New York, 1895
The Rev. Charles S. Daniels, of the Baptist church announces a Sunday evening course of sermons. The dates and topics are as follows: February 17, "A Good Name;" 24, "Why is the House of God Forsaken?" March 3, "The Christian's True Success;" 10, "Amusements."
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Feb. 15, 1895, p. 12.
Showing posts with label sermons. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sermons. Show all posts
Friday, May 23, 2008
Friday, May 16, 2008
Denied by Father Dennison
New York, 1895
The Brooklyn Times of Monday printed a statement that it said was uttered by Rev. Father Dennison of St. Monica's church in his Sunday morning sermon. Father Dennison assures THE FARMER that he did not use the language attributed to him, or anything like it.
There was to have been an illustrated lecture in the Reformed chapel on Monday evening, 21st., by the Rev. T. Calvin McClelland, Ph. D., subject, "The Frozen Cataract." The lecture did not take place, as it would have interfered with the Union religious services. Nevertheless, the Brooklyn Times of Tuesday, 22d, contained a "full report" of the Rev. McClelland's remarks, which were never delivered, and some praise of the illustrations, which were not shown. The reporter may have been on a bat, and seen some other things that looked like frozen cataracts — in a glass.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Feb. 1, 1895, p. 1.
The Brooklyn Times of Monday printed a statement that it said was uttered by Rev. Father Dennison of St. Monica's church in his Sunday morning sermon. Father Dennison assures THE FARMER that he did not use the language attributed to him, or anything like it.
There was to have been an illustrated lecture in the Reformed chapel on Monday evening, 21st., by the Rev. T. Calvin McClelland, Ph. D., subject, "The Frozen Cataract." The lecture did not take place, as it would have interfered with the Union religious services. Nevertheless, the Brooklyn Times of Tuesday, 22d, contained a "full report" of the Rev. McClelland's remarks, which were never delivered, and some praise of the illustrations, which were not shown. The reporter may have been on a bat, and seen some other things that looked like frozen cataracts — in a glass.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Feb. 1, 1895, p. 1.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Woodhaven and Ozone Park News
New York, 1895
The Congregational church of Woodhaven observed last week as a week of prayer. The attendance was very good and encouraging.
W. T. Fitch delivered an appropriate sermon Sunday night at the Church of the Epiphany to Americus Volunteer hook and ladder company. The singing by the choir was of the highest order. A very large attendance from other fire companies was noted, including the Jones hook and ladder company, Union Course hook and ladder company, Woodhaven hose and Deraismes hose. The firemen appreciate good sermons and good music.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Jan. 25, 1895, p. 12.
The Congregational church of Woodhaven observed last week as a week of prayer. The attendance was very good and encouraging.
W. T. Fitch delivered an appropriate sermon Sunday night at the Church of the Epiphany to Americus Volunteer hook and ladder company. The singing by the choir was of the highest order. A very large attendance from other fire companies was noted, including the Jones hook and ladder company, Union Course hook and ladder company, Woodhaven hose and Deraismes hose. The firemen appreciate good sermons and good music.
—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Jan. 25, 1895, p. 12.
Saturday, April 12, 2008
The Funeral of a Saloonkeeper
1900
The People's Forum
How can a minister of the Gospel best perform his duty when asked to conduct the funeral of a saloonkeeper? — (Rev.) DAVID JONES, Wash.
As we answer this question there lies before us a ten-page letter from another minister who has just preached such a sermon, and he is bewailing the fact that it has brought about dissensions in his church which cut his financial support by half. His wife and children are in danger of going without proper food and clothes, and he is threatened with tar and feathers. "What did he say?" you ask. Well, here is a selection from his sermon, which will give you an idea of its general tenor:
"Good people, you have come here today, not only in honor of your dead, but in honor of our social, civil and religious institutions. You have asked the church and clergy for burial services, and while it is against the laws and constitutions of some churches to give burial services to those outside of their membership, I want to say for the benefit of our own members, who have objected to using the church on this occasion, on account of the business of the deceased, that it is not for us to deny funeral or burial services to any, but we are to serve all willingly, reserving the right to make them an occasion of benefit to the congregation and comfort to the mourners.
"If you think the business of this man is wrong, I want to show you that he had the highest authority within the gift of this country to justify and defend him in the prosecution thereof. He had the silent if not the open consent and endorsement of nearly every business, professional and official man in the city, besides a large lucrative patronage among the common people of the community. Therefore if he was wrong then you are wrong also, and if you think he alone will perish for the wrong, in the language of the text, I tell you nay; but except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish."
The minister who speaks plainly at a funeral will always be criticized. There are many, therefore, who would refuse to conduct such a funeral service, especially over a man who has lived a notoriously sinful life. They would reserve the lessons which might be drawn for a more appropriate occasion. There is no fixed law of propriety in such matters. Circumstances must always be taken into consideration. A minister should be guided by the best religious sentiment in his church and by his heartfelt convictions after earnest prayer for guidance.
—The Ram's Horn, March 17, 1900, p. 8.
The People's Forum
How can a minister of the Gospel best perform his duty when asked to conduct the funeral of a saloonkeeper? — (Rev.) DAVID JONES, Wash.
As we answer this question there lies before us a ten-page letter from another minister who has just preached such a sermon, and he is bewailing the fact that it has brought about dissensions in his church which cut his financial support by half. His wife and children are in danger of going without proper food and clothes, and he is threatened with tar and feathers. "What did he say?" you ask. Well, here is a selection from his sermon, which will give you an idea of its general tenor:
"Good people, you have come here today, not only in honor of your dead, but in honor of our social, civil and religious institutions. You have asked the church and clergy for burial services, and while it is against the laws and constitutions of some churches to give burial services to those outside of their membership, I want to say for the benefit of our own members, who have objected to using the church on this occasion, on account of the business of the deceased, that it is not for us to deny funeral or burial services to any, but we are to serve all willingly, reserving the right to make them an occasion of benefit to the congregation and comfort to the mourners.
"If you think the business of this man is wrong, I want to show you that he had the highest authority within the gift of this country to justify and defend him in the prosecution thereof. He had the silent if not the open consent and endorsement of nearly every business, professional and official man in the city, besides a large lucrative patronage among the common people of the community. Therefore if he was wrong then you are wrong also, and if you think he alone will perish for the wrong, in the language of the text, I tell you nay; but except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish."
