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Show oo REV.G.T.RASSWEILER SUNDAY SERMON Yesterday evening, in the First Methodist church, Rev. G F, Rass woiler delivered a sermon on the theme of "The Christian Racer," The sermon was illustrated by the picture of the "Roman Chariot Race," by Checa and a small reproduction of the picture done in sepia was given to each member of the congregation. The music was furnished by the Treble Clef choir, Miss Rosamond .Laird and Miss Addle Rowse Tho morning sermon was on the theme "Foes to the Spirit," Rem. 13:14: "Put ye on tho Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flosh to fulfill tho lust thereof." In part, the minister said "Man has a three fold nature. He Is built In three tiers; the physical in which he eats and sleeps; the rational, ra-tional, In which he perceives and reasons, rea-sons, and tho spiritual, in which he worships. Some may get but little beyond tho first stratum, tout God intended in-tended that we should live much in the upper tier. This spiritual part of our nature was tho last In process of creations and consequently in the most importapt, and should rpcolve the greatest emphasis. Wo can aid or retard its deelopmont like the Japanese Jap-anese trees are often dwarfed by crowding tho roots. "Plants may be so fertilized that they will all go to stem and leaf. So wo may so feed oursolvoB that we all go to body Dope and cigarettes so disorganize the body as to stultify and pervert tho spirit. Tho first center of the brain to be affected are the spiritual centers, and addicts become moral and religious perverts. So even too rich and heating and hlghlv spiced and stimulating food, or stimulating drinks may so inflame the flesh as to overbalance the spiritual forces. "Again we may overdevelop the flesh with too tense excitement of the nervous sjstem. The mind is so constituted con-stituted that when one center Is highly high-ly excited all other powers of the mind aro subverted, and act chiefly in subservience to tho center. So gambling, much of the melodramas of tho stage and the screen which are too often the old dimo novel In a new dress, so absorb tho attention that but little chance is given to tho spiritual Instincts are perverted by excitements that aro too intense for such delicate sensibilities. Erotic instincts which relalo to our sex life easily become physically and psychically dominant and deter the development of the spirit life as well as pervert Its character. So the spiritual spir-itual dovelopmont of this generation is being seriously deteriorated by the salacious fiction which appears even In high class magazines and books; by a stage and Bcrcen which so often appeals by the flesh to tho flesh; or by sex problem plays of an unhealthy sort; by so much of the sensuous art that is either naughtily suggesthe or brazenly immodest; and by those modern dances which have been brought up out of the underworld where they were produced by sensuous sensu-ous excitement and for the purpose of sensual excitement. Immodesty In dress not only has its effect upon tho spirits of others but reacts upon the character of the wearer, as Dr. House so clearly taught up. Jennie Lind was said to have answered the question of why sho left the stage by pointing to the sunset and saying, 'Because I was missing that,' 'by which sho meant that some of the finer feelings of her soul wore being sacrificed, and sho was going to put them first and mako all necessary sacrifices to preserve and develop them. Whatever sacrifice we may have to mako to give the spirit its ichance to develop we can well af ford to make, "But it Is not enough to mortify or put to death the works of the flesh, but it is moro important to deter the flesh through the vigor of the spirit. Like the soil which quickly falls back to the earth In response to the call of gravity, but which by the life forces of the seed Is lifted up in defiance de-fiance of this pull of the earth and transformed into wondrouB beauty, so our physical and phychlcal selves can bo transformed and uplifted by the life of the Spirit, of God within us." |