The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1893-07-14
ARROGANCE VS.. HUMILITY
The Noted Brooklyn Divine Discourses
on the Pharisee and Publican.


subject last Sunday picture OF con-
trast, Arrogance and Humility" the
text being Luke xviii, IS: God be mer-
4 ciful to me, sinner"
\ No mountain ever had a more bril-
liant coronet than Mount Moriah. The
| glories of the ancient temple blazed
there. The mountain top was not
i originally large enough to hold the
temple, and so wall COO feet high was
erected, and the mountain was built
out into that wall 1t was at that
point that Satan met Christ and tried
| to persuade him to cast himself down
the 600 feet The nine gates of the
temple flashed the light of silver and
| gold and Corinthian brass, which Cor
| inthian brass was mere precious stones
melted and mixed and crystallized.
The temple itself was not so very large
a structure, but the courts and the adj
| juncts of the architecture made it half
a mile in circumference.
We stand and look off upon that won
drous structure. What's the matter?
What strange appearance in the tenn
| pie? Is it fire? Why, it seems as if it
were a mansion all kindled into flame.
What's the matter? Why, it's the hour
| OF morning sacrifice, and the smoke on
| the altar rises and bursts out of the
crevices and out of the door and
wreathes the mountain top with folds
of sInoxe, through which glitter prec-
ious stones gathered and FURNISHED by
royal munifcence-
see two men mounting the steps of
the building. They go side by side;
they are very unlike; no sympathy be-
tween thcm-the one the pharisee,
proud, arrogant, pompous, he goes up
the steps of the building. He seems by
his manner to say: Clear the track!
Never before came up these steps such
| goodness and conservation"
Beside him was the publican, bowed
down seemingly with load on his
heart. They reach the Enclosure for
worship in the midst of the temple.
The pharisee goes close up to the gate
of the holy of the holies. He feels he
is worthy to stand there. He says prac-
tically: II am SO holy / want to go in
to the holy of holies. u Lord, am
very good man. I'm remarkably good
man. Why, two days in the week eat
absolutely nothing. I'm so good. I'm
very generous in my conduct toward
the poor. i have no sympathy with
the common rabble; especially have /
none with this poor, miserable, COM
monplace, wretched publican who hap
pened to come up the stairs beside me. ;"
The publican went clear to the other
side of the Enclosure, as far away from
the gate of the holy of holes as he
could get, for he felt unworthy to stand
near the sacred place. And the Bible
says he stood afar off. Standing on the
| opposite side of this inclosure he bows
his head, and as orientals when they
have any trouble beat their breasts, so
he begins to pound his breast as he
cries, ''God be merciful to me- sim
nerl'
Oh, was there ever greater contrast?
\ The incense that waited that morning
from the priests censor was not SO sweet
| as the publicans prayer floating into
the opening Heavens, while the prayer
of the pharisee died on his contemptu-
| GUS lips and rolled down into his ar
rogant heart Worshiping there they
join each other and go side by side
down the steps, the pharisee cross,
| wretched, acrid, saturnine; the publican
| with his face shining with the very
joys of Heaven, for II tell you that this
man went down to his house justified
rather than the other"
l. Now, / put this publican's prayer un-
der analysis, and discover in the first
place that he was persuaded of his sim
fulness- He was an honest man, he
was taxgatherer, he was an officer of
the government. The publicans were
taxgatherers, and Cicero says they
were the adornment of the state. OF
course they were somewhat unpopular,
because people then did not like to pay
their taxes any better than people now
like to pay their taxes, and there were
many who disliked them Still, sup
pose this publican, this taxgatherer,
was an honorable man. He had an Of
flee of trust. There were many hard
things said about him, and yet, stand
ing there in that Enclosure of the tenn
pie amid the demonstrations of God S
holiness and power, he cries out from
the very depths of his stricken soul,
God be merciful to me, sinner" By
what process shall prove that / am a
sinner? BY what process shall prove
that you are a sinner? Shall / ask you
| to weigh your motives, to scan your
actions, to estimate your behavior? /
will do nothing of the kind. 1 win
draw my Judgment rather from the
plan of the work that God has achieved
for your salvation
You GO down in storm to the beach,
and you see wreckers put on their
rough Jackets and launch the lifeboat
and then shoot the rockets to show that
help is coming out into the breakers,
and you Immediately cry; "A ship
wreckw And when / see the Lord
Jesus Christ putting aside robe and
crown and lannch out on the tossing
sea of human suffering and satanic
hate, going out into the laundering
surge of death, cry: "A shipwreck!''
know that our souls are dreadfully
lost by the work that God has done TO
save them. Are you sinner? Suppose
You had a commercial agentin Charles
ton or San Francisco or Chicago, and
you were paying him promptly his
salary. and you found out, after awhile,
that notwithstanding he had drawn the
salary he had given nine-tenths of all
the time to some other commercial
establishment Why, your indignation
would know no bounds And yet that
is just the way we have treated the
Lord.
He sent us out into this world to serve
Him. He has taken good care of us
He has clothed rs, He has sheltered us,
and He has surrounded us with 10. ooo
benefactions, and yet many of US have
riven nine-tenths of our lives to the