The minister who speaks plainly at a funeral will always be criticized. There are many, therefore, who would refuse to conduct such a funeral service, especially over a man who has lived a notoriously sinful life. They would reserve the lessons which might be drawn for a more appropriate occasion. There is no fixed law of propriety in such matters. Circumstances must always be taken into consideration. A minister should be guided by the best religious sentiment in his church and by his heartfelt convictions after earnest prayer for guidance.
—The Ram's Horn, March 17, 1900, p. 8.
A Brazen Wall
(Click graphic for better view)1900
Five Minute Sermons — Written Especially for The Ram's Horn
We had a menagerie in our town when I was a boy, and like other boys, I managed to get there. They had one huge cage in which they placed their happy family during the hours when the tent was opened. They had half a dozen huge beasts of different kinds in that cage and I remember looking in open-eyed astonishment at them. It occurred to me that if they should escape it would be a sorry day for the visitors, and I could not help looking to see what our securities were. There were iron bars through which we peered at the animals, and through which they were looking with hungry eyes at us. It was ten feet from the top to the bottom of that cage. But about half way from the top to the bottom was a bar of polished wood into which the iron bars entered from either side. It there should be a family row inside that cage and in the skirmish that bar of wood should give way, it was as plain as my existence that some of us near the cage should be devoured. I grew uneasy at every growl, and when two or three of them threw themselves against the bars I beat a retreat. I did not propose to wait to be eaten. It is not probable that I should have stopped until I reached my home, if one of the men employed about the tent had not stopped me and told me that the bar of wood was but an ornament upon a solid piece of brass. There was no possibility that it should give way. Who of you remembers where it is written, "I will make thee unto this people a fenced brazen wall: and they shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail against thee; for I am with thee to save thee and to deliver thee, saith the Lord."
I have had my panicky times since. I have looked at the moral wild beasts which are only aching for an opportunity to devour human society, and I have thought that if they summon all their strength and pounce upon our defenses, they will surely consume us. And then some one has reminded me that God has set His people as a brazen wall, and they cannot be broken down. I gather up the colossal figures of the liquor traffic, and I note its power in all political organizations, and I see its popularity in society where men whose purses are lined with its gold shine in brilliant society and occupy the choice pews in churches, and I watch youth after youth disappear before it, and I say, surely this country has gone to ruin before this foe. But I am called back by the prophetic voice, and am bidden to look at the "Impregnable Rock of Holy Scripture" and the appointed church and kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, and am told to look at that brazen wall which stands between the destroying power and human society. They may fight against it, but they cannot destroy it. They would if they could, no doubt, but they cannot.
I get alarmed about the amount of impurity in the world. We have imported it from abroad when it was so vicious that we were ashamed to claim it as American. We have introduced it into our theatres if their advertisements and posters tell any truth. We have made many suggestions of it in our newspaper and magazine illustrations. We have made large use of it for advertising purposes. We have published it in a thousand books in its worst form, under the plea that we must describe things as they actually are, and in this way we have carried it into the homes and libraries of the most discreet and modest. It would seem that there is practically nothing to save us from absolute demoralization of morals by this subtle and fearful evil. And then I come back to the Lord's appointment of his servants in the earth as a "fenced city, and an iron pillar and brazen wall." Impurity may fight, but shall not prevail.
When they elected a polygamist to Congress, my heart sank within me. There was that fearful curse which we had tried to exterminate, coming back with added virulence and vehemence. It was seeking recognition in the high places of our land, and by political machination was pretty certain to get it. It would carry with it the establishment of the same old outrage on Western civilization, which must make every self-respecting American blush when Mormonism is mentioned. And if this horror of all horrors is to be permitted, it means the destruction of the sacredness of marriage and the happiness of the Christian home and the rights of children, to home life and care and training. If the bars of the cage in which Mormonism is confined once give way, there is no escape provided for our security as a people. But after all, that barrier is more than a fragile strip of wood, it is a brazen wall against which this form of corruption too, is destined to beat itself in vain. "God is not dead." He still says to His people, "I will make thee unto this people a fenced brazen wall: they shall fight against thee; but they shall not prevail against thee." — J. N. ERVIN.
—The Ram's Horn, March 17, 1900, p. 7.
Monday, April 7, 2008
Baptist Humor
1901
Here is a story from the Baptist conference at Leicester. It is about a minister. He found himself at chapel one morning without his sermon. "My dear brethren," he exclaimed, "I can only give you now what God will send me, but tonight I will come back better prepared." — Pall Mall Gazette.
Here is a story from the Baptist conference at Leicester. It is about a minister. He found himself at chapel one morning without his sermon. "My dear brethren," he exclaimed, "I can only give you now what God will send me, but tonight I will come back better prepared." — Pall Mall Gazette.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
"Hell," Evangelist's Subject
Wisconsin, 1918
Rev. Robert Moyer, evangelist, will speak at Bethel Baptist church tomorrow night on the subject, "Hell." The sermon last night was on "The Second Coming of Christ."
—Eau Claire Leader, Eau Claire, Wisconsin, Jan. 26, 1918, p. 8.
Saturday, March 1, 2008
Sermonograms
1935
Adversity tries faith; prosperity tries fidelity.
The man who has a right to boast does not have to.
A beauty not explicable is dearer than the beauty which we can see the end of. — Emerson.
The reward of a thing well done is to have done it. — Emerson.
It is much wiser to steer well than to honk your horn.
It takes brains to make money; it takes character to use it right.
Church membership is not an elevator into heaven.
If you hold your religion lightly, you are sure to let it slip.
God never reveals what man can discover.
A pessimist is a person who is seasick during the entire voyage of life.
When it comes to coddling imaginary wrongs, the average person is a faithful nurse.
Even if you are too deaf to hear the preacher, the Church is still a good place for listening to God. — Holmes.
Opportunities always look bigger going than coming.
The less of it they have, the more people seem obsessed with the inclination to speak their mind.
Action unaccompanied by thought is folly, but thought unaccompanied by action is vain.
Unless we can learn the supremacy of spiritual forces, the pall bearers that have carried out dead civilizations wait at our door. — Fosdick.
Don't throw mud; you might miss your mark, and you are sure to get your hands dirty.
Hard work is the yeast that raises the dough.
The duty of the many should not be the task of the few. Many a man saves everything but his soul.
Adversity tries faith; prosperity tries fidelity.
The man who has a right to boast does not have to.
