The Norfolk Virginian. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 186?-189?, 1896-04-12
WE ARE SPINNING TALES 5000 OR EVIL.
,ssBe Nos overcome With EVIL h"'
overcome EVIL With Good"-fne
Text selected by Rev. Henry
X. Dcnlinxer for n Good SUNDAY
Sarmon-The World Full Of Esh.
sBY REV. HENRY K. DENLINGEF'
5 CALDWELL. N. j.
Il Be not overcome of evil, bur over
come evil with good-Romans' Kill D.

re no docs not attend to IT, he himself
Is overcome. Man has been hghter
from the beginning. His hrst pattie
was with the beasts OF the heiu anu
he subdued them. His present pattie
is with the forces OF the universe anu
they promise to obey him.
n But this external fight Is but re-
flection of the internal. Man may have
conquered the brute without, but ne
4 has not entirely overcome the BEAST
within, and he can never truly be King
of nature until he is king OF SELF. Mans
battle is moral. and not material. Man
tmpresses himself upon things and
makes them moral or immoral to the
extent that he himself is righteous or
vicious In this moral battle. then,
which conditions all others. man Is
Their overcoming or being overcome.
Look into the deeps of self, and con-
slider whether or not there Is battle
raging there, and whether 1t is not a
moral battle. Either evil Is mastering
you, or you are conquering 1t by good
Let us not handy terms In deciding
what evil Is. 1t is always this for
every, one of us-to resist q sense of
right, not to do what you know you
ought to do, to refuse obedience to the
voice of conscience. to transgress laws
of Justice and love, whether In state
or social relations: 10 live only for the
appetites; to surrender yourself to ease
and self-indulgence; not to strive to live
for what you know to be high ends.
All this is evil. and its opposite Is good;
to obey God, wherever we hear his voice,
in conscience, in nature or in the book;
to live for high ends; to slave for the
increase of righteousness and justice
and peace in the world. Are you over
coming or being overcome? Is II fact
or not that this struggle is going on In
your life, In all life? You have COM
mitted no great crime. broken no State
law. but you have been losing all In
terest In humanity, and don't care two
pence whether the world goes 10 the
sogs or not. You are being overcome.
e You have been downed by evil just as
certainly as the man in the gutter We
say of this poor wretch, drunk by the
{ wayside: Poor fellow! he took a drop
100 MUCH" If we spoke correctly, we
would say: There's been n battle
fought, and appette-evil-has down
ed man." That mans fight took a little
uinerent form from yours; none the less
I you. too. are either overcoming or be-
Ing overcome. Society, perhaps, cnlls
you victorl God may behold you in the
gutter I'VE are spinning our fates
good or evil" Nothing is ever strictly
rubbed out. You may say, like Rip Van
Wlnkie: Il won't count this time" But
IL is being counted by law lrrevoca BILE
ead evils push from behind Ia stronger
win each new violation,
IL Is hard to overcome avu There Is
oniy one instrument TO use in overcom-
Ing II, and that Is good. You may figh,
evil with evil. but that Is not to over
come 1t. l know a man who at one
time In his life was terrible drunkard.
he mad V:ry strong VIII. and one day.
seeing ruin stare him in the face, he
stopped short, an, has never tasted
liqour since. But fc- the vice of the in
temperance he has substituted that of
unchari. Gbleness. There could be nc
harkher man IL. his censu.e of Others
He not Jnly has no sympathy with his
1eiiow-men, but 80 desp!ses a man 70,
railing that hs would do all ne could tc
give MIN the Kick that sends him deepe,
Tather than the pull that helps him up
This is to kin sin by sin: to kill doub,
by blind faith and intolerance; to over
come lust of sense by greed Tor gain
TO say "half-loaf is better than none.
and this half-truth is Better than 6
whole lie-this Is to overcome evil b,
evN. ana TO be yourself overcome by 1;
ihere can be no compromise in thi
matter. If you would overcome. It mus
always be by means of the good.
II Is true, indead. that battles differ
one is fighting on one plane and on,
on another plane. To one the har,
nghr IL with the senses. the appetites
s which threaten TO overcome him: to an
other 1t Is pride. lust OF money or power
And, just as the battle are fought O,
different planes, SO 1t Is with the nstru
ments of good with which we fight
But Tor each and all of US the only In
strument Is the absolute good or rleh
that suggests Itself as the opposite q
the evil we are fighting
Nor muet this battle be fought alone
We might well despair IL this were true
The one great truth that Christ empha
sized was this. that God was on khe sd
OF the man that was struggling TO owe,
come. In Jesus our battle becomes God
battle. And though man fall very of
though he att:mpt very little and ia
very much. the movement OF his life
always onward and upward. The tire
In the forest no less certainly grow
up out OF the decay Of It's leaves an
broken branches than man mounts II
j TO God on the broken stairway OF defea
and failure. God calls us In Christ nc
TO a cessation Of struggle, but to
Giigher struggle with surer hope. II
says: I forgive your past. go out an
fight. but remember the battle is n
more yours than mine. and. If the inf
n.te God is your helper. how can 20
= despair? Like Jacob. we overcome b
wrestling and prayer. The God that In
habiteth eternity Is on the side Of tn
man that Is overcoming. and Isl givin
4 him the crown of life. We are not co,
ce.ous OF being crowned. But day b
IS Cay. IN our littls world corners, whel
s email talent hides us and fame ma
nEyer hear of us. II we are really stri,
f@g. overcoming and browning are goin
IS or side by side. This ought to help an