.

To no particular church or people was the letter written, but the accounts make it especially applicable to us. It is very practical. The heart of Jude was stirred because certain men were denying God and the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, because of this, "I exhort you that you should contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints." That expression in the Greek, however, reads for the faith delivered "once and for all" to the saints. So the doctrine is the same today. — J. Wilbur Chapman.

Words of Wisdom

1902

Pride spells peril.
Deeds are indelible.
Every effort educates.
The call of duty never contradicts itself.
Paint cannot make a picture by its own power.
Charity seldom crawls out of a crowded purse.
It takes much misery to make some men seek mercy.
Obscurity furnishes a good pedestal for lasting fame.
Poverty makes a goodly frame for the picture of purity.
The waiting work furnishes us sufficient warrant to do it.
It doesn't take much gold-leaf to cover the pupil of the eye.
He cannot consecrate his gift who fears to have it consumed.
It is possible to smother the fire of zeal by too much fuel of effort.
Effort does not always produce the best effect in spiritual things.
No amount of culture could make a cabbage grow out of an oak.
If you use a mirror to find your own faults you will forget to use a microscope for those of others. — Ram's Horn.

Comment: I think this one is pretty profound: "Effort does not always produce the best effect in spiritual things." That's today's moment of Zen.