A beauty not explicable is dearer than the beauty which we can see the end of. — Emerson.
The reward of a thing well done is to have done it. — Emerson.
It is much wiser to steer well than to honk your horn.
It takes brains to make money; it takes character to use it right.
Church membership is not an elevator into heaven.
If you hold your religion lightly, you are sure to let it slip.
God never reveals what man can discover.
A pessimist is a person who is seasick during the entire voyage of life.
When it comes to coddling imaginary wrongs, the average person is a faithful nurse.
Even if you are too deaf to hear the preacher, the Church is still a good place for listening to God. — Holmes.
Opportunities always look bigger going than coming.
The less of it they have, the more people seem obsessed with the inclination to speak their mind.
Action unaccompanied by thought is folly, but thought unaccompanied by action is vain.
Unless we can learn the supremacy of spiritual forces, the pall bearers that have carried out dead civilizations wait at our door. — Fosdick.
Don't throw mud; you might miss your mark, and you are sure to get your hands dirty.
Hard work is the yeast that raises the dough.
The duty of the many should not be the task of the few. Many a man saves everything but his soul.
Seven Sentence Sermons
1935
Adversity is the first path to truth. — Byron.
* * *
It is the wit and policy of sin to hate those we have abused. — Davenant.
* * *
Riches that the world bestows,
She can take and I can lose:
But the treasures that are mine
Lie afar beyond her line.
—Isaac Watts.
* * *
When you put on your clothes, remember the labor of the weaver; when you eat your daily bread, think of the hardships of the husbandman. — Chinese Proverbs.
* * *
Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith. — Prov. 15:17.
* * *
Yet each man kills the thing he loves,
By each let this be heard;
Some do it with a bitter-look,
Some with a flattering word;
The coward does it with a kiss.
The brave man with a sword.
—Oscar Wilde.
* * *
The difference between coarse and refined abuse is the difference between being bruised by a club and wounded by a poisoned arrow. — Johnson.
Adversity is the first path to truth. — Byron.
* * *
It is the wit and policy of sin to hate those we have abused. — Davenant.
* * *
Riches that the world bestows,
She can take and I can lose:
But the treasures that are mine
Lie afar beyond her line.
—Isaac Watts.
* * *
When you put on your clothes, remember the labor of the weaver; when you eat your daily bread, think of the hardships of the husbandman. — Chinese Proverbs.
* * *
Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith. — Prov. 15:17.
* * *
Yet each man kills the thing he loves,
By each let this be heard;
Some do it with a bitter-look,
Some with a flattering word;
The coward does it with a kiss.
The brave man with a sword.
—Oscar Wilde.
* * *
The difference between coarse and refined abuse is the difference between being bruised by a club and wounded by a poisoned arrow. — Johnson.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Sunday, January 6, 2008
Epiphany Sermon, Jan. 6, 1896, Marion, Ohio
1896
An exceedingly able sermon was preached at St. Paul's Episcopal Church Sunday morning by Rev. J. W. Armstrong, who took his text from Matthew 2:1-2, "Now when Jesus was born in Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold there came wise men — Magi — from the East to Jerusalem, saying: 'Where is He that is born King of the Jews, for we have seen a star in the East and have come to worship Him.'"
The speaker said that the unceasing current of time ever carrying us onward has brought us to the Epiphany. "Epiphany means the manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles. It has been celebrated and observed in the church since the second century.
"The idea of exclusiveness was among the Jews, but the real idea shows Him in this manifestation for all nations. The One born King of the Jews has become sovereign of the world. Though born a Jew His mission is for all men — all nations, for the Epiphany shows that He is to have universal dominion.
"The gospel of Christ shows that spiritual dignity rests not upon spiritual descent but upon spiritual character. The symbol of exclusiveness is shown in the rite of circumcision and this was exchanged for baptism, the symbol of universality.
"These Magi, or Magicians, were priests or scholars of the East. Their science led them to the new King just as the shepherds were led by a carol-song. By attention to their calling they discover and are led by the star to the infant Jesus. The inquiries of Herod and of the religious men of Jerusalem brought them nothing. The re-appearance of the star satisfied them, and so often we are disappointed in turning to the kings and priests of the world in our inquiries, but if we look up and learn of heaven we will be guided as these were.
"As the star of God was on before the Magi, so is the star of God on before each of us."
As to the Gentile expectation, "Where is He that is born King of the Jews?", Mr. Armstrong said: "Astronomy arises out of man's need of religion — out of his efforts to read the secrets of the heavens. This craving of the Gentiles expresses yearning for light and knowledge. The wish for light — the expectation of the manifestation of God, is the mystery which lies beneath the history of the whole ancient world."
In speaking particularly of the Epiphany, he said, "It is significant that the king is found as a child — the Royal Child is the answer to their inquiries and desires — this is monarchy of divine right.
"In the adoration of the Magi, the wisdom of the world is bending before the child. 'Heaven lies about us in our infancy.' The child's view of God and the world is singular, one of wonder, beauty and goodness. Man disjoints, separates and impairs. 'When they saw the star they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.'
"And may not our hearts in some measure interpret that? Some there may be whose early star has disappeared and others may have followed many a star but which did not guide to life and light.
“The gifts they presented — 'gold and frankincense and myrrh' — were the most costly products of the countries from which they came. So 'tis our duty to present our best gifts."
In the evening Mr. Armstrong preached on the Epiphany also.
—The Marion Star, Marion, Ohio, Jan. 6, 1896, p. 4.
An exceedingly able sermon was preached at St. Paul's Episcopal Church Sunday morning by Rev. J. W. Armstrong, who took his text from Matthew 2:1-2, "Now when Jesus was born in Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold there came wise men — Magi — from the East to Jerusalem, saying: 'Where is He that is born King of the Jews, for we have seen a star in the East and have come to worship Him.'"
The speaker said that the unceasing current of time ever carrying us onward has brought us to the Epiphany. "Epiphany means the manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles. It has been celebrated and observed in the church since the second century.
"The idea of exclusiveness was among the Jews, but the real idea shows Him in this manifestation for all nations. The One born King of the Jews has become sovereign of the world. Though born a Jew His mission is for all men — all nations, for the Epiphany shows that He is to have universal dominion.
"The gospel of Christ shows that spiritual dignity rests not upon spiritual descent but upon spiritual character. The symbol of exclusiveness is shown in the rite of circumcision and this was exchanged for baptism, the symbol of universality.
