Show INCREASED GRACE I IFOR FOR YEAR Topic of Sermon at First Pres Presbyterian Delivered by Dr Paden CHRISTIANS RESOURCES NEED FOR PRACTICAL GROWTH IN DAILY LIFE Taking as his theme Increase of Grace from the text And God is able to make alt grace abound unto you that ye having all sufficiency in everything may unto every good work 1 Cor 98 the Rev W M Paden DD at the First Presbyterian church day morning delivered an eloquent New Years sermon Dr Paden said in part We think of God as one who has enough and to spare Time earth is the Lords and the fullness thereof He Is rich in mercy rich in rich to all that cali upon ablo to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that work eth in us We cannot over estimate the depths oV the riches of the wisdom of God or the exceeding riches of His the scriptures teach and so we believe And God is able to make all grace abound unto us that we having all suf sufficiency in everything may abound unto every good work Our resources within reach are abundant and our comprehensive and clear As He is rich In power we should be rich in faith as He is rich in grace we should be rich in all the graces especially In charity As He is rich in the love which Ho bath toward us we should abound in love one to another as He mightily we should like Dorcas be full of good works Riches of Grace Now the apostles were not content that Christians should be so poor when Christ was so rich They insisted that those who spoke of the riches of His grace should make more use of it Add to your virtues multiply your graces abound in love and good will and good were the common apostolic preach ing They should more place in our thought speech and conduct The best timing in the world is the religion of Christ the next best thing Is plenty of it God has nothing better to offer than the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ It is about the only thing there is of which a man cannot get too much and one of the very few good things of which men do not seem to be eager to take ail they can get for the asking But how this graco be multiplied We are conscious of our spiritual pov erty We know that many of our virtues are lean and that we made a worthy beginning with some of the oth ers and many of the graces Even our most conspicuous shining virtues might be multiplied thrice sevenfold and we still be far short of the of the nature of Christ The best or us are no wise near as good as God is willing to make us at even so much as one point at many points we have hardly grace enough to begin with What must we do We must go to God for a beginning be fore we can go to him for increase As we sometimes say in talking of men He cannot do this for it In hinr or he cannot succeed in that for he it in him so we may say of endeavors to attain the grace or graces of Jesus One cannot grow in grace unless he has it in him One never knows what there is in him until be tries and trusts Why should he not try and trust the resources of God He in those who trust him to will and do his good pleasure Character Is Personal There are those who would have us think that all depends on ones surround ings and that if you change the mans conditions you change the man But character Is a more personal matter It is not enough to have graces around us we must have their beginnings in us After listing certain graces St Peter said If these things be in you and abound they will save your lives the curse of being barren and unfruitful The first thing then is to let the spirit of God which Is the spirit of grace have his own way In our hearts We grow in grace because we are at one with the God of all grace We multiply our best by the love of God There Is such a thing as misusing or wasting divine grace For we all are re recipients of such favor This is a dispensation of grace not a dispensation of penalty Let us beware how we use the riches of divine mercy At another time we may speak of sins fecundity and of the way one vice begets another But there Is a subtler way of breaking down the soul of man or the spirit of society When the evil one can cannot not multiply our vices he attempts to subtract from or divide our virtues If he cannot kill or displace our consciences the next best thing is to keep them quiet or to set them by the ears Divide and conquer Is one of his maxims If we would multiply our strength as Christ tans we must beware of the devils sion and we need to remember that if he once gets down under our motives he will make us his one a abit bit of a man and a deal of an imp Cure for Evils Tue only antidote to impoverishment of character is improvement the only cure for decrease Of is increase There is no such thing as standing still In matters which concern character Each day and every act is for richer or poorer bettor or worse Dismiss the good spirit and the evil spirit possesses your soul as naturally as possesses the earth when the sun goes down The only way to overcome evil is with good The best way to break with wrong Is to be begin gin doing right Doing the best you know is often your only escape from do ins the will of the worst you know We multiply our talents or abilities by using them and by using them all Some of us fail at this point Our religious life is too macli a matter of practicing our easiest virtues Find out your weak spots and make them sate and strong Grace is symmetrical and that soul will make the most of the grace of God whose char character acter building is choral There are dozens of voices in a well rounded character and they all sing and sing in harmony I have seen such harmony in an orchard tree in autumn rich in color with sug suggestions of juicy savor the tree a phony of fruitfulness cacti branch with its own burden no branch burdened to being multiplied and the tree being glorified by the abundant and symmetrical life of the organism Multiply Grace As we multiply grain by it we must grace by using it We must not only use our graces all our graces iest lose them but we must use graces we have that we may yet more As we sow we shall also reap I have spoken of the riches of his grace wherein he has abounded unto us usI I have called to his promise lie is able to make all grace abound unto you that ye having all sufficiency In may abound in every good work While time first call to growth is the ultimate call is to social Now as one fruitful branch does not nake a fruitful tree a few eager work ra do not a fruitful church Grace be multiplied through the many as through the life of all the ranches The whole church must abound n grace mercy and to make thanksgiving abound as it should to the glory of God Effect On Others Make the applIcation instant Suppose each coo of us were to begin mui good will and gladness as we meet face to face at the close of the ser services vices Every expression which we make of our graces multiplies grace In our own harts and in others A score of us by cx pressing the best there is in us ence the score we express ourselves to in a manner grace Is multiplied in at least two scores of A con congregation at work with its graces be a very communion t saints go to work with our graceS at home one child with gentle heart or sunny dispo disposition may fill a whole household with gentleness and sunshine one with the spirit of patience may multiply patience in a home until the whole household be becomes comes patient So with the influence of ofa a brave clean man in his place of bus mess Or a fine spirited woman In her dealings with society A man multiplies his influence on all of his associates a spirit Insensibly pervades her whole social circle So a church nay multiply the Influence of Christ in n neighborhood or keep up the tone of Christian in a city or state Of course grace mercy ana peace must be multiplied in us or to us before it itcan can be multiplied through and we have Gods promise that lie will endow us with power We can have all the grace we are willing to respond to for forthe the asking The more we express the themore more God will give us The best way to obtain more of Gods blessing is to be bemore more of a blessing to those whom God Godso so graciously calls his children When he finds us caring for those for whom lie cares lie is almost prodigal in his care for us I have suggested that grace is multiplied In us when we touch gra clous people what inspiration there must be then in the touch of Christ As there are men whom to meet is an inspiration the meeting with him is heavens best benediction to earth |