St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-05-03
DIR. VINCENT'S VIEWS,
The Bible as Expounded by the Noted
0hautauqua University
Leader.
The Personal Responsibility and
Duty as Revealed in the Book
of All Books.
Gods Light on the Path of Duty
Which Leads from Earth to
Heaven.
An Eloquent sermon.

sermon at the Hennepin avenue M. E.
church Minneapolis, yesterday morning.
The text for the morning was in the
Peter, seeing him, saith to Jesus,
Lord, what shall this man do? Jesus
saith unto him, If I will that he tarry
until come, what is that to thee? Follow
thou me-" After lengthy explanation,
the reverend gentleman said:
The Bible as revelation of duty is abso-
lutely perfect. 1t reveals, for example, the
very basis of duty. personal responsibility.
It touches man as no system Of ethics, no
system Of philosophy has ever touched man,
at the very center Of his moral being.
Daniel Webster was one day day dining
at the Astor house with a number of
gentlemen, and one of them during the
course of the dinner said: ''Mr. Webster,
what is the most serious thought that ever
entered your mind?" The profound states
man knitted that magnificent brow of his
and, bowling his head in silent thought for
moment, answered.: 1.-The most serious
thought, gentlemen, that exer entered my
mind, is the fact of my responsibility to
Almighty God" And when hear fiippant,
superficial, pleasure-loving, world-loving
young men of this day, who are trying to
and live lives Of thorough disqualification,
absurdities of pseudo-science to sustain
them think Of the great massive brow Of
THE GREAT WEBSTER
as he said in those deep tones that day,
Gentlemen, the most serious thought that
ever entered my mind'is the fact of my per.
sonal responsibility to Almighty God. That
II Low, hOJI of hn
book does on this earth besides. That
book appeals to the Individual conscience
so that a man feels its claim. Coleridge
says: 1.-The evidence to me that that book
is from God, is the fact that it finds me at
greater depths OF my being than any other
book" But the Bible not only reveals this
fact of personal responsibility, saying to
every man ''thou shalt, Thou shalt not "
Thou shalt give an account of thyseIf to
Cod" but it gives us distinct objects of
duty. To whom do we owe duty? To the
Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, to our
fellow men. How do I know it? The
book tells me. The child knows it, How
does the child know it? The book tells
him. What duties do owe?
GO TO THE BOOK.
To the Father. love: to the Son, obedi-
ence; to the Holy Spirit, reception; to my
feIlow-men, love. How do I know 1t
The child knows it. The book tells it.
Why do L owe these duties to these OBJ
jects? Why to God do owe love? Be-
cause He Is my Father. Why to the Son do
I owe obedience? Because he is the incar-
nate representation of the divine ideal Of
righteousness and purity. Why to the
Holy Spirit do owe the duty Of its recep-
ton? Because through its influence is the
divine brought into communion with the
human. Why do l owe to my fellow-men
love? Because they are my brethren.
The child knows that; the book tells it.
The book reveals that.
THE BIBLE REVEALS DUTY
authoratively. It comes laundering down
to mans conscience so that he has no ap-
peal. 1t speaks with authority. You take
child and let father reason with child,
my dear child, 1t does seem to me that
when have twenty-five philosophical con-
siderations to present to you now, it will be
great deal better for you to draw this
general conclusion from the twenty-five
propositions. that yOu should find your way
clear to do it, and do this rather than that"
And what weight would the twenty-five
propositions and all the conclusions have
Oh the average youngster? No weight at
all. he would do as he pleased after all
the propositions and after all the logic. 1t
is when that father with gesture. with look,
with tone OF voice. with compact sentence
charged with authority
TELLS THE BOY
what to do; that the boy obeys and asks no
questions. That is the character of this
book; it speaks as the Christ incarnated,
with authority and not as the scribes and
al how I1x-e H.
sort Of mystic energy accompanying it
when the law thunders through their souls,
and the voice of the Lord is heard in these
pages What is this Old Testament? It
is a great mass of tangible, visible, veritable
history, shooting up from which. every
once in awhile. and sustained by it. you
will find a biography fit for philosophers to
study. 1t is mass of history, teaching
profound principles Of philosophy, by biog
raphy-the most advanced
METHOD OBJ TEACHING
known to-day. We become familiar with
Abel, with Enoch who walked with God;
with Noah, the preacher of righteousness;
with Abraham, the faithful; with Joseph,
the spotless; with Moses, the glorious,
whom Michael Angelo took as his highest
ideal of conceivable character and perpetu-
ated in the living marble remaining in the
city Of Rome to this day. Look at Elijah
and Elisha. Look at Ezekiel, at Isaiah at
the royal John the Baptist, at the charming
and mighty John the apostle. At the in
tense and impetu0us and earnest and (when
he was thoroughly subdued by the power
Of the gospeD the glorious Peter; the prac-
teal James, the scholarly and glorious
Paul, and, as the center Of all, the cOnsulna-
ton of all, the climax Of
ALL HUMAN THOUGHT,
Aye more than that. even the embodi-
ment of the divine thought, Jesus Christ
himself, the spotless, the peerless, who
stands forth before the age and says to the
rest of men Follow thou me-" In the
silvery light Of the centuries he stands out
to-day, in this nineteenth century, the most
perfect ideal of character that the world
ever knew. And all these biographical
sketches from the worlds history, all these
biographical characters are but aEticipa-
lions of fragments of qualities developed in
their perfection in Jesus Christ, who said
to Peter Follow thou me-" The book is
a biography, and the book as the biography
Of Jesus Christ is
ABSOLUTELY PERFECT.
Close that book? No, no. 1t reveals
Christ to the world as the ideal of all per-
and the help of the helpless and the re-
deemer of the guilty, and he holds the keys
of eternal life. Let me go to the ministers
''You couldn't tell me about the trinity and
the atonement and the future state and all
that, want to do right. can you help me?"
"Oh, yes" says my minister, II will tell
you. you need not go away, you need not
leave any fools-cap paper, I will tell you
right away" And go to another minister
and he says, well, yes. Oh, yes, I can
indorse that, certainly" When go to the
ministers of the gospel and trust to the
book to find out the mysteries and philos-
ophies, they cannot help me; when come
to them as helpless soul to know what
ought to do, they have no trouble for the
Bible is as
CLEAR AS SUNLIGHT
on all things that pertain to personal char
acter and personal attainment Now let
me ask this question: Why is it that God
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