The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1894-05-21
THE CHURCHES.
Ideal Service, the theme Of Rev. Ewart's
Discourse-The Alarming Mystery Of
Unspoken Life Balaam's Error.
pREsnYrrRIAN cHuacH.
Ideal Service. John 4;sA. Jesus
Christ is humanity's ideal.

Christ is humanity's ideal.
sNo mortal can with him compare
Among the eOns OF men,
FRirer 10 ne than all she fair
That NIL the heavenly train.'
He is deseryebly the pattern Sor our
conduct, the model for our lives. The
text gives us the animating motive OF
his life. "My meat Is TO do the will or
him that sent me and you to finish his
work" Daniel Webster once said that
OF all the great thoughts that ever filed
his mind the greatest was the thought OF
mis- responsibility to God. This thought
was never absent from the mind OF
Jesus, Add his entire absorption in the
doing of his Heavenly Fathers will led
him to overleap many OF the barriers set
up by the ignorance and imperfectlon Of
men. He overleaped.
/. The barrier of professionalism.
He was not controlled by hours md days
ard seasons and places. He had no
office hours. He received Nicodemus by
night to nverse with him Upon the
most important OF subjects. He rose a
great while before day to pray. 1t was
not his ambition to practice his pro-
fession" but ito do the will on Him that
sent Him and to finish his work. He
overleaped also.
.. The barrier of race prejudice. He
loved the Jews but he also loved human
ity. An ordinary rabbi would mol have
stopped in Samaria because "the Jews
have no dealings with the Sanaritans."
But Jesus stopped there because he
came to seek and to save all that are lost.
Jesus was above the petty spites and
factions OF his time. He overleaped also.
3. The barrier of society prejudice.
There was 'caste" among the Pharisees
1t was beneath them" to associate with
"publieans and sinners" But Jesus
virtue was not compromised In the least
by going among that class of people. It
was his theory that "they that are whole
need not a physician but they that are
sick" The robes OF his Righteousness
were too pure to be defiled by the touch
of the sin which he encountered in the
doing OF His Fathers will. Let your
character be above reproach and it will
never suffer by contact with those whom
you seek to save. Jesus o~verleaped also.
4. The barrier of se~lf-lnterest. Jesus
feared man too little and God too much
to be concerned for his own interests in
the doing of his duty. He knew the
course he was pursuing would rouse the
wrath Of the narrow minded men OF his
time, but no anxity for his own safety
swerved him a hairbreadth from duty's
path. Before Petersburg Grant SAT
writing dispatches while q battery Of
the enemy was dropping shot and shell
all around him. But he finished bis
work before he moved. Ths principal
plank in our platform should not be not
to get bit by the arrows of adverse for
tune but rather to flight the good fight
at all hazards ever If it is necessary /
endure hardness" as good soldiers.
Christians to-day are far too easygoing.
They are Sin with the world too much"
We need an infusion into our every day
life and conversation of such a spirit as
animated Jesus when he said: "My meat
is to do the will of him that sent me and
to finish his work"
BAPTIST HURcH
Unspoken sbjections to Christ. Mark
2;8. "Why reason We these thingsin your
hearts?"
/. Consider the unspoken life. it's
alarming mystery, eloquence and import.
You think your spoken words in a sense
common property; your unspoken
thoughts, sacrediy your own. But q
voice breaks the hallucination, and
assures you there is nc secrecy: no pri-
vacy; nothing sacred to yourself alone.
That spoken in the ear in the closet snail
be proclaimed. That hid shall be- uncoy-
cred. Men overlook this important fact.
What different people we would be il we
recognized it, how much greater, on how
much higher plane would we build our
inner selves, what new relatives We
should sustain TO tbings-to God.
Three principal reasons account for
mans failure TO recognize the fact in
yolyed in our text, !. o. ta) Lack OF
mental capacity to fully grasp unaided
SO far reaching q truth. (b) Want OF
4# ZgFZM
spiritual sensitiveness TO realize il. 10
The faculty to lay hold of subtle and inn
palpabIe things lies uncultivated. Your
not catching the symphony OF music, or
not hegffrg the footfalldoes not disproye
1.-The fact of their existence. IL only re-
veals your iutirmIty. Now Christians see
the unseen; endure IS seeing the inyisi-
ole, because you do not, you deny, and
reason" You set up your ignorance On
incapacity against their certain