The Newtown bee., 1892-08-05
The Secular Pulpit.
The Sermon.

The Sermon.
 The words of Pseudo Solymon are, tThe world needs real men, not stuffed scarecrows, to do it's work" The text, my hearers, is taken from agricultural pursuits. Doubtless the wise man had passed by the field of Farmer Thrifty and been fooled by the sight of form of a man in the corn field. Possibly, in his blindness and abstraction, he had called to this same figure of Farmer Thrifty and received no response. Closer inves- tigation had shown him that the figure was only suit of the farmers old clothes stuffed with hay and set up on a stick to scare the crows away. Now our sage knew that the stuffed prophet of the corn field would hoe no corn; he would pull no weeds; he would do no work to better the fields. His only use was to scare away the birds of ill omen from the crops. Hence we have the proverb, ssThe world needs real men, not stuffed prophets, to do it's work" Yet there are some stuffed prophets in human society.
 There is, for instance, MT Proudpurse, who inherited his property from his fa- ther. He walks the streets as though he owned the town. He talks loudly in tine post office about his deals in the stock exchange and his real estate in Tacoma. But, if he should lose that inherited property tomorrow, he knows neither enough to sell cloth on the counter or milk COW on the farm. He is only wind bag and, if the pin of misfortune should puncture him, he would collapse like toy balloon. He is doing no work in the world worthy of the name and other people know it as well as he him. self. He is only financial scarecrow.
 Alongside of him lives MT Joshua Bookworm. He is quite an elderly gen. tleman, with a slender patrimony and an air of eminent wisdom. He is a very si- lent man and the town folks do say that he knows more than the parson. His wisdom consists in his silence, for, like the owl, he has wise look, but mighty small brains. 1 never heard that he ever propounded any plan for the improve ment of the village and 1 know he never tells his neighbors how to be either wise or better. If he were wise, he would let little of his wisdom leak out once in while for the benefit of society and, II he were truly good, he would want to help others to that goodness. The only vir- tue can discover in the gentleman, with all due respect to his silver locks, is that he keeps quiet about his ignorance. For I doubt if he could teach the grammar school and know his grandchild could stick him with questions out of his cur ly pate. Forsooth, this gentleman is the literary scarecrow of the town.
 But there is a worse scarecrow than either of these in human society. He is the religious scarecrow. No one has giv- en us better description of him than MT Sturgeon. Here is what he says about him: II know him we'll. He was a good old man, so many people said. He always sat in the middle of the chapel and he listened to the minister's sermons. Sometimes he said the minister was not sound. Sometimes he said of one of the supplies that he was rotten to the core. Sometimes the minister was little prac- tical and he was denounced as being an Arminian. At other times, when he was truly experimental, he was said to have made great mistake and he did not know anything about it. He has enjoy ed $ right royal reputation. Only l did hear it whispered that half dozen min- isters went away from the place with a broken heart, because they could do no good while such an old deacon was there and have heard of some hundreds of young people who have said, If this is religion, we will not have anything to do with it. and have heard it whispered that many poor workings, poor deceived things, used to say that the devil would have him at last and I have heard it whispered that he did have him, but do not know much about it."
 Beloved, be real. The world wants true men and women. Have d life, a wisdom, religion, that God can ap- prove.
 wonder many times that ever child of God should have a sad heart, consid- ering what the Lord is preparing for him. T Rutherford.
 Doing is the great thing; for if, reso- lutely, people do what is right, in time they come to like doing it.-[ Ruskin.
 True morality is but the face of reli, zion turned toward the world,as in piety it is turned toward God.-[Tryon Ed wards.
 Faith is the key that unlocks the cabi net of the promises of our Heavenly Fla ther and empties out their treasures int the soul.-[ Watson.
 The only way of setting the will fre' is to deliver it from wilfulness.-GJ. c Hare.
 l We have enough of ecclesiastieism,b ,bu not enough of faith, hope and love- I [Thrall.
 The feeling is often the deeper truth l the opinion the more superficial one.-[J c. Hare.
 God is not only all things to His child l ren when thay need Him. but He is al