"These Magi, or Magicians, were priests or scholars of the East. Their science led them to the new King just as the shepherds were led by a carol-song. By attention to their calling they discover and are led by the star to the infant Jesus. The inquiries of Herod and of the religious men of Jerusalem brought them nothing. The re-appearance of the star satisfied them, and so often we are disappointed in turning to the kings and priests of the world in our inquiries, but if we look up and learn of heaven we will be guided as these were.
"As the star of God was on before the Magi, so is the star of God on before each of us."
As to the Gentile expectation, "Where is He that is born King of the Jews?", Mr. Armstrong said: "Astronomy arises out of man's need of religion — out of his efforts to read the secrets of the heavens. This craving of the Gentiles expresses yearning for light and knowledge. The wish for light — the expectation of the manifestation of God, is the mystery which lies beneath the history of the whole ancient world."
In speaking particularly of the Epiphany, he said, "It is significant that the king is found as a child — the Royal Child is the answer to their inquiries and desires — this is monarchy of divine right.
"In the adoration of the Magi, the wisdom of the world is bending before the child. 'Heaven lies about us in our infancy.' The child's view of God and the world is singular, one of wonder, beauty and goodness. Man disjoints, separates and impairs. 'When they saw the star they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.'
"And may not our hearts in some measure interpret that? Some there may be whose early star has disappeared and others may have followed many a star but which did not guide to life and light.
“The gifts they presented — 'gold and frankincense and myrrh' — were the most costly products of the countries from which they came. So 'tis our duty to present our best gifts."
In the evening Mr. Armstrong preached on the Epiphany also.
—The Marion Star, Marion, Ohio, Jan. 6, 1896, p. 4.
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Rev. P. Marion Simms Has New Ten Commandments
Iowa, 1912
Vinton, Iowa, March 18 — Rev. P. Marion Simms, pastor of the First Presbyterian church of Vinton, in his sermons the last two Sundays, gave the husbands and wives each a talk direct from the shoulder and without mincing of words. The sermons have caused no little comment throughout the town and like all "plain talks" have caused no little argument. On one Sunday he included the "Ten Commandments for Husbands" and on the other "Ten Commandments for Women," both of which are original and wholly representative of the two sermons.
Ten Commandments for Husbands
1. Thou shalt have no woman but thy wife and thou shalt not arrange for thy second marriage before the death of thy first wife.
2. Thou shalt not be a Sir Roger de Coverly to other men's wives and then conclude that because thou hast broken bronchos or excelled on the athletic field or in the gymnasium that thou canst manage thy wife in the same way.
3. Thou shalt not make of thy wife a household drudge, enslaved to the cook stove, mending bag, the vacuum cleaner and the babies sixteen hours a day while thou dost work but eight.
4. Thou shalt not smoke ten cent cigars and wear silk socks while thy wife wears her last year's hat with the wing moved to the other side and while thy sons wear hand-me-down-pants. And thou shalt not support the saloon-keepers's wife and children at the expense of thine own and compel thy wife to use an anesthetic to extract every penny she gets. And thou shalt not require thy wife to render an account for every penny thou dost grudgingly give to her, unless thou dost give her an account of thine own expenditures sworn to before at least two notary publics.
6. Thou shalt not forget that thy home ought to be the happiest spot on earth for thee; that thy truest friends are there; that they miss thee when thou art away, therefore, thou shalt not neglect thy home for the club, lodge, pool room or saloon or any other place of meeting whatsoever.
6. Thou shalt not have all thy religion in thy wife's name.
7. Thou shalt not farm out the religious training of thy children to the minister, the Sunday school teacher, or to anybody else, not even to thy wife. But thou shalt bear thine own burden in the matter and thou shalt live before them in such a way that they can follow safely. And thou shalt not relieve a fit of indigestion by kicking the cat or whipping the children.
8. Thou shalt not talk of thy family and domestic troubles to thy neighbor, to thy friend or partner, or to anybody's wife or to thy stenographer, to any member of thy club or lodge or to anybody else. Fight it out with thy wife alone, even if it takes all summer.
9. Thou shalt not have the jim-jams or even a headache every time thy wife asks thee to take her to a musical, to a concert, or to see some friends; for verily, verily, I say unto you that it is hard to be a grass widow all the time and with a husband in the house.
10. Thou shalt not forget that thy wife is not yet an angel and that thou wouldst be very lonely if she were; therefore, thou shalt make due allowance for the frailties of human nature. And thou shalt remember that she has as many rights as thou thyself.
Ten Commandments for Wives
1. Thou shalt have no other man but thy husband and when another would make love to thee remember that he is a fool or a knave.
2. Thou shalt not forget that the same winsome ways that made thy husband prefer thee to all other women are necessary to hold him. Verily, verily, I say unto you that rats are as valuable in married life as in courtship.
3. Thou shalt not expect thy husband in the beginning of his life to support thee on the same plane that thy father was able to reach after a long life of hard work and rigid economy. Therefore, thou shalt not fret thyself because thy neighbor's house is finer than thy own; neither shalt thou burden thy husband to enable thee to pose as a merchant's and milliner's model. Thou shalt be a help-meet and not simply a help-eat; for verily, verily, I say unto you that it is wicked to keep thy husband only about two steps ahead of the bill collector. Neither shalt thou wear abbreviated garments that make women look too short and men too long.
4. Thou shall not place any social circle, club, pleasurable organization or even the missionary society before thy home and thou shalt not conclude that an ideal family is a husband, a bull pup and a canary.
5. Thou shalt seek first to be a good homemaker, house-keeper and cook and then thou mayest add other accomplishments that do not interfere with thy chief business in life. Thou must not forget that an uncooked apple drove the first husband from paradise; that a poor mess of pottage differentiated a nation; that a fit of indigestion lost the battle of Leipsic; and that tea, mixed with improper ingredients cost England the American colonies and led to the founding of the American republic. And thou shalt not waste $5 worth of time hunting for a $10 dress at $9.78 on bargain day and compel thy husband to lunch down town on buttermilk and sinkers. Verily, verily, I say unto you that it is better to be a good cook than to be able to play chords on the piano, to serve pink teas, preside at whist orgies or to be queen of bargain finders.
6. Thou shall not gossip in the family or out of it about the neighborhood scandal; neither shalt thou allow the petty vexations of the family to disrupt the family harmony.
