Show THE RIGHT BIGHT USE OP OF LIFE EXTRACT FROM A SERMON PREACHED IN X THE charlate CHARL tTE MICHIGAN BY REV KEY J H PAL PALMER R let us fix the fact in our minds that this life la is not for idleness adlene as not for ease not for happiness it Is more nearly tue than we think that so sn preme happiness in this life is only possible la in supreme selfishness in fact supreme happi happiness nesB so has god ordered life is largely a dream and it is a dream of selfishness happiness Happi flap pinese nesa is the word of the egotist heaven as a haag happy home is the faith of bf the egotist rest 8 t as a condition of happiness is the ideal only of slaves and duty is i the divine word and duty is doing it is doing for others not for ourselves duty brings a song into suffering erbig puts a smile upon the face of sorrow puts a willing arm under the severest burdens of life it heaven in service and grows in grace erace ui in power in godlikeness by the might ot of its word and the mercy of its work its thought is the need of tile the journot nour not idle peace enervating indulgence or personal pleasure sure 1 I came down from heaven not to do mine own will but the will of him that sent me is the words typical of its highest ideal the flag flung to the breeze lasts longer than the flag folded away in the darkness the ship moored to the wharf soonest becomes a rotten hulk bulk it is the unused string that breaks the unused life that is most a waste let us look for a moment at the demaud demand of these truths upon the easy selfish thing which we today attempt to glorify by the name of christianity Christi anny in the mind of its founder it was a mighty helpfulness a most intense self abnegation a supreme call to re mem bernot ourselves but toe the demand of the time into the midst of which our lives are cast do good not tor for pay not for jenuss sak enot for a seat in glory but hoping for nothing ii is its dictate almost divine 1 I am the good shepherd and the good shepherd his life lor for the sheep is the sentence which marks the limit of its law of self sacrifice whoso choso his bis life shall lose it and whoso choso loseth his life for rny my sake shall find it is tho th line hoe which reveals its secret of recompense and yet the word oft enest heard beard in Chrls christian tan churches is something about saving ourselves we are not thinking of others nor of the immediate an and a pressing duties which the present hour absolutely thrusts upon us no we are going to get to td heaven about chica ei we know nothing and are going to see god about whom we know less we dioz sio about resti resting ug in the arms OL of jesus as though we expected to remain big babies to all eternity now all this I 1 a shred of christianity about it it even decent paganism jesus has nothing of tills cant and selfishness this babyhood and muslim nessin HN hia immortal ward he would have us manly and womanly tile the fighting peter was one of H his is favorite most trusted friends virility action development through trial these are the badges of discipleship tile the true christianity ity is generous honorable unselfish tish living and reversing L the sentence Ift erous honorable unselfish living no matter where there or under noder what banner or in the same name of what leader is christianity in this view of it how much grander a tiling thing it becomes than when we con as a mere experience peri ence it consecrates not only the church but the workroom not only the ale bible but tile the arithmetic not only oaly the prayer book but bat the pocketbook it does not believe in making a one sided thing of salvation it laughs at when it does not pity tile the idea of the weaklings wea klings who go from the crib to the school thence to the academy thence to some seef sectarian tian college and thence allen e to some theological school poor creatures who never traded jack knives when they were boys who never helped to paint the town rose rese they were young men who never were iu fia a town caucus nor belonged to a brass brand nor a fire company nor a band of wide awakes and above all who never earned a dollar by honest contact with the soot and grime of the common earth in their lives and aed who never for one single moment felt a throb of downright anger at any actual sin ein 1 I say it lau laughs at the idea of any aay such lady fin fingered wed Chad bands teaching the 19 men an and women of this larger life anything about a real christianity their world with its sins and sufferings its joys and woes boes its hopes and fears its storms and calms its vices and virtues its heavens and its hells is purely theoretical they have beheld actual life ocly through a study window touched it only secondarily through the pages of their books it il is to them just what color is to a blind man sound to a deaf man the beauty of material order to tile the clod of earth that is governed by its law they sing nothing but the blood of jesus and at the same time are so afraid of blood that they would almost faist if they saw a boy shoot a cat religion is something nice bice to be professed by nice people to be nurtured in nice places they ignore the existence of that law which compels the harmony of action and environment in their idea of the divine economy rough turbulent and coarse men are abnormal god does not think so nor has he created toe the world of men and the demands of duty upon any each buell an idea there are rougher things in the world than rough men and god made them there ars are rough storms in the world physic alas well as to io the world moral and they are apt in other ether case to be avoided or out ridden they wust must be defied there are mines of metals and miseries which must both be worked great highways for moral and material travel over tile the continents and over the centuries which must be built battles for the higher hand battles where the alood ol of thousands must run like water for the salva salvation tien of country and the integrity of national honor and the world needs rough men to man the ship pierce the earth level the mountains and shed toe blood blood or it will lose ground and retreat toward toward barbarism tile the christianity of plush pews and rhetorical preachers the emasculated thing that thac carries an umbrella in summer for fear that the sun of heaven may touch it too fervently cannot understand noder der stand that a blacksmiths black hammer a miners pick a ditch ditcheos ditchers dit chers erIq shovel the scrub broom and washboard board of tile the brave woman who from necessity aad with supreme love of home and child labors humbly but honorably for shelter and bread are symbols ot ol salvation as worthy in the sight of god as a martyrs pile or the cross on calvary when we return to the simple faith of the inimitable galilean peasant we will not have half the trouble which now new perplexes us in our attempts to correct the mistakes of the almighty we shall not be so intent upon belittling life so busy devising schemes schem es of salvation salvati oo that do not save anybody or plans of redemption that do not net remedy ed I 1 anything but which fill the world wl with th pious prigs brigs and theological toadies id rather rather go straight to hell ca carrying r ug a sense of manliness with me feeling that t at I 1 had bad done my own work t thought ought my y own thought though and fought my y own to beg for heaven as a cur begs bega f for or a bone let us take this good world in which god las has placed us for what it Is and for what we may be able to make of it it is a glorious thing to live to be able to take some place in the mighty columns of the toilers boilers toi lers the burden carriers the warriors ol of our time we need pray for no troubadour gift there is a surfeit of singers of psalms 8 and ditties of dolor let us not seek for over much of pietistic puffery a million prayers have been this day offered in the name of jesus that have hardly gone far enough to disturb the air on the the lips of the men and women who uttered them better than this let us take our talent and recognizing the divine law of increase by the work of our hands the sympathy of our hearts the worthiness hope f ulness ad love we shall add to that which we already possess let us up dare to contradict the false teaching of the apostle in regard to wan nan let us joy to take the risk of the natural man being at enmity duality with god siad and it we pray let it be that we ma may be natural natural as the sunshine as a birds song as the sweetness of a rose or the breath of the morning natural as a mothers love for her child a patriots of ferin of his life for his country the self sacrifice of a socrates Socrat 6 a siddartha si dar a jesus in this way life shall bri bring in us a wealth which cannot be 1 lost ta a loy joy higher than can be found in any selfish self lill pleasure a faith aith f in god and man too large to be it formulated ormula ted in any creed a salv salvation attoa which is an accomplished fact with tile the close 0 of f each da days ys duty nobly done beligio philosophy cal journal boumal |