Show BE OF GOOD CHEER Despondency Is not piety A long face is no sign of goodness Discouragement Discour-agement does no good thing What the world needs is encouragement The Gospel Is good news not bad news The Apostle Paul Luther and Moody were all cheery men and swept the world with the chcerfulness of their message Moody used to tell storleH and then thank the Lord for the good times ho had been having Men trust L nstlnctlvcly n truly cheerful man Cheerfulness saved the country In tho dark days of tho revolution and the Civil war The message of Christianity ty has been always signaled with s searchlight thrown upon the clouds There was no naturalistic pessimism In early Christianity The appeal was not to the lower life with Its slow processes pro-cesses but to the higher life with its sudden surprises and Its Instant help I bring you today a message to brighten your hearts and lighten your faces Be of good cheer Is the trumpet call of the Bible to man I bring you several good Scriptural reasons why you should be of good cheer I Tho words of our Savior to the man sick of tho palsy Son be of good cheer thy sins aro forgiven thce Flash that light on tho clouds You cant paint sin too black For there Is nothing like sin to blacken life I Is truly said that this Is 0 world of sin and sorrow Sin and sorrow are Siamese twins Sorrow goes wherever sin goes Even the sting of death Is sin By sin I do not mean crime or vice merely Crime is a violation of human law and vice Is a violation of human opinion In moral matters But sin Is something deeper and more Irradlcablc When crime has been expiated and vice has been reformed sin may remain as apart a-part of the soul I belongs in the nature na-ture and Is a standing affront to the Infinite In-finite Under whatever form or name whether as crime vice transgression trespass missing the mark or hereditary here-ditary tendency It Is the rootenemy of life and happiness And so Jesus struck at the root of death and disease when he said first to the paralyzed man Son be of good cheer Thy sins are forgiven lice Paradise Lost means 0 dissonance disso-nance between man and nature Paradise Para-dise Regained means harmony between man and nature 1 Is the perverted not the natural man who sins The spirit ought never to have to war I against the body I and heaven ought never to have to be sought outside this world Sin spoils this world and turns Its Edens into wildernesses Get the soul right with Us Creator and all other oth-er good things will come in their time I dont mean that there will be no more sickness or death but these things will lose their sting and will talce on a friendly aspect I Be of good cheer t is I be not afraid The world IH In Its fourth watch tolling In rowing and the winds arc contrary Man needs n universal friend he needs a constant presence Personality not mere truth and not mere law can help and save men The Hebrew prophet said 1 that It I was God himself not Irk temple or sacrifice that t could help Israel Now we have the same thought in a bigger and broader form the worldembracing truth that God is and has been in all history not merely In the history or one people or In I the heart of one person but t hl tHe t-He Is Involved In his world Plppl sings in Brownings poem God is I In his heaven iIis right with tho world But now we sing Hod In In His world Arid alls well A young soldier haY lay tl > lnS In a military hospital during the Cuban war The doctor had forbidden his mother to fee him fearing that the excitement might prove fatal BUt she begged that she might take the nurses place prom icing that she would not reveal her Identity Lying with his taco t tho wall he moaned In hln delirium Tho c trum mother simply laid her hand on his brow HR half turned at the touch and said Nurse haw like my mothers hand So it Is always The presence is there although unrecognized I Is your mothers hand The presence of every true friend 1 Is an earnest of the lines ence of the great unseen friend Everything Every-thing Is the touch of the hand of omnipresent omni-present love III When the Apostle Paul wan In trouble we read that The Lord stood by him and said Be of good cheer for an thou hast testified t concerning me nt Jerusalem so must thou bear witness also at nUn Think of that you who are In trouble I you want to he cheerful make life n mission rind not a career A career In I nil right ao far as It goes No Idle nut purposclcas life cun be happy But a mere career will not Insure a man against despondency Too many men work hard on their prospects only to die on the dump at last Education wealth power talent position success pleasure will not save men from despondency de-spondency What will 7 A mission and nothing less Helping the other fellow A man forgets his own danger when he Is saving life He forgets his own trouble when ho Is carrying other mens overloads Miss Thorburn who has dono such a remarkable work establishing es-tablishing free kindergartens In India says she doesnt sing any more I want to be an angel And with the angels stand She would rather stay on earth and be a kindergarten Earl Sl1fe burY the English philanthropist said his greatest regret In leaving the world was that he had to leave so much unalle vlated misery behind If you want to know what real fun Is a kind of fun you will never tire of live to do good and not merely to be successful Make life a mission and not a career IV But when life Is over what then Is there anything ahead Paul suffered shipwreck on his way to Rome where he was to complete his mission by bearing witness through Imprisonment Im-prisonment nnd death to the doctrine of good rhser When the ship tuts breaking up and even the soldiers who had him in charge were panicstricken this man who was bearing and facing death for the sake of the gospel stood forth and said Now I expect you to ho of good cheer for there shall be no loss of life among you but only of the ship Life is n voyage that ends In 0 shipwreck jThls is c world of change Things last only about so long and then go t pieces Men last awhile and then go to pieces Society lasts awhile and goes to pieces OpinIons Opin-ions last awhile and go to pieces Systems Sys-tems i and institutions last awhile and go to pieces The world lasts awhile and goes to pieces These are all voyaging voy-aging ships doomed to shipwreck The question Is what freight are they carrying car-rying anything that Is Immortal and will never go to pieces Ycsl There will be loss of tho ship but no loss of Ufeno loss of that which the ship was made to carry No loss of eternal truth No loss of high personality No loss of friendship and love and hope and faith No loss of that which can dare all for loves sake or for the sake of a principle Flash this good news to thoso who arc doing their best to live strongly nobly and vitally and feel that they are growing old I Is only tile ship that Is going to pieces There will be no loss of life and the best days are yet to come Flash the good news to tho dying Signal tho message of Immortality Upon Up-on the cloud of death Loss of the ship but not of life The best is yet to come J BRAINERD THRALL |