The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-01-12
THE GRACE OF GOD.
10. Roderick StebbinS' Schol-
arly Sermon.
xrowLEoeE is INSUFFICIENT,
!. infect lesson in Rcligfon-Formal
Opening of tho New Trinity Guild
Halr-services Mt st. Marks.

nv Roderick Stebbins preached yester-
~ morning at the Unitarian church to a
LIRE and fashionable audience on "The
sssscieut Grace of Cod His discourse
Il ! s An was as follows:
4 rnru,hiaus xii:s-"My Grace is Sufficient for
\ ns'
II arhe history of the human race is the
H .;.tory Of the search for satisfaction Take
Il n = any volume of it that you will and you
Il ~ Rad of the changes through which
u l a. search has gone: vet it is the same
II .,rose that pervades the whole world
\ I'M the dawn of man to the present time
4 -the desire to satisfy some want. This
\ I sapf has had different objects ut different
L I Sspes. All men have not wished the same
\ thinc. but a suficiency Of whatever they
4 4 ksye wished has been the object of all
j 1s;r seeking Man, in the nrst stages Of
II ! kis development, wished only for enough
II 4 d eat and drink. His history Is the his
tsry Of the chase, and when his appetite
4 80 satisled he allowed himself to rest.
II fsficient food and sufficient shelter were
Il sbe only objects of his life. To have none
Il III uhysical wants to satisfy is to be very
L IN in the scale of life; to be content with
II / snough to eat, shelter from the cold and
Il l nrotection from the heat, is to be on the
4 I plane with the animals who live but in the
IN inomeuf and know no future and no past.
4 And vet we do not have to go far back in
Il history to know that such men have lived.
ii More renfed than the savage who shoots
Il Is arrow at the timid deer and sleeps at
Il night in a tent Of skins, they load their ia
H bIes with the choicest viands that the in
II eenuity of man has contrived they build
Il costly dwellings which art and. genius
II make beautiful, and yet there may be no
II / higher purpose IN all this than when
Il ne lion steals some sleek, fat bullock from
4 he herd or when the Indian decorates his
I ! sigwam with paint and feathers and
brings softer skin to rest upon at night.
There are men who stand merely on
\ b the threshold of human achievement,
Who have not been aroused TO a con-
i siousness OF the powers that lie dormant
within them. Their satisfaction lies in
4 mf6cient physical comforts, and their
i mergies are all bent toward that end.
1 What of mind; what of spirit; what of
! puif Forgotten or else unknown, they
live in the gratincation of the senses, and
I \ no hint of anything higher aroases them
rom their satisfaction.
Il .But let us not be severe where it is so
1 easy for all to fall. Eternal vigilance is
The price Of all noble living. BY slow,
l painful steps man emerges from savagery,
end yet in short time he can sink back
= 81 gain. 'Essy is the descent to Avernus,'
i Engs the Latin poet, and so have men
Always found the lapse from nobility far
I Mser than the ascent to it. There is
h 1 wonderful charm in the qualification of the
81 senses. II we are not Sybarites by nature,
N Il is very easy to become SO. We are
readily engrossed in what is pleasant to
the taste, agreeable to the eve and comfort
4 i able TO the body, and a constant warfare
mast be kept up lest We surrender the
moral, the intellectual and the spiritual to
What is merely physical. 1t is generally
thought that youth is the special period
VI Of temptation when life is strong and
Epirts high, but ! am sure there comes
= tine in later life when to many men
! temptation is as keen, but with more
! desperation in it-less hope and joy. 1t is
IN escape from the dull monotony of life.
And what monotonous life that is which
has naught but physical comforts. At
hrst there has seemed to be variety in it,
s and as it lay in the first enthusiasm,
stretched out before the imagination, it
promised endless novelty. But how soon
the appetite wearies and the spirits Tag.
what has once SATISFIED no longer does,
and on, and on the devotee of ease and
luxury PUSHES to ind some new experience
that will whet his blunted taste. This is
me time when so many men in middle life
ial, There was enough to satisfy them,
ana TO carry them, without danger,
through their youth, but where
the harmless pleasures have ceased
satisfy, they turn to other things, which
lntheir earlier years they would have con-
oemned. Am | wrong in imputing so
OIL much evil to an absorption in the physi-
ca satisfactions of life? If / am, you
lnl should correct me, but feel that In the
RI eyils that follow in the turn of such an
VIZ interest, We see that we are not animals,
IL ouf are men, and cannot live like ami
~ mas without suffering injury to all the
- powers that distinguish Us as moral and
~ spiritual beings. The animal does not
- weary OF his monotonous life: it is liter
AIH ally sufficient for him. He has not the
me Nfa h o,,1 ny
)W9 unrest drives him from mountain to val
II iey, or from shore to shore. But man IS
IN never really satisfied with merely what
- his taste and comfort can enjoy. If he has
az showed nothing else to grow, his tastes
- of these things will grow and give him
~ ~ peace night or day, not even when he
mas exhausted land and sea. Here lies the
esHerenee between animals and our-
sases. They are absolutely satisfied
wen they have enough; We are not,
s aough Tor time we dream we are. The I'M
asto our nature, which might have taken
wig anu down TO the uppermost heavens,
snu tnere hold converse with God and
MS saints, IS chained to the earth below,
saa, unable TO rise, spends its force in
bonds.
!, but there are pleasanter objects than
Mese Tor which men have sought, and
ssnicn equally well illustrate our principle,
tlat the history of man is the history of his
ses!en Tor satisfaction. Turning from the
a INDIVIDUAL for moment TO look at the
Progress OF nations, we shall see that the
faeat events In history owe their ex-
Ssehce to feeling of dissatisfaction, or TO
aionging Tor greater satisfaction. II we
s. oack 70 history as far as the exodus OF
we lsraelites from Egypt, which was per-
n naps an event traught with the greatest re-
III sei.S IN history, unless ii be the departure
~ 4oraham from his ancestral lands to
s seeA home IN new country, We ind
/ srrstsiaetion OF the ISraelltes with
saer life in Egypt. There We're
ri not sufficient life and opportunity
~ mere, SO their leaders thought, TO develop
hI s.e qualities which they knew were IN
/ aeieht IN the Hebrew race. The reforma-
aVn corn IN the heart of one man found
4 e. answer IN the hearts of thousands who
muha the church OF Rome insufficient for
I'll sasH intellectual or spiritual needs. Dis
aslaetlon lay at the foundation OF
vi own New England, and drove the PHI
e..1l s 70 inhoSpItable shores, where they
/ .oS'd worship their God in the way their
svasCienees directed, and that was surh-
ssnt Tor them. Our civil war righted great
Wong that the people could no longer en-
~, because right was more necessary 10
Fen than any possible worldly greatness.
SaVugn truth. enough honor have been
p s se Natehwords of the advancing civiilZa-
IL ~ OF the world. and when IL has ceased
- sue content with what il has had before,
LAS raised the cry again. and once more
sle nag OF progress has been unfuried.
ssa.h this same unrest, this same long
sIs ier satisfaction has been at the roof OF
ne me progress in science, literature ana
,.son Ii is this which has sent the
N~~- - ~ ~