The Newtown bee., 1896-01-17
Around the Preside.
 THE SHADOW OF THE CROSS.

A SERMON BY REV LYMAN ABBOTT, D. D.
 Text, John 3 l6, Hereby perceive we the love ot God, because he laid down his life for us.
 The words "of God" are put in by translators. "Hereby perceive we the love"-as though it were the whole, the universal love, the only kind of love there IS i'll the universe-''hereby per- ceive we the love, because he laid down his life for us; ard we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.''
 The first impression that one gets from looking out upon life is that it is the law of nature that the weaker should be sacrificed to the stronger. And this conception has been wrought into the scientific f0rmula-"struggle for exist ence-survival of the fittest." Life ap- pears to be d Estruggle, in which the weakest are either crowded to the wall and destroyed, or live only as they sac- rifiCe themselves to that which is high CT. Thus, the mineral world is taken up into the vegetable and absorbed by it, and the vegetable is in turn taken up into the animal and absorbed by it, and the weaker amin al is taken by the stronger animal and becomes his food and is sacrificed to him; and in the whole realm of natural life the weaker, the poorer, the feebler, the lower, is sacrificed for the higher, the stronger, the richer. And this natural concep tiOn of life is wrought out in all the earlier stages of society in the social organism. Thus the subjects came bringing their gifts to the king; the pleaders came bringing their gifts to the judge; the church Scame bringing its service and it's homage to the priest the serf owed allegiance to his sover- eign lord. Life seemed to be based upon this scientific basis, though the scient tic basis was not understood. The lower gave gifts to the higher; the lower was sacrificed for the higher.
 NOW CHRISTIANITY BRINGS A MESSAGE that, at first sight, seems to be radically inconsistent with this. Tn message of Christianity is. The weak are not to be sacrificed to the strong, but the strong are to sacrifice to the weak; the poor are not to be sacrificed to the rich, but the rich are to sacrifice themselves for the poor; the ignorant are not to be sacrificed to the wise, but the wise are to bear the burden and suffer sacrifice for the ignorant. And so all through life. the higher are to serve the lower, the poorer are to Rerve the richer, the stronger are to serve the weaker. So Christ interprets the law to His discip- les: "Whoso will be chief among you, let him be your servant, even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto. but to be minister, and to give his life a ransom for many" So Paul tnterprets Christ to the Ephesian elders: II have showed you how that so laboring you ought to support the weak, and to re. member the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, it is more blessed to give than to receive" You know that water grows heavier as it grows colder, until
 
 to grow heavier as it grows colder, it would sink to the bottom, and ice would form at the bottom of the rivers and | ponds, and freeze upwards, and all fish hat are therein would be destroyed {: l but when it reaches a certain point the law changes, and the cold water comes l to the top and freezes there and so g cover is made on the top and be- comes 8 blanket for the life that is underneath. So, when this law of struggle for existence and survival of th4 tittest, that is the source and inspir- ation of progress up to certain point, is carried to that point, then suddenly the law iS reversed, and the element of conscience comes in, and the element of love, and the law that the feebler and poorer are to serve the stronger and wiser gives place to the law of love-the law that the strong shall bear the bur dens of the weak, and the rich shall bear the burdens of the poor, and the wise shall bear the burdens of the ignorant. Life is like body of men
 CLIMBING UP THE SURFACE OF PRECI
 PICE,
 and in organism every man puts his foot on the shoulder on the man below him and climbs up, and the weak stay at the bottom; but in Christianity every man that gets the vantage ge-ground 8 little above his fellow-men reaches down and takes hold of his fellow-men and helps him up. Both make for progress, but the Christian law of service of the weak by the strong makes for progress better than the struggle for existence and the survival of the Attest. Now, Christianity has gradually wrought out this revolution in human thought and life. No longer do we consider that people are the servant of the king; we say the President is the servant of the people; and the problem [ to-day between government of the machine and by the machine and for the machine, on the one side, and gov ernment of the people, and for the people and by the people, on the other, is the struggle between organism and it is 8 struggle between 'he old, false conception of government, hat the strong are to get the benefit { md the many are to be the servants, { md the modern and Christian concep- [ ion, that the many are to get the ben {