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Show finETl ELwIER I. GOSHEN'S j j-; j-; SUNDAY SERMON j g be the men and vcun that we ought to be, never will we find the sweet calm ar.d jeace of life, never will we know the power of life, till we turn and recognize rec-ognize In Him the way, the truth and the life. I wonder If you have read the story of love and devotion that the great essayist es-sayist finds In the life of the great actor, Lawrence Barrett? He had a brother who allowed himself to be ruled by the passion of strong: drink. It cursed his body and wrecked hla mind. For months he would wander over the earth a vagabond vag-abond and an outcast, coming home at last soiled, ragged and wretched. But through It all Lawrence Barrett stood by this unfortunate brother and sought to woo him back to life of self-mastery and rectitude. The wayward man loved his mother and worshiped her footprints In the dust. While he was away from home the mother was taken seriously 111, and Joe was summoned, bidden to hasten home else he could never see his mother again on this earth. But before he came the mother died. The essayist essay-ist tells the scene that follows: They laid her away and after the ceremony Lawrence Barrett stood" yonder In the cemetery, and a the shadows deepened deep-ened he saw lurching and leering behind be-hind tree and from tombstone a figure, and as he waited he saw that It was his brother Joe. The son threw himself on the earth and said, "Mother, I have traveled long and am weary and hungry. hun-gry. I have broken your heart, but I have traveled to get one more glimpse of your face; but they have put you away from me, and I am alone forever and ever." Lawrence Barrett reached down and said, "Joe, can't you take back those words 'alone forever and throwing his arms about his brother, Joe said: 'Yes, for I am not alone as long as little brother Larry lives and forgives.'" Today, bathed In the sunshine of God's love, lift your face t6ward Him and say, "Oh, Lamb of God, I come, I corneJl - . In . picturing their conception of life thinkers have found it hard to summarize summar-ize the Qualities that make up Ideal manhood and womanhood; and yet, all have agreed that love of the true, the beautiful, the right must be the foundation founda-tion stone of progress1 and of character. It is only when we learn something of the law of love that we find the power and the sweetness of life. Because he loves nature, therefore Coleridge finds he. secret, and finding it he helps ail othi ,i to hear . the music of her voice. When Wordsworth approached Cha-moual Cha-moual and the mountains that smrround I . he says that "he was conscious of a shivering 4 -rom head to foot, with mingled min-gled awe and fear; his mind thrilled as if in the preserfce of a disembodied spirit; spir-it; his heart approached nature with an Intensity of Joy comparable only to that Joy which Dante felt when approaching Beatrice." But when the cares of outer things crept in, upon him he found that his power to describe nature had faded. , "For only where the heart loves' can Intellect do great work." Love perfected perfect-ed the work of chisei and mallet and made Angelo Immortal; love taught Millet Mil-let the laws of color and made the canvas can-vas glorious; love of knowledge sends the. scientist to Jungle and thicket, courting fever and disease, and love ne day preserves his name from for-getfulnese; for-getfulnese; love for the - unfortunate sends John Howard to the prison with his gospel of cleansing and uplift; love of humanity will yet send out consecrated conse-crated men and women to solve the problems that crush humanity, and to gird the earth with the eunshine of mutual helpfulness, filling every cranny with the songs of joy. It is love that makes man worthy to himself and to his fellows; and it is love love of moral, excellence, love of truth, love of . the Ideal that teaches man the perfect law of life, and leads him to know and to fellowship with God. To teach man to find an ideal manhood, to find the best . In himself nd to awaken the best In his fellow pilgrims; to teach him so to use his harp of life as to make it in tune with the Infinite was the Christ's mission on earth. He found men afflicted af-flicted by the strifes and rivalries of life, knowing not how. to give expressions expres-sions to the spirit that cried within therrT?or life and light; knowing not how t j find communion and fellowship with cJbd. Man was like some splendid temple, whose