The Newtown bee., 1894-11-09

SERMON PREACHED IN THE VIEWPOINT
 CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH BY REV
 OTIS W. BARKER.-LIFE AS A RACE
 COURSE; A FAMILIAR BIBLE FIGURE.-
 ONLY IN HEAVEN WILL ALL CLOGS TO OUR PROGRESS BE EREMovED.-wEIGHTs
 THAT HERE IMPEDE US; REGRETS OVER
 THE PAST, REGRETS OVER LIMITED oP-
 PoRTUNITIEs, DISAPPOINTMENT OVER UNPARALLELED IDEALs.-JEsUs, THE GREAT LITER OF ALL BURDENS.
 Text, Hebrews l2 I, "Let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that | Is set before us"
 The Greek word translated "weight'' is term of athletics. It means the superfiuous flesh, such as was reduced by severe course of training, so that the athletes body might be nimble and light and supple for the contest. The figure, then, is that of a runner ready for the race, stripped of everything that could hinder his best efforts. Unencum- bered with heavy clothing, every hind rance laid aside, he stands, head eagerly thrust forward, one foot thrown far in the rear, every fibre in full tension, bar ed muscles raised into knotty clumps, keenly expectant for the starting com mand.
 The trace of life'' is no strange figure to the Bible reader. It is Paul's most familiar thought. The white heat of en- thusiasm with which he labored, the tremendous emphasis he put upon the | importance of living here for Christ, could make life appear to him in no other light thar a breathless race or desperate battle. In one verse he gives us both of these ideas: "I, therefore, so run not as uncertainty; so fight 1, not as one that beateth the air" And not alone to PauPs eyes may life fittingly seem heated race. To us who live in these times of rush and push and scramble, to us who inhabit land that in a day makes strides in progress that startle older nations, to us the figure is very appropriate and plain. For we see one after another fall out of line, as the pace becomes too strong, wholly unnerved by the fearful strain and tension, and others from be- hind hurry in to fill their places; we see man clutch at the throat of his brother who is passing him by to higher posi- l tinn nf yUna1fh and hnnnr. hp weak and the timid crowded to the wall, rudely, mercilessly showed from their rank by the robust and the fearless; and, looking not from the standpoint and the world, we think of the crown at Jesus hands that awaits the Christian victor's brow and the fruit of life's tree that to him Is promised who, in running, over- COmeth the world: and all our thoughts blend into one phrase, Life is a race. course, and we are the runners."
 TO-DAY THE COLLEGE GRADUATE
 who is not good athlete himself or, at least, is not we'll versed in all the intrica. cies of baseball and football games and other athletic sports, is counted to have missed half the advantages of college life but, whether experts in these contests ol not, we all know the fact that every good runner makes it his great concern to en ter the race completely unimpeded, we know that every muscle must have full est play, and we all can thoroughly ap preciate the thought of the text, "Lay ing aside every weight, let us run"
 If fully convinced that the language we have spoken is more than figure o speech ard hides deep and practical truth then our sermon has close relation to LII every one and we hurriedly ask, "Wha are the weights to be laid aside that w staggered as I attempt an answer to tn, question which is of my own proposing Why, if weights of care, of regret, O anxiety, of fret, of worry, of jealousy, O sickness, of sin, could be removed every one, a new sight on this earth at once WI should see-an eye not dimmed by weep ing, heart that knows no signing, fee that feel no tirlng, body not racked by pain, life unscarred by sims deep lines indeed, Christian stepping forth disen tangled from every letter this evil world can gather, having reached even her, that point which we only dare hope at tain through the limitless expansion O Heaven, being entirely transformed tt Christ's likeness. But not to that Heav enly height do we leap at a bound; on hu one we unshaokla tha earth- cha i n that bind us; our pace is heavy and slow l and so let us lift our weights one at time.
 First, there is the weight of regret tha most of us are trying to carry, the weigh of gloomy regret for the past. How thi great array of things left undone, o things done that should not have been of things which we feel were wretchedl. done, comes trooping before us, ever. time that we look back.
 IS THERE TO BE NO WAY OF FORGETTING Must gloomy visions ever come, even il the moments of our highest joy, to thrus in their sad forms? Like spectres the. seem to step out of the night of the pas and frighten us with their weird shapes
 We often see upon our streets, whethe in city or town or village, those who's head and shoulders are bent very low cane supports their feeble steps-the carry, we say, the weight of many years but this weight of which we are nov speaging, the weight of regret, single