The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1895-01-26
% SERMON. }sz
THE SUPREME GIFT.
BY REV. R. H. PULLMAN, D. D.

hast, and distribute unto the poor. and thou
shalt have treasure in heaven: and come follow
me. Luke xviii, 70,
The great giving time is approach
ing-the season when the world is
most self forgetting and amid the
general activities of preparation we
improve the timely opportunity and
call attention to an incident in the
life of our Lord which will be found
full of suggestion. A certain ruler
came asking, "Good Master, what
shall l do to inherit eternal life?'
The answer came, Thou knowest
the commandments, Do not commit
adultery; Do not Kill; Do not steal;
Do not bear false witness; Honor thy
father and thy mother" The ruler
declared, "All these have | kept from
my youth up" "Now when Jesus
heard all these things, he said unto
him, "Yet lackest thou one thing:
sell all that thou hast, and distribute
unto the poor, and thou shalt have
treasure in heaven: and come follow
me-" When the ruler heard this,
she was very sorrowful: for he was
very rich"
1t may be urged, is indeed urged,
that this requirement was too sweep
ing, especially if it was intended to
be set forth as a general rule. 1t is
said, in fact, that if every one who
would have eternal life must sell all
that he has and give to the poor, it
would not only injure the poor, but
that such wholesale disposal of prop
erty would glut the market and throw
confusion into the social order. Some
body must own something; everybody
should have a share in the wealth of
the world. If this rich man in the
story had sold out, somebody must
have been the purchaser aud would
have come into the same bad plight.
An incident is related of young girl
being converted, and feeling it to be
sinful to wear jewels, gave her jewels
to her sister, The thing to have
done, as she looked upon jewels,
would have been to throw them into
the depth of the sea.
A strict Interpretation of the letter
of our Lords teaching in this case is
confusing, and to many people be-
comes stumbling block. But this
case is one of many where the ''let
ter killeth but the spirit giveth
life" The spirit is this: Hold your
wealth or your possessions, for the
service of humanity. "Give yourself
to the Lord" is the equivalent of
~'Come follow me-" and this again
means, "Let the spirit of my life be-
come the spirit of your life" The
gift of ones self carries with it all
the property. This property may be
held intact as power for good, or,
there may be, on occasion, distribu-
ton in part or in entirety, as prud-
ence shall dictate. Everything is
pledged to the Lord for his work, the
all -controlling spirit of which is the
service of humanity.
Perhaps this ruler, this man of
great wealth, standing there listening
to the answer to his great question,
did not clearly understand; perhaps
he stumbled over the letter without
catching the spirit. He understood,
no doubt, the words: "Yet lackest
thou one thing He, as do all 9th
ers who have not reached the highest
quality of life, felt the full force of
this secret the words of Jesus discov-
ered-something lacking. 1t was no
"trivial question upon thoughtless
tongue" he had asked. He felt the
solemn import of the question. He
trembled little before those steady,
searching yet kindly eyes of the
"Good Master" reading his heart;
but establishment, perplexity, confu-
sion filed his mind as he listened to
the direct instruction that he should
sell all that he had and distribute to
the poor. The promise was made-a
wonderful promise-so "shalt thou
have treasure in heaven" Then be-
gan the mental weighing of values;
heavenly treasure on the one side,
and worldly goods on the other. The
decision was reached in great sorrow
and he went away clinging to his
riches. His sense of lacking some
thing was keen-keener after the in
terview-but he could not afford
eternal life at so great cost.
This man does not stand alone in
this decision. He is representative;
multitudes are with him, and they
are not all rich people. People of
small means cling to their posses
sions as strongly and turn the scales
against the treasure of heaven with