St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-06-18

OD lIle platform sal lit DaStOT, VI luc
church, Rev. John Paul Egbert, u. D. :;
Gen. Roeiiff Brinkerhoff. OF. Mansfield.
O., the president of the association,
and Rev. George II. Hickox, D. D., of
Jackson, Mich. chaplain Uf the peni-
Tertiary there.
President Brinkerhoff read the open
ing scripture, offered the first PRAYER
and pronounced the benediction. DIR.
HickoX offered the closing prayer and
read the announcements. There was
no special music. DR.. Egbert's theme
was:
Goods Wish for ALI Men," 1t was a
most eloquent portrayal of the desire of
the Creator for the best good of all. Ex-
tracts from it are as follows:
"Who will have all men to be saved
and to come unto the knowledge and
truth" l. Tim. H., 4.
This is plain and unqualified state
ment OF the wish of God. What a
strange view it would be of a creator to
find in it no wish that his work should
succeed. The commoneSt workman
wants success in his work. and he
is only maker and not creator. A
father that has any fatherhOod in him
wishes the very highest success for his
child, and the nobler the father the
higher will be his conception of that
success.
If we are only creatures what hope is
there in our petty efforts? If we are
sons of the Most High God. children OF
His spirit, children OF His nature. and
not mere creatures of His hand, what
an inspiration to do our nobleSt and
best work day by day, with the certainty
| that it shall be crowned with perfect
ness at last, without failure. without
! spot or blemish, without any defect or
deformity, God himself being the stand
ard Of judgment as we'll as the judge.
| The strong desire of our loved ones
that we be true and noble is always a
great help to us in our efforts. We
contradict our own desires, we defy our
own habits, even our own evil heritage,
in order to please those whom we love
and who love US. But when. in addition
to all that, man catches a glimpse of
that divine scrutiny of the infinite love
which looks into the Utmost soul of a
man and watches the formation of
fullest action, with an intense longing
of infinite love that it shall be SYM
metrical, shall be pure. shall all be
| life-giving, shall all be a part OF Gods
! great wishing and working i'll mall and
for man, and where he Is trying to do
that which pleases Him, which satisfies
the demand of His infinite nature, what
a glory to the man-to feel that he is
looking into something that will go on
expanding in its greatness and beauty
and power, not only all the days of his
earthly life; but through all eternity,
for it is eter nal life which be seeks.
Now, we are taught that God wills
that every man shall be saved and come
to a knowledge of the truth. And it is
the recognition of the existence of a
personal God, into whose likeness we
may come at last, that gives all the rea-
son. as we'll as all the inspiration, for
all that is noblest ana best in the think
ing and wishing and working of men.
Without that we are simply blindly
working in the darkness. Gods wish
is that we shall break through all
barriers and come to knowledge of the
truth.
1t is very difficult thing for us to
conceive of what complete salvation is
impossible. l suppose it is impoSSl-
bic to save any man to his almost in
this world SO that there be no waste, so
that at last when the work is all done
and his life is lived out, there would he
|
all the value of the time and the oppor-
tunity, the immortal energy in him, all
the power of his life, complete and sue
cessful before God. But we call obey
the other injunction of this text and
find i'll it the definition of what saliva
ton is-a coming to knowledge of the
truth.
These men and women who have
come here have been moved by the one
great Inspiration, which is the inspira-
ton of all true Work-to wish as God
wishes, to think as God thinks, to do
Gods work among men. If it is the
greatest thought of God for us that we
shall be saved and come to the truth, if
it is the greatest work that God would
do for US. surely it is the greatest
men are not moved by this, then they
are not moved by the best that is in
them.
They bring to us, then. this great sug-
gestion, that there is power at work
among us all in alliance with God. And
the man who puts himself in alliance
with Gods thinking, in alliance with
the work of the great Christ, is simply
putting himself to his noblest and best
possible development. These men are
not only trying to find way of improv-
ing the prisoner and improving the
prison, but to bring men TO knowledge
of the truth. That is the real meaning and
result of all their work, or it is not true
work. God bless them i'll every effort.
1t may be that prisons must be reformed
before prisoners are reformed; it may
be that prisoners must be reformed be-
fore society is reformed, or it may be
that prison reform and prisoner reform
and society reform must all go together