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Show , L j ELMER I. GOSHEN'S I j V lj 1 PirrUCirEI) .- V Telegram's Special '! 1 1"71 I SUNDAY SERMON j -L earth he nowhere was more severe than against this principle. He found the Pharisees robbing widows and orphans, and yet standing on street corners and making loud prayers. He found thera Jealously guarding the old-established views; they were the most orthodox people that the earth had seen up until that time, but he found them honeycombed honey-combed with all manner of hypocrisy and dishonesty but they wanted a Le-vite Le-vite for their priest, so they made up in devotion to creeds and dogmas what they lacked In common honesty. And when the Master saw all this; he turned away and said to the crowd: "Except your righteousness exceeds all this, ye shall not enter Into the kingdom of God, even though you have a Levlte for a priest." You have got the power within yourself your-self to rule your own life If you will. Rule it to make for the betterment of society; to make for the integrity of your individual life. The story of this old book find confirmation con-firmation In the life of every man, and It all teaches us that loss and defeat and sorrow follow the man who knowing know-ing the right will etlll the wrong pursue. pur-sue. The world's literature Is filled with the story that we study today. There I Jean Valjean, violating hts own best instincts; remanded to prison; escaping and fleeing to a distant town. Now he will live a clean life. He accumulates wealth, wins the love of the people and is elected mayor of the village. He gives to the poor, atoning for all past wrongs, and then he Bays: "Surely now the Lord will do me good, for I have a Levlte to be mjf priest." One night he heard of an ' old man who had been arrested for some petty offense. The officers of-ficers thought ha was Jean Valjean. As such he was tried; as such heas to be remanded to prison. When Jean Valjean Val-jean heard that there began an awful struggle between the man's two selves'. If he confessed he must go back to the galleys; he must give up friends and position; po-sition; he mutt cease to labor for his fellow men. If he does not confess, an innocent old man must spend his life in prison. But It will be only for a few years, and Jean Valjean's life is far more valuable than his. And the decision de-cision la made. He takes the candlesticks candle-sticks given him by the bishop, the coin that he took from the boy, and throws them into the flames. He has sealed a bargain; he has made sacrifice sacri-fice for all past wrong. "Surely now the Lord will bless him, for he has a Levlte to be his priest." And from exhaustion ex-haustion he slept. And while he slept hedreamed. He saw an old man standing stand-ing before the court for sentence. He eaw him trembling and bent with sorrow. sor-row. He saw him led away to the cell then a voice spoke, saying: "Jean Valjean, Val-jean, you may melt the candlestick, burn your clothes, change your face but God sees you." And the dream was over, and Jean Valjean, rising, took his horse, drove all the night, and when he reached the distant courtroom the old man was Just to be taken away to his cell. Stepping to the prisoner's bench, Jean Valjean told his story and confessed con-fessed his wrong. And Victor Hugo rays that the room was filled with a great light, and Jean Valjean's face was wreathed in sunshine. Not in finding a Levlte priest, not in concealing wrong did he find the Joy and the song of life, but in doing what he knew to be true and in standing for his own highest con- dlcrous and at the same time one of the most pathetic pictures in all history. Just study this one presented by the closing chapter of this story. There is a band of ruffians carrying away a man's goods and his articles of worship. wor-ship. In the midst is the priest, carrying carry-ing the ephod and the teraphln, and there, running after them, Is this man Micah. crying: "Ye have taken away my gods and my priest, and what more have I left?" Nothing, absolutely nothing, because there is nothing In the man back of his outward show. He did not serve God as he knew to be righU He only sought to appease an outraged conscience. con-science. When they stole his gods and his priest, they stole all that he had, and he was a moral and spiritual bankrupt. bank-rupt. This is the story. What lesson does it carry for us today? The shrewd manipulator, who grabs the oil lands of a country, buys legislation, and corrupts cor-rupts Judges, stifles competition and crushes competitors at length controls the market, and then sits calmly by while the millions pour into his coffers. And Just when he is beginning to enjoy it all, that troublesome thing called conscience begins to gnaw at his heart strings. His gold somehow f&ila to bring the satisfaction that he craves. And as he seeks a way of escape he hits upon a happy plan he gives a few millions mil-lions to some university, & few more to philanthropy; he then Rives a large sum to the church and to the missionary societies, so-cieties, that It may be able to proclaim pro-claim the gospel of love and brotherhood brother-hood and then he smiles at his cleverness clever-ness and says, surely now the Lord will do me good, seeing I have a Levlte to be my priest. And bo he may think, end a long suffering people may long, delay their rightful redress; but one day he shall stand with all his kind before the Judge of all the earth and shall hear the awfulest words that man can know: "Depart .from me, for I never knew you." And his Levlte priest will have no reply to offer, i . Many a man is loudly fearful today lest you take away his