7. Thou shalt not complain that thou art "tied down" to thy home and to thy babies; for verily, verily, I say unto you that a woman who is unwilling to be "tied down" to such is not worthy to be married to any man. Thou shalt remember that no woman is "tied down" more to her chief business in life than is her husband. Thou shouldst also remember that even the Lord did not intend that a woman's married life should be one prolonged pleasure excursion in a rubber tired automobile on an asphalt road with magnolias blooming on either side.
8. Thou shalt not aspire to be a man to run the politics of the country to reform the world, to boss thy husband and then expect the courtesy, the love and devotion that is due an uncrowned queen. Verily, verily, I say unto you, that men admire most the woman of the clinging vine variety.
9. Thou shalt not serve punch to thy guests, nor put up prizes at whist parties, nor win them at thy neighbors, and then lecture thy husband and son on the evils of gambling.
10. Thou shalt not allow dust to gather on thy Bible nor shall thy attendance at the services of thy church depend on the emotions of a passing hour, the state of the weather or any other unimportant matter.
—Evening Gazette, Cedar Rapids, IA, March 18, 1912, p. 12.
Note: Commandment 2 for women has "rats" as being valuable in married life as in courtship. I don't know what "rats" are in this context but that is what the article says.
Vinton, Iowa, March 18 — Rev. P. Marion Simms, pastor of the First Presbyterian church of Vinton, in his sermons the last two Sundays, gave the husbands and wives each a talk direct from the shoulder and without mincing of words. The sermons have caused no little comment throughout the town and like all "plain talks" have caused no little argument. On one Sunday he included the "Ten Commandments for Husbands" and on the other "Ten Commandments for Women," both of which are original and wholly representative of the two sermons.
Ten Commandments for Husbands
1. Thou shalt have no woman but thy wife and thou shalt not arrange for thy second marriage before the death of thy first wife.
2. Thou shalt not be a Sir Roger de Coverly to other men's wives and then conclude that because thou hast broken bronchos or excelled on the athletic field or in the gymnasium that thou canst manage thy wife in the same way.
3. Thou shalt not make of thy wife a household drudge, enslaved to the cook stove, mending bag, the vacuum cleaner and the babies sixteen hours a day while thou dost work but eight.
4. Thou shalt not smoke ten cent cigars and wear silk socks while thy wife wears her last year's hat with the wing moved to the other side and while thy sons wear hand-me-down-pants. And thou shalt not support the saloon-keepers's wife and children at the expense of thine own and compel thy wife to use an anesthetic to extract every penny she gets. And thou shalt not require thy wife to render an account for every penny thou dost grudgingly give to her, unless thou dost give her an account of thine own expenditures sworn to before at least two notary publics.
6. Thou shalt not forget that thy home ought to be the happiest spot on earth for thee; that thy truest friends are there; that they miss thee when thou art away, therefore, thou shalt not neglect thy home for the club, lodge, pool room or saloon or any other place of meeting whatsoever.
6. Thou shalt not have all thy religion in thy wife's name.
7. Thou shalt not farm out the religious training of thy children to the minister, the Sunday school teacher, or to anybody else, not even to thy wife. But thou shalt bear thine own burden in the matter and thou shalt live before them in such a way that they can follow safely. And thou shalt not relieve a fit of indigestion by kicking the cat or whipping the children.
8. Thou shalt not talk of thy family and domestic troubles to thy neighbor, to thy friend or partner, or to anybody's wife or to thy stenographer, to any member of thy club or lodge or to anybody else. Fight it out with thy wife alone, even if it takes all summer.
9. Thou shalt not have the jim-jams or even a headache every time thy wife asks thee to take her to a musical, to a concert, or to see some friends; for verily, verily, I say unto you that it is hard to be a grass widow all the time and with a husband in the house.
10. Thou shalt not forget that thy wife is not yet an angel and that thou wouldst be very lonely if she were; therefore, thou shalt make due allowance for the frailties of human nature. And thou shalt remember that she has as many rights as thou thyself.
Ten Commandments for Wives
1. Thou shalt have no other man but thy husband and when another would make love to thee remember that he is a fool or a knave.
2. Thou shalt not forget that the same winsome ways that made thy husband prefer thee to all other women are necessary to hold him. Verily, verily, I say unto you that rats are as valuable in married life as in courtship.
3. Thou shalt not expect thy husband in the beginning of his life to support thee on the same plane that thy father was able to reach after a long life of hard work and rigid economy. Therefore, thou shalt not fret thyself because thy neighbor's house is finer than thy own; neither shalt thou burden thy husband to enable thee to pose as a merchant's and milliner's model. Thou shalt be a help-meet and not simply a help-eat; for verily, verily, I say unto you that it is wicked to keep thy husband only about two steps ahead of the bill collector. Neither shalt thou wear abbreviated garments that make women look too short and men too long.
4. Thou shall not place any social circle, club, pleasurable organization or even the missionary society before thy home and thou shalt not conclude that an ideal family is a husband, a bull pup and a canary.
5. Thou shalt seek first to be a good homemaker, house-keeper and cook and then thou mayest add other accomplishments that do not interfere with thy chief business in life. Thou must not forget that an uncooked apple drove the first husband from paradise; that a poor mess of pottage differentiated a nation; that a fit of indigestion lost the battle of Leipsic; and that tea, mixed with improper ingredients cost England the American colonies and led to the founding of the American republic. And thou shalt not waste $5 worth of time hunting for a $10 dress at $9.78 on bargain day and compel thy husband to lunch down town on buttermilk and sinkers. Verily, verily, I say unto you that it is better to be a good cook than to be able to play chords on the piano, to serve pink teas, preside at whist orgies or to be queen of bargain finders.
6. Thou shall not gossip in the family or out of it about the neighborhood scandal; neither shalt thou allow the petty vexations of the family to disrupt the family harmony.
7. Thou shalt not complain that thou art "tied down" to thy home and to thy babies; for verily, verily, I say unto you that a woman who is unwilling to be "tied down" to such is not worthy to be married to any man. Thou shalt remember that no woman is "tied down" more to her chief business in life than is her husband. Thou shouldst also remember that even the Lord did not intend that a woman's married life should be one prolonged pleasure excursion in a rubber tired automobile on an asphalt road with magnolias blooming on either side.
8. Thou shalt not aspire to be a man to run the politics of the country to reform the world, to boss thy husband and then expect the courtesy, the love and devotion that is due an uncrowned queen. Verily, verily, I say unto you, that men admire most the woman of the clinging vine variety.