frescoes had been tarnished, tar-nished, whose tapestries despoiled, whose walls begrimed. He was like some beautiful harp made for sweetness sweet-ness and harmony, but whose strings were-torn and twisted, and whose music was only a waiL Made to enjoy the sunlight, sun-light, man was wandering in the darkness. dark-ness. Intended to sit M his Father's bancuiet-board, man was in a beggar's garb, living upon the husks of life. And eo the Christ found him. and by unfold-lne unfold-lne to him the law of perfect love sought rejected by the common. people; subjected sub-jected to the most degrading and ignominious igno-minious death crucified with thieves His life was said to be ended. He wrote no books He fashioned no tool He left no wrouht-out system of philosophy. philoso-phy. He died and men said He was soon to be forgotten. But nineteen centuries have rolled away, and behold the record! rec-ord! .- By His Influence all literature and art has been remodeled. Laws have been changed and humanized because of His spirit. Science and scholarship have wnited to do Him homage And to proclaim His truth. A" nations unite In celebrating His birthday, and even ignorant and heathen tribes have some few who strive to follow His $ruth. Before He came Rome, with All her wealth and all her culture, was saturated saturat-ed In vice and immorality. She was steeped in the coarsest kind of debauchery debauch-ery The historians of the period are taxed to give an Impartial review of fact that shall be presentable on printed ! page. Into such a life came the Chris- j tian .religion; with awful force did It strike against these atrocities. It taught of the purity of life; of the sanctity of manhood and womanhood. It Insisted that one man was better than another only as he excelled In character. It taught that one man bad no. right to enslave another; that all men must know happiness, for all men were the children of God. This new teaching born of the Christ began a task different from any that the centuries had known. It swept aside the superficial moralties It knew no system of negations. It Insisted that life to be clean and worthy, must be cleansed at its sources. That when the heart was right the whole life would be right And that teaching went on until the great and wise listened and the kings of the earth gave heed. See Henry IV. bowing at Conossa; Barbarosa receiving upon his neck the foot of the proud potentate; behold Henry II. of England allowing himself to be scourged before the shrine at Canterbury; Can-terbury; John receiving back his crown from Panduef; see Rudolph of Haps-burg. Haps-burg. not finding the sceptre In the temple of his coronation, seising upon the crucifix and swearing that that should be his sceptre; and there is Godfrey God-frey refusing to wear a crown of gold when his Savior, had worn a crown of thorns. - Surely, this new power has been and is the mightiest on the earth yet it Is a power that reaches Its way without sword or bayonet it conquers through the power of redeeming love. Before the Christ came with his gospel gos-pel of love and brotherhood, the earth groaned with oppression. The poor were despised, the weak were crushed. But, touched by His love, men went forth to protect the weak, to relieve the sufferine. to build asylums for the un- though dim legead of some heroic husband hus-band or wife who, for the love they bore each other, did literally die for each other. There are in the facts of profane pro-fane history a tew dim, shadowy outlines out-lines of such assurances as these; that when to stjme individual came the alternative alter-native of dying for another, some such Individuals have considered It a sweet and sacred thing, to die for the one they loved. Such' are the stories that have come down to us of the triumphs of human love, of the achievements of human aft ection, but there la not one recorded re-corded of a person dying for hla enemy. But the love of the Christ was not for his friends, but for his adversaries; not for his lovers, but for his enemies. He lived and died to show how far the love of God can go. Just to lift ua out of self and unto God He came. To reclaim, re-claim, ua from the loss and degradation of sin and folly. To lift us before the Image of a perfect life, and to urge us to noblest living for Just this he bore all and today, with accents sweet and tender. He saya to you and me, "My ton, give me thy heart." Over all the earth the good Father baa spread the evidence of His love toward to-ward uk In sunrise