forms and ceremonies, cere-monies, for when they are gone he can cry out with Micah and say: "They have taken away my gods, and what more have I left?" Poor soul, he has nothing left for Into the great sanctuary of pure religion he has never entered, and when the forms are gone there he finds himself as he has been all the while, a moral and spiritual bankrupt. Micah has been dead for many centuries, centu-ries, but his family Is scattered over all the earth. Both individuals and cities too often have the spirit of Micah, and they are willing to do penance on Sunday Sun-day if they can be allowed to rob humanity hu-manity for the rest of the week. In matchless verse, Dante tells us how he found the Micah spirit In the Italian city of Lucca: The city was wholly given over to the pursuit of gold. Her merchants and bankers cared more to make the one per cent than they did for truth or virtue vir-tue or religion. But in that city was a poor girl called Zlta. She literally gave her life for charity and spent her strength In caring for the poor and the pick, and when she died all the poor mourned, and as they followed her to the grave, and the consciences of the extortioners of the city pricked them, and in order in some way to atone they proposed that Zlta be made the godde?s of the city. And so it was proclaimed, and they had pictures made of her, and when they bought them and hung them in their hemes, they felt that somehow her virtues would help them, and they said: "Now surely must the Lord do us good, for we have a Levlte for our Judges 17: 13: "Then said Micah. Now know I that the Lord will do me good, seeing I have a Levlte to be my priest" The story frotn which these words are taken is without a parallel in all his-. his-. tory. Micah lived at Mt. Ephraim. His mother had accumulated eleven hundred pieces of silver. With cunning instincts vehe thought, more of these shekels shek-els than of anybody else. ' She - counted them by day and guarded them , by night. But one day she was forgetful forget-ful and whllei she was absent Micah found the hidden silver and stole it away. When Micah's mother returned and found her treasure gone, then she moaned and wept and cursed the man who had thus robbed her. But Micah's conscience troubled him and finally he took back the silver and aid unto his mother: The eleven hun-. hun-. ored shekels of silver which were taken from thee, about which thou cursedst t and epakest of also in mine ears, behold the silver is with me; I took It and his mother Bald: Blessed be thou of the ' Lord. my. son. And when she had the money again she said to Micah: Now I had determined to give this money to , the Lord I had wholly dedicated the sliver unto the Lord from my hand for my son, to make a graven image and a , -molten Image; now therefore 1 will restore re-store it unto thee. No doubt after the money was stolen she pledged It unto the Lord If It be recovered Just as we promise when we are tick to live better bet-ter if we' are spared to heajth again. ' But when it was really recovered, notice . what she did. She took two hundred shekels of silver sil-ver and gave them to the founder, Mho made a graven image and a molten image for the house of Micah. She ; gave two hundred shekels, but she kept nine hundred. rNo great wonder that Micah stands in history as the great , illustration of human casuistry he came of that kind of stock. Micah didn't confine his talents simply sim-ply to stealing his mother's money. He was a shrewd fellow and determined to be rich, And Just like norr.e men of today, to-day, he was not particular about the " means if he could reckon up the per cent. - Now, near, to him lived a man who had flocks and herds, so Micah went to 'his herdsman and, giving him money, '' intimated that if the herds were allowed - " to mingle with the neighbors' herds as they grazed, that the shepherd would not lose anything by It So when winter win-ter came and the flocks were brought down from the hills, it was found that Micah's herd had greatly Increased, while the neighbors had not fared so well. ,. But Micah wasn't Quite happy. He -was bothered by that troublesome thing called conscience. So he made a sanctuary for the gods and he made an ephod and- teraphln. One day a young priest came along. He , , was from the land of Bethlehem-Judah, and he was a Levite. Now this greatly pleased Micah, and after talking to the priest for a while, he determined to have him stay there. He did not ask much money, and because he was cheap Micah hired him. He. did not remember that cheap men are often cheap in char-' char-' acter. So the young man became the priest of the household, and Micah said: "Now I know that the Lord will bless me and do me good, for I have a Levite for my priest." Wasn't that a shrewd move? Micah had stolen a!l the money that he had, . had cheated his neighbor and now he cheats even the Lord himself. He makes it Impossible for the Lord not to bless him for has he not one of the Lord's people a Levite for his priest? Did you ever hear of a move more shrewd than .that? Every day the burning altar and the smoking incense mingle with the prayers of the priest, i and the Lord was bound to bless Micah, for he hath Joined hards with the Lord's people he had a Levite for his priest. But there is another chapter to the story. One day some men from the . north came along and saw Micah's house of worship. They saw the priest " and recognized him as an old acquaintance. acquaint-ance. So they went away and found their -companions and with them came back and entered the sanctuary of Ml- cah and they took the carved image and the moltn irrape and the ephod and -' ; the teraphln and