9. Thou shalt not serve punch to thy guests, nor put up prizes at whist parties, nor win them at thy neighbors, and then lecture thy husband and son on the evils of gambling.
10. Thou shalt not allow dust to gather on thy Bible nor shall thy attendance at the services of thy church depend on the emotions of a passing hour, the state of the weather or any other unimportant matter.
—Evening Gazette, Cedar Rapids, IA, March 18, 1912, p. 12.
Note: Commandment 2 for women has "rats" as being valuable in married life as in courtship. I don't know what "rats" are in this context but that is what the article says.
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
The Sadness of a King; Where is Peace and Joy?
1910
By Dr. Robert Hugh Morris
"The Sadness of a King" was the sermon theme of the Rev. Robert Hugh Morris, pastor of the First Presbyterian church of Evanston. Dr. Morris spoke feelingly of the causes and the cure of sadness, and said that many men and women bear about with them the burden of a restless and disquieted spirit because they have not found the way to peace through Christ.
Dr. Morris took as his texts:
"The spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him." — 1 Samuel 16:14
"My tears have been my meat day and night." — Psalms 42:3
"Why art thou cast down, O my soul, and why are thou disquieted within me?" — Psalms 42:5.
"The noble spirit of King David is disquieted within him," said Dr. Morris. "The weakening spirit of Saul is troubled. As the world calls goodness and badness, we may say here is a bad king and here is a good king, and both these kings are unhappy. Then here is the cry of Jesus: 'My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death.' Here is also the saying of Paul: 'I am the chief of sinners,' and his pathetic cry, 'Who shall deliver me from this bondage of death?'
"We are going to think this morning of sadness as we find it manifested in human life. We shall endeavor to think of it, not that we may be sadder, but in order that we may cured of our sadness. But let us frankly admit that sadness as such is not sinful, and that the whole sum and substance of religion is by no manner of means joyousness. This is said because we hear so much about the duty of being joyful and so much about the wickedness of being sorrowful.
"We seem to live in an optimistic age. Now optimism, if by that term we mean a cheerful view of life, is essentially Christian; but optimism, if by that term we mean that everything is all right just as it is, and could not be any better, is essentially pagan. This contrast, in terms is made after very careful consideration of the meaning of those terms.
Christian Optimism Defined
"A bright and hopeful outlook upon life is Christian because Christ taught us that God is our father and that He is taking care of His children. He said, you know, that God fed the sparrows and the ravens and clothed the lily and sent rain on the just and the unjust.
"But the other kind of optimism is pagan, because it means, in its ultimate analysis, essentially this, 'Let us eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die.'
"If serious minded hearers are disposed to question the truth of such a view, let him read from pages of ancient history the stories of orgies performed in Baal worship; of Saturnalia, Bacchic revels, feasts of Nero or celebrations in honor of Apollo in the Grove of Daphne at Antioch. In all these pagan celebrations you find the much lauded picnic view of life as its theory works out in practice.
What is the Purpose of Life?
"Now let's understand each other just here. If you believe that you were created and put into this world to have a good time you will not respond to a single thing in my sermon. But if you believe 'the chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever,' you are in a position to follow and to accept what he said.
"It cannot be urged that there any virtue in being sad, or any sin in being happy and joyous. It all depends on why you are sad and why you are happy, and what is the motive that underlies your joy.
Laughter Not Sin
"The world no longer permits itself to he imposed upon with the idea that anything that gives pleasure is necessarily wrong, and anything that gives pain is ipso facto right or virtuous. To be concrete, it is no longer considered sin, even by the later day disciples of John Wesley for Christians to wear olden ornaments, for women to adorn themselves with beautiful garments and becoming bonnets. It is only when these things go to such an extreme that they become the ruling motive of life that we consider them wrongful or sinful.
"Christians for the most part no longer draw an imaginary line in front of every temple of Thespis and say, 'Hitherto shall thou come no further.' It is only when the representation on the stage within this temple is immoral or degrading, or inane and calculated to waste valuable time, that it becomes a sin in our eyes to enter the doors of those temples.
"It certainly is not considered a sin for us to laugh. Grouchy as was Thomas Carlyle, we none the less find him paraphrasing Shakespeare by saying: 'The man who cannot laugh is not only fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils, but his whole life is already a treason and a stratagem.' Neither will the modern Christian permit some mournful friar, who digs his own grave in the solemn hour of midnight, singing doleful songs the while, to foist upon him the false doctrine that God is pleased when we are sorrowful.
"Nor will the flagellating brothers, with bare, bleeding shoulders, whipping themselves from pillar to post, ever make us believe any more that we honor God by dishonoring this frame which His Book has called His temple. Nevertheless, friends, there is essentially a great truth underlying this world of error, and that truth, it seems to me, may be summed up in this statement: The life of man, the soul of man, the immortal destiny of man, are too vast, too complicated too Godlike, to be made absolutely happy by the things that can be seen and handled and heard and tasted in this present world. 'Man's unhappiness, as I construe, comes of his greatness. It is because there is an infinite in him which with all his cunning he cannot quite bury under the finite.'
"Of course, our subject really is 'the causes and the cure of sadness.' We shall speak very briefly of certain causes and indicate with similar brevity the cure of each kind.
Melancholia is a Disease
"The materialistic view. We may as well admit a large element of truth in the view of the materialist. If we change the word sadness to melancholy we have a clearer idea of what is meant here, for melancholia is a disease. No demonstration is needed, for your own experience has proven to you that, all other things being equal, life looks fairer when the sun shines than it does when the clouds lower.
"You and I are less prone to propound to ourselves and others the dialectical donkey's question, 'Is life worth living?' when all the functions of our body work well, when digestion is perfect and altogether we are free from the hamperings of headache or the racking of rheumatism.
"The cure for such melancholy, and a goodly part if it is undoubtedly due to these physical causes, is likewise physical. The disease being physical, certainly the remedy must touch the physical nature. The remedy required for a large part of our melancholy is a little more fresh air, a little more exercise, a little more Fletcherizing, and a little less highly seasoned food.
"But there is a kind of sadness found amongst us which is not due to such physical causes as we have just mentioned, but which is due rather to a feeling of uselessness, a feeling of failure. One may have set for himself the accomplishment of a certain end in life and failing of that
accomplishment, he may be thrown into a heavier or lighter state of sadness by feeling that he has failed.