and sunset He tells the story In violet and rose he breathes the message. In everything that ministers minis-ters to our need and welfare He announces an-nounces Hla love, and finally, out of our very natures made In His own image. im-age. He whispers the secret. And yet you and L. surrounded by all this love, called In a thousand ways to a life of conscious, fellowship with the loving heart that provides it all-snip all-snip and piece and with our puny little-' ness we argue against this and that complain that we do not feel certain about many things withhold our lives from a loving fellowship and service, and so rob our life of truest blessing and power. How we cheapen life and devitalize our powers by all this! How much sorrow sor-row we bring to self and to friends because be-cause we follow afar oft that one who Is at once our tenderest friend, our hope and life! In matchless verse has some one written writ-ten the story: All night I fled- from God along the waste And dreary places of an unknown land. Where sorrows and sighing dwell. I heard the cry Of stormy winds behind me, and I knew That darkly on their awful wings He rode 4 Whom I would fain escape. The thuiZ der pealed Above me. and in the thunder was tiff" sound f As of a trumpet, speaking terrible things. And waxing ever louder. For I had sinned. And God was now awake, and had arisen. to. reclaim bim to himself, to society and to God. Before Christ's time men thought of God as possessed of love, but they thought His nature to be possessed of so many severe attributes that the love of it all was too often forgotten. But Jesus came, teaching that God's nature w as such that if He finds but a "ppark of good in the outcast, the publican, pub-lican, the sinner, he will tend that ppark, feed it toward the lom. liUl shaTI glow and sparkle forever vand ever, for evil is to be conquered, and God will not so much punish as exterminate 6in from His universe. Therefore cleanse youfa views of Him. Betfoii-His strength"Tn fleeted toward gentleness. His Justice tempered with mercy, and all His attributes at-tributes held in solution of love, even as the seven colors lose themselves in the single beam of white light. Let not Medievalism becloud God's gentle face. Let each intellect soar without hindrance hin-drance and the heart pour itself out before be-fore God in a freshet of divine love." When we remember the wonderful history his-tory of Jesus of Nazareth,' when we consider con-sider what He has done for all of us, whether we are fair enough to acknowledge acknowl-edge His service or not; when we contemplate con-template His spotless purity. His unending un-ending sacrifice. His undying love, then we are all devotion, and His love lures us to highest and holiest living. Men make labored arguments to show why we should accept the teaching and the leading of the Christ, but we shall never be rmuch helped until we feel the cling anl the clasp of the love that revealed re-vealed !' flf in His life. The su-'Wimest reason for believing in the religton of Jesus itfcJesus Himself. Born in a degraded village of a captive nation of poor parents spending thirty years in obscure and humble toll; corned by rulers-fyjled by priests fortunate and hospitals for the maimed. The schools and colleges and charities of the earth all speak, saying: "We minister because of His love that bulld-ed bulld-ed and maintains us alL" Yet you and I, knowing all this, withhold our life from Him, and shut God's love away. Hear the greatest soul that England knew during the past century summing up the experience of his life and saying: say-ing: "Once I. like Maaeppa, bound hand and foot, bound on the wild horse of my own selfish desires, was galloping on to loss and ruin. Thea came a mighty hand which stopped that wild sjsm cut my bonds, let me down and -brought me into liberty. Is there power? pow-er? He who has felt it will confess it. There was a time when I trusted in self and failed miserably. There came a trumpeter to the door and bade me open It. I, with anger, drove him from the door, and said that he hould never enter. There came a gcodlyerson with loving countenance. Hjaiands were TrTarked with scars yfffe naa-jirexfc, driven. His feet hacNaWil linX Mollis Mo-llis face wore a smile of iflw and tender compassion. It thrilled my soul and I fell at His feet. Then He took me by the hand and said, 'Arise and stand upon thy feet, for I have loved thee with an infinite love.' " Oh, puny, frivokms and heedless soul that has never