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Show SUNDAY SUM Speaking upon the theme, "The Five Treacherous GuldC9 of Life." tho subject being "The Deceitful Lure of Hxpedlency," llev. Carver salJ last evening In part: Professor Hoxley has said, "Your life Is like a problem In the rule of three, In which your duty, multiplied Into your capacity and divided by your circumstances, gives the fourth tt im, which is your deserts," Not a i bnd rule. Is it? Only one term ueeds to be very earnestly deliberated, au l that is your duty. What 1b your duty? Id there uny tK-lirilte guioe whereby we may know which is the right path cf lift? Many say that we rnust determine de-termine what is expedient. Iet us note two of the famous exanv pits of expediency. When tb.f.3 treaty v hich terminated the var of the revelation reve-lation was signed by Benjamin Franklin, Frank-lin, John Adams and John Jaj, a national na-tional pledge of honor was broken, for Franklin had, as our representative, pioxnlaed France that If they would f.ld us no treaty would be made without with-out the consent of France, as the Funch detlred to secure lands north oi our colonies. Franklin and his as-coclates as-coclates did not deem It expedient to J,lve Frauce so strong a foothold on our north border and so broke the fledge. At the battle of Varna, Cardinal Car-dinal Julian advised that the Christian Chris-tian forces break the truce with the Turks without warning in order to gain advantage over them; they did so, and the Moslems, resenting such base treachery, raised a banner in-s-cribed, "Oh, Jesus, avenge the insult in-sult to thy name." Julian deemed If expedient not to keep the solemnly made truce. He did not see the need of keeping honor with an intldel, who was willing to rob and plunder. And yet history condemns both Franklin and Julian for breaking their word, vhlle posterity praises them for act-lug act-lug according to expediency. The word expedient here is from a a great word meaning to "grow to-k'.thcT" to-k'.thcT" to harmonize. Our musical term symphony comes from it direct. It means, therefore, to take the best natural view of conditions as they etiind, Irrespective of any theory of light and wrong. We have two famous examples of it In our evening text. Caiaphas, the high priest, argued that Jesus should die, for, said he, "it Is expedient that one man should die lor the people and that the whole nation na-tion perish not." Therefore the lead rrs, from the stand of expediency, led Chrl-U to the cross. They did not claim it to be just It was only expedient. expedi-ent. The other text is where Jesus says, "It is expedient for you that I go away, for if I go not away tho holy spirit will not come unto you." Hfro Christ argues from expediency as a standard.' Now, wherein lies tho difference? It is that in order to real-, Jy know what is truly expedient on1 dust know, as Christ did, the future; therefore, expediency is no standard for erring men. Caiaphas had lived and advanced his Interests by doing ever what he deemed expedient for his own interests. But iu this case he failed utterly and bruugbt ruin to hs church, city anil people, nnd a few years later by a wrong determination oi what the expedient course would be brought about his own ruin. Ah' there Is the difllculty. We do not know enough to know what the expedient course of life is. Christ did we do pot. Long ago. Ephesus was tho great commercial center of the east. The fine harbor drew vessels from far ind near, and wealth and prosperity abounded. Then it was considered expedient to deepen the channel, and how should it be accomplished? The great builder of the day built a sea wall at the harbor month to change the tide current and so cut a deeper channel. Rut he knew not of a great undertow which, when his wall was bulldfd. silted the harbor full of sand and Ephesus was ruined. You and I do not know the trend of hee tomorrows; tomor-rows; therefore we need a b.nter Kuide than expediency. Moreover, it !s a fact of very common proving that to be guided by expediency, even If It. does sue the day, it weakens the vin. One who is thus guldej loses all strength of character and power of will, and that Is too great a price to pay for any life victory, even if you should ever guess rightly. Chiefly, however, the error lies In this: flight Is rlcbt. and it is always wrong not to do right. Any trend of lite which gives God and his truth a secondary place Is a wrong one; and iuio must sooner or Inter pay the penalty pen-alty for It, if rot n this world, then in the next God has given two ruldes. viz., conscience and his word. These reasonably taken togosher have never yet been proven by any man's experience to lead astrav Tn times rnd places where tho plble'ho. br cycled the people their consciences have led them into awful errors. For instance, the great errors of the dark ages. For many today the rtlble Is an unknown book. Many whose nameg ore on church rolH know practically nolblng of its e.il teaching save by benrsay Such ones cannot be cited as examples of following a true guide. Many who know It teaching do not fdlow It. They cannot lay their falling fall-ing to Its charge. I?ut for those who .uow it, and with all tho power of. their will seek to follow it, it Is a 1 ulde indeed. We huve rear) how at nlht when a strange ship enters the rarbor at Gibraltar it is guided through the narrow channel by heading head-ing iu the light of the great light-i light-i ouse reflector and keeping the white l'-crht upon the prow. This white light, to make It more narrow, is thrown from a circle of red. Out of the white light is danger. So from God's truth and an enlightened conscience con-science is given a light on lilt's waters. wa-ters. Out of that light U Janger. |