"There would be manifold manifestations of this if we could read the heart lives of many of our most serious minded friends all about us in this present day. The trouble seems to be that we have set some impossible or some incorrect standard and have been unable to measure up to it, or else to keep up to it.
Walking Ice Plants Not Popular
"I know a clergyman who occasionally preaches very able, very helpful sermons, but on the principle that the clock cannot strike 12 every time it strikes, this clergyman does not preach his best in every sermon. If you meet him on Monday after he has delivered one of the sermons which he considers a failure you will feel, when you have gotten within fifty feet of him, that you are approaching an ice plant and an indigo factory combined into one.
"You find him in that state of mind spoken of by the author of the book of Ecclesiastes, who bemoaned that 'I applied my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that, this also was a striving after wind. I said of laughter, it is mad, and of mirth, what doeth it, and I hated all my labor wherein I labored under the sun, Vanitas vaniotumomnia est vanitas."
"What is said of sermons is true of other lines of endeavor. You have not jarred the good old world out of her track, or changed her axis, or delayed her in her course, but the few mistakes you have made this past week, and so without completely underrating your labor you may none the less improve your life's happiness by considering it as a bit less necessary to the destiny of the world.
External Causes Produce Sadness
"Sadness is sometimes the result of a state of affairs that is objective, by which we mean, it is occasioned, it is brought about, by events external to our own minds and hearts, even absolutely beyond our control. The coming of sorrow through sickness and absence and death may be classed under this head. Shall I be blamed if, when my friend has gone from me, I am unable to show the world as smiling a face as I showed when that face was reflecting the sunlit life of him who walked at my side?
"For this specie of sadness, which is largely the result of external conditions, over which the many may in time come to have control, but which it has not yet conquered, one cannot so easily state a cure. Of course, it is even true that there are conditions which, as the world now goes, seem to be irremediable, at least for this life. Such perhaps were in the mind of the poet Edwin Markham when he spoke of 'immedicable woes.'
Infinite in Man Years for Eternity
"There is a specie of sadness, perhaps close akin of this last, but which also goes beyond it, and which cannot be explained in any one of the three preceding ways. It is due to man's infinite nature. Nothing absolutely satisfies him, because he is essentially unsatisfiable.
"The mere animal takes his fill of material comforts and seems to rest in perfect satisfaction, but with a man it is different.
"A great pathetic spirit was Lincoln, around whose very laughter there glitters a tear, whose smile is overspread with a nameless sadness, as some morning in May when sunshine and shower are strangely blended.
"Long ago St. Augustine felt this sorrow, this sadness, this melancholy of the orphan spirit of man, and long ago St. Augustine correctly stated the meaning: 'Thou, O God,' he says in his Confessions, 'Thou hast made us for Thyself and our hearts are restless within us until they rest in Thee.'
"The singer of Israel a long while before Augustine had said. 'Thou hast made man a little lower than God,' and because he is made thus infinite, finite things will never quite satisfy. And as the old Bishop of Hippo has suggested, the cure for this specie of melancholy is to rest in God.
"O heart of man, restless like the surging sea which cannot be still; O heart of man, hungry like the hungry sea which cannot be satisfied, there is one stillness and one satisfaction for thee, and only one. It is that peace and that satisfaction which cometh only when thou hast quaffed the divine elixir, breathed the ambrosial air and feasted upon the heavenly fruits which all are in the presence of thy Creator and thy Father, the one all-giving and all-satisfying."
—Waterloo Reporter, Waterloo, Iowa, July 2, 1910, p. 2.
By Dr. Robert Hugh Morris
"The Sadness of a King" was the sermon theme of the Rev. Robert Hugh Morris, pastor of the First Presbyterian church of Evanston. Dr. Morris spoke feelingly of the causes and the cure of sadness, and said that many men and women bear about with them the burden of a restless and disquieted spirit because they have not found the way to peace through Christ.
Dr. Morris took as his texts:
"The spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him." — 1 Samuel 16:14
"My tears have been my meat day and night." — Psalms 42:3
"Why art thou cast down, O my soul, and why are thou disquieted within me?" — Psalms 42:5.
"The noble spirit of King David is disquieted within him," said Dr. Morris. "The weakening spirit of Saul is troubled. As the world calls goodness and badness, we may say here is a bad king and here is a good king, and both these kings are unhappy. Then here is the cry of Jesus: 'My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death.' Here is also the saying of Paul: 'I am the chief of sinners,' and his pathetic cry, 'Who shall deliver me from this bondage of death?'
"We are going to think this morning of sadness as we find it manifested in human life. We shall endeavor to think of it, not that we may be sadder, but in order that we may cured of our sadness. But let us frankly admit that sadness as such is not sinful, and that the whole sum and substance of religion is by no manner of means joyousness. This is said because we hear so much about the duty of being joyful and so much about the wickedness of being sorrowful.
"We seem to live in an optimistic age. Now optimism, if by that term we mean a cheerful view of life, is essentially Christian; but optimism, if by that term we mean that everything is all right just as it is, and could not be any better, is essentially pagan. This contrast, in terms is made after very careful consideration of the meaning of those terms.
Christian Optimism Defined
"A bright and hopeful outlook upon life is Christian because Christ taught us that God is our father and that He is taking care of His children. He said, you know, that God fed the sparrows and the ravens and clothed the lily and sent rain on the just and the unjust.
"But the other kind of optimism is pagan, because it means, in its ultimate analysis, essentially this, 'Let us eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die.'
"If serious minded hearers are disposed to question the truth of such a view, let him read from pages of ancient history the stories of orgies performed in Baal worship; of Saturnalia, Bacchic revels, feasts of Nero or celebrations in honor of Apollo in the Grove of Daphne at Antioch. In all these pagan celebrations you find the much lauded picnic view of life as its theory works out in practice.
What is the Purpose of Life?
"Now let's understand each other just here. If you believe that you were created and put into this world to have a good time you will not respond to a single thing in my sermon. But if you believe 'the chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever,' you are in a position to follow and to accept what he said.
"It cannot be urged that there any virtue in being sad, or any sin in being happy and joyous. It all depends on why you are sad and why you are happy, and what is the motive that underlies your joy.