felt the thrill and the power of this matchless loy Oh. soul false to self an"freant to God that will not responLwthat love that seeks to crown HyA Joy and power and life Immortal! t- Responslveness to the love of God and His Christ has characterized all earth's truest characters, and will characterize all who phall be worthy much to self or One who" has written her name indelibly indeli-bly in the love of humanity one day visited the famous galleries of Gustave Dore in London. She stood entranced before the wonderful canvases, and finally she turned to the great artist, and with her eyes full of tears, she said: "Surely. M. Dore, ye must love the Lord. You who are aJflCays painting paint-ing Him must love Him." Y YeHytnad-am." YeHytnad-am." was the reply, "I W loveNBfcjsi though not as I ought. But when I lov Him better I'll paint Him better," Secret Se-cret of power. Solution of life's mystery. mys-tery. Hear Frederick Robertson, after a life of rich service a life .that knew much of puffering and sorrow, and yet a life that had found the unsearchable riches of God. Hear him saying as he sums up It all: "Therefore, come what may, hold fast to love. Though men should rend your heart, let them not embitter or harden it. We win by ten-ness. ten-ness. we Conquer by forgiveness. Oh, strive to enter into something of that lare celestial charity which Is meek, enduring, unretaliatlng, and which the overbearing world cannot withstand forever! Learn the new commandment of the law of God: Not to love merely And left His ancient place to deal with me. Thro' the long night I fled; yet God is fleet And scorneth time and space. How Is that He Thus hastening after me, hath never laid His grasp upon my shoulder, hurling me Beneath His feet in death? Perchance His will : Is not to smite rhe from behind; He - trusts That I, being spent, must shortly turn and meet The majesty if His offended face, And die at sight of Him. And still I pressed. Trembling, across the rough and desolate deso-late ground. And went thro' swollen streams and in the dark Fell and arose; and faintly struggled on. -i;ptn at last, when night was almost done, I iieai he sorrowful thunder of the sea W&dyftaftr the white waves breaking at )riy feet, Ajfdroo way of escape on either hand. deafthyHMng close before and God I turned Skst to meet His face; and lot The storms were over and the morning stars Shone sweetly on the face of One, who wore The likeness of a man and smiled on me. At sight of Him I cried aloud. For clear On the fair hair, which caught the down. I saw A crown of knitted thorns; and on the white. Cold feet, mysterious scars; and on His mouth That smile, a smile for me! And I had drawn These wounded feet behind me thro' the night ' Over the rough and stormy ground; for still And ever he is seeking what is lost And finding what had sought to hide from Him. Oh this was He, from whom all night I fled - In trembling and despair. But at the dawn He showed Himself thus marvelous to me And rose upon me, making darkness light. Friends, this is the picture that some of us are painting. In our short-sighted selfishness we have shut the Christ out of our lives; we have ignored His pleading plead-ing and His love. Yet, that love still seeks to find us: still seeks to lead us to a better way. And never will we but to love as He loved. Go forth in hls to your life duties: go forth, children chil-dren of the cross, to carry everything l betore you and win victories for God by the conquering power of a love like His." It Is recounted that Cyrus once entered en-tered the country of the King of Armenia,, Ar-menia,, and having taken him and all his family prisoners, ordered them before be-fore him. "Armenlus," said he, "you are free, for you are sensible of your ' error and what will you give me If I restore your wife to you? All that I am able. What if I restore your children? chil-dren? All that I am able. "And you. Tlgranes," said he. turning to the son, "what would you do to wve your wife from servitude?" Now, Tlgranes Tlg-ranes had great love for his wife, and he replied: "Cyrus, to save her from servitude servi-tude I would willingly lay.down my own life." "Let each have his own again," said Cyrus, and when he had departed one spoke of hla valor, nother of his grace of person. . Then Tlgranes asked his wife if she thought him handsome. "Really." said rtie. "I did not look at him, for I could only see him who of- fered to lay down his life for me." We have here and there a. beautiful 1 .; , , . . |