started away. To all tbls the priest objected, but they said Mo him: "Hold thy peace; is it better for Vhee to be a priest unto the hoirlte of -one man, or that thou be a priest unto a tribe, and a family in Israel? Come with us and tie unto us the priest." And the priest's heart eiad 8nd he took the ephod and the teraphln and the graven image and went in the midst of the people. And when they were gone tome distance, dis-tance, Micah discovered his loss and came running after them his heart broken, his property gone. If you would see one of the most lu- vlctlons. Arthur DImmesdale grew wan and thin battling with the sin that stood ever before him. He was like a man bound hand and foot. And when the struggle was at Its height then came the suggestion to take Hester and Pearl and fly-away, finding happiness and peace and honor. Let him thus make amend for wrong; let him have a Levite for his priest and the Lord must do him good. But when the ship was getting ready to eall, the better angel of his nature spoke, saying: "Not thus shall you find life's Joy and calm, but by staying where you are and confessing your wrong." And when Arthur DImmesdale DIm-mesdale obeyed that message, then the air W88 sweet with perfume and in his inner soul there was music that knew no discord: there was happiness that knew no abatement The story of Micah teaches a great lesson of the uselessness of the religious relig-ious profession unless it be accompanied by a life: it teaches that not creeds, nor Levite priests can put a man as one with God, but that God's love and blessing bless-ing rests with every one who will strive to follow truth and right. The good Master taught this over and over again, that God is a Father to the race, and that his love is for all men. Travel where you will, you shall not escape. To every prodigal returning after af-ter his mlsprpent years and with lips trembling with the sobs he cannot restrain re-strain the Father says: "Son. thy sins be forgiven thee." Deny God's love In what way you choose, still it follows you; like some morning star, peeping out of the blackness black-ness of the night, it shadows all thy course, and out of the darkness God's voice speaks, saying: "Tho' thy sin be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow; tho' they be red like crimson, they Shall be a9 wool." Oh. may this love find us today; may we trust in no outward thing to bring relief, but trusting only in God's love and led by our elder brother may we sav. "Lord, I believe; help thou my unbelief." priest" But you who have read the story remember re-member that there is yet another chapter. chap-ter. For in his vision of the inferno, Dante says that a demon rushed by him carrying a man on his shoulder, and he cried aloud, saying: "Here is one of Zita's elders, who wears the saint's portrait on Sunday that he may rob the poor on Monday thrust him into the pitch that I may return for more." Surely the poet taught that having a Levlte In the house will not gain the favor of a holy God. How plainly did England Illustrate this principle in her dealings with her American colonies. She taxed them beyond be-yond all their ability to pay. Sent cruel governors, who robbed the people of their rights and then with the money extorted, she sent missionaries to the heathen, saying: "Surely the Lord will now do us good, for we have a Levite for our priest" But when it w?'all too late she saw the futility of her usury, for out of the storm and the cloud God spake, even as he did to. Pharaoh of old, when he said with a voice that shook the very earth: "Let my people go." And still England did not learn the lesson. For years afterwards, when' the Turks were oppressing the Armenians, robbing them of their wealth and despoiling de-spoiling thir homes, the whole civilized world stood aghast when it beheld England Eng-land standing In the Bosporus and warning all nations not to interfere. But when It was learned that Turkey was greatly In debt to England, then the explanation was plain. If she allowed another nation to help the Armenians, then would Turkey have no money to pay her bonds. These bonds must be paid, even though every shekel drlrped with blood. And when all was done, then did England Eng-land most generously give a few hundred hun-dred 'pounds to the London Missionary Bociety, that It might spread the Gospel air.org the heathen, and as a nation she chuckled at her cunn'nsr and said: "Now surely the Lord will bless us, for we have a Levlte for a priest." And when Frsnce had taken away the property and had driven into exile the noble band of Huguenotn the best blood and the best brains that France ever produced did she not then establish estab-lish a fund for her poorer classes; was It not a most pathetic way of saying: "Now must the Lord bless us; we have a Levlte for a priest?" But not more apparent In national than in Individual life is this evil of which w speak. The man who spends all his week In the selfish getting of gold, forgets the claims of the unfortunate unfortu-nate turns the needy away, figures per cent by day and dreams of gains by night, will one day feel a twinge of conscience con-science and hasten to give a paltry sum for some charity for he. too, would have a Levlte to do him good. The gossip spends all the week In senfvbs? chatters, xetails small talk, ani repsata and Invents news about friend and foe. But when Sunday comes you see him or her with prayer book in hand seeking the church, and with most sanctimonious voice do they go through all the service without a single skip. Surely now the Lord will do them good, for. they have a Levlte to be their priest. When the good Master taught on this |