Laughter Not Sin
"The world no longer permits itself to he imposed upon with the idea that anything that gives pleasure is necessarily wrong, and anything that gives pain is ipso facto right or virtuous. To be concrete, it is no longer considered sin, even by the later day disciples of John Wesley for Christians to wear olden ornaments, for women to adorn themselves with beautiful garments and becoming bonnets. It is only when these things go to such an extreme that they become the ruling motive of life that we consider them wrongful or sinful.
"Christians for the most part no longer draw an imaginary line in front of every temple of Thespis and say, 'Hitherto shall thou come no further.' It is only when the representation on the stage within this temple is immoral or degrading, or inane and calculated to waste valuable time, that it becomes a sin in our eyes to enter the doors of those temples.
"It certainly is not considered a sin for us to laugh. Grouchy as was Thomas Carlyle, we none the less find him paraphrasing Shakespeare by saying: 'The man who cannot laugh is not only fit for treasons, stratagems and spoils, but his whole life is already a treason and a stratagem.' Neither will the modern Christian permit some mournful friar, who digs his own grave in the solemn hour of midnight, singing doleful songs the while, to foist upon him the false doctrine that God is pleased when we are sorrowful.
"Nor will the flagellating brothers, with bare, bleeding shoulders, whipping themselves from pillar to post, ever make us believe any more that we honor God by dishonoring this frame which His Book has called His temple. Nevertheless, friends, there is essentially a great truth underlying this world of error, and that truth, it seems to me, may be summed up in this statement: The life of man, the soul of man, the immortal destiny of man, are too vast, too complicated too Godlike, to be made absolutely happy by the things that can be seen and handled and heard and tasted in this present world. 'Man's unhappiness, as I construe, comes of his greatness. It is because there is an infinite in him which with all his cunning he cannot quite bury under the finite.'
"Of course, our subject really is 'the causes and the cure of sadness.' We shall speak very briefly of certain causes and indicate with similar brevity the cure of each kind.
Melancholia is a Disease
"The materialistic view. We may as well admit a large element of truth in the view of the materialist. If we change the word sadness to melancholy we have a clearer idea of what is meant here, for melancholia is a disease. No demonstration is needed, for your own experience has proven to you that, all other things being equal, life looks fairer when the sun shines than it does when the clouds lower.
"You and I are less prone to propound to ourselves and others the dialectical donkey's question, 'Is life worth living?' when all the functions of our body work well, when digestion is perfect and altogether we are free from the hamperings of headache or the racking of rheumatism.
"The cure for such melancholy, and a goodly part if it is undoubtedly due to these physical causes, is likewise physical. The disease being physical, certainly the remedy must touch the physical nature. The remedy required for a large part of our melancholy is a little more fresh air, a little more exercise, a little more Fletcherizing, and a little less highly seasoned food.
"But there is a kind of sadness found amongst us which is not due to such physical causes as we have just mentioned, but which is due rather to a feeling of uselessness, a feeling of failure. One may have set for himself the accomplishment of a certain end in life and failing of that
accomplishment, he may be thrown into a heavier or lighter state of sadness by feeling that he has failed.
"There would be manifold manifestations of this if we could read the heart lives of many of our most serious minded friends all about us in this present day. The trouble seems to be that we have set some impossible or some incorrect standard and have been unable to measure up to it, or else to keep up to it.
Walking Ice Plants Not Popular
"I know a clergyman who occasionally preaches very able, very helpful sermons, but on the principle that the clock cannot strike 12 every time it strikes, this clergyman does not preach his best in every sermon. If you meet him on Monday after he has delivered one of the sermons which he considers a failure you will feel, when you have gotten within fifty feet of him, that you are approaching an ice plant and an indigo factory combined into one.
"You find him in that state of mind spoken of by the author of the book of Ecclesiastes, who bemoaned that 'I applied my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that, this also was a striving after wind. I said of laughter, it is mad, and of mirth, what doeth it, and I hated all my labor wherein I labored under the sun, Vanitas vaniotumomnia est vanitas."
"What is said of sermons is true of other lines of endeavor. You have not jarred the good old world out of her track, or changed her axis, or delayed her in her course, but the few mistakes you have made this past week, and so without completely underrating your labor you may none the less improve your life's happiness by considering it as a bit less necessary to the destiny of the world.
External Causes Produce Sadness
"Sadness is sometimes the result of a state of affairs that is objective, by which we mean, it is occasioned, it is brought about, by events external to our own minds and hearts, even absolutely beyond our control. The coming of sorrow through sickness and absence and death may be classed under this head. Shall I be blamed if, when my friend has gone from me, I am unable to show the world as smiling a face as I showed when that face was reflecting the sunlit life of him who walked at my side?
"For this specie of sadness, which is largely the result of external conditions, over which the many may in time come to have control, but which it has not yet conquered, one cannot so easily state a cure. Of course, it is even true that there are conditions which, as the world now goes, seem to be irremediable, at least for this life. Such perhaps were in the mind of the poet Edwin Markham when he spoke of 'immedicable woes.'
Infinite in Man Years for Eternity
"There is a specie of sadness, perhaps close akin of this last, but which also goes beyond it, and which cannot be explained in any one of the three preceding ways. It is due to man's infinite nature. Nothing absolutely satisfies him, because he is essentially unsatisfiable.
"The mere animal takes his fill of material comforts and seems to rest in perfect satisfaction, but with a man it is different.
"A great pathetic spirit was Lincoln, around whose very laughter there glitters a tear, whose smile is overspread with a nameless sadness, as some morning in May when sunshine and shower are strangely blended.
"Long ago St. Augustine felt this sorrow, this sadness, this melancholy of the orphan spirit of man, and long ago St. Augustine correctly stated the meaning: 'Thou, O God,' he says in his Confessions, 'Thou hast made us for Thyself and our hearts are restless within us until they rest in Thee.'
"The singer of Israel a long while before Augustine had said. 'Thou hast made man a little lower than God,' and because he is made thus infinite, finite things will never quite satisfy. And as the old Bishop of Hippo has suggested, the cure for this specie of melancholy is to rest in God.
"O heart of man, restless like the surging sea which cannot be still; O heart of man, hungry like the hungry sea which cannot be satisfied, there is one stillness and one satisfaction for thee, and only one. It is that peace and that satisfaction which cometh only when thou hast quaffed the divine elixir, breathed the ambrosial air and feasted upon the heavenly fruits which all are in the presence of thy Creator and thy Father, the one all-giving and all-satisfying."
—Waterloo Reporter, Waterloo, Iowa, July 2, 1910, p. 2.
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