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Show SUNDAY SERMON AT THE HI CHURCH "After the War, What? or The Coming Com-ing of the Golden Age," was the subject sub-ject of the sermon by Rev. C. R, Gar-ver Gar-ver at the Methodist Episcopal church yesterday morning. His text was taken from the second chapter of the prophocies of Isaiah, the third and fourth verses. His sermon, in part, follows: fol-lows: "These words of the prophet seem to contain messages for these times. They came to us like the peal of a church bell across the bloodv field of battle. A great divine has said of this prophecy: 'It is like anvthing vou choose which has become unreal, and which has been transferred from tho healthy book of noble prophecy to the bitter pages of satire and the sour lips of the cynic.' It is true that Isaiah here unfolds passages that have become mere scraps of paper, torn into thou sands of pieces, and blown like autumn leaves before a wintry gale. "Lord Morely early in the war when speaking at Manchester, said: 'When the war is ended, this mournful chap ter oi sore bereavement and wasted treasure, when all that is gone, I ask is there not a moral loss in the wreck of ideals in which the men of my generation gen-eration were deeply concerned? That loss has got to be counted and retrieved. re-trieved. The fabric of those ideals has to be built up again in tho hearts and minds of men and women.' Ho here gives the Christian church a .program for the period of reconstruction which is sure to come. We must not sit down in the dust and ruins and wail our miseraries. Our task is to reconstruct the ruined pile, and wo must begin now. "We can get our help from the prophet Isaiah. He was a prophet with a keen and understanding outlook out-look on human affairs. He was also a ,poet, bringing to human problems the imagination of the seer. He lived in a time of great national disloyalty, a time when people were abandoning their most sacred trust. His were days of international struggle, days in which empires were withering and decaying. de-caying. As he looked upon this troubled trou-bled situation it seemed to merge into a condition of concord and peace. Isaiah had a keen sense of the future and was a real optimist. He could forsee the harvest when all nature was yet in winter's grip. Looking out over the dark scene of disaster and amid international strife, he sang a song of peace and of blessed days yet to come-'They come-'They shall beat their swords into plough-shares and their spears Into pruning hooks; nation shall not life up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war no more.' "If we intende to rebuild the fallen Ideals of our own day and to reconstruct recon-struct our own common life, we cannot do better than to stand beside Isaiah for guidance and Inspiration. How does he say that the golden dream is to be realized? Isaiah declares that the fulfillment was to come in a profound revival of spiritual religion. In that time man's relationship to God is to be the overtopping and overseeing thing. The biggest thing in life is to be the yearning for divine communion. It is to be the recovery of vitfu worship. wor-ship. "Our religion can become just a borrowed bor-rowed skin, an acted thing, a Sunday affair only, immediately forgotten when on Monday we start to our several sev-eral tasks. It may become a mere social so-cial convention, it Is possible for us to get religion without religion getting us. It can and often does become a light performance, a social convention. Multitudes are just wearing the clothes of religion. We have the form without with-out the life. We have the crucifix without with-out the Saviour. Multitudes are just wearing the clothes of religion." The choir, under the leadership of Mr. Dominie, rendered a Thanksgiving Thanksgiv-ing service. The men's chorus sang "Only a Contrite Sinner." Vera Frey presided at the organ. |