The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-09-07
REV. DIR. DIXON'S
FIRST SERMON
Concluded from Page 81

Of forest trees In little earthen pots. sup
plying only sufficient light and moisture
to preserve life. until the result Is piti-
able miniature OF u great forest tree.
There is constructive principle that must
enter every life in its beginning II 1t Is TO
shape into cedar of Lebanon-a tree. the
planting of the Lord. What You invest
your life with in its beginning will crown
it's close
The Holy Spirit Is not a new and strange
power given to the saints of God when
they come to look out Of life's west win
dows-but He In needed for the fashioning
and completing Of a great life purpose
which is to be saved, save somebody else
and glorify the Saviour Of all.
Jacob was crafty and deceitful. He
might have been match for Jay Could
but whatever he did, or wherever he went.
there was running through his life this
constructive principle which At last made
him the founder of the church. Every life
that would become large, and deep ana
true life-that would be ready for the
Spirits translation, must be ready for the
Spirits inspiration when the contest be-
gins.
We are called upon to "adorn the doc
trine Of God our Saviour in all things
God has made everything beautiful in its
time. Put the emphasis on everything.
This beauty of God has sometimes done
more toward helping some people into the
right sort of a life than the ten COM
mandments. fragile flower has called
criminals to their knees, when the plead
| ing of friends and the solitariness of the
dungeon could not move them. We all
know how the graces of the Spirit attract
us and what an added charm virtue is to
any life. To possess the Spirit and be
possessed by the Spirit is to hold for men
an unconscious attractiveness which
speak for Christ and heaven.
The drops that make a rainbow are not
, conscious of the arch they are weaving.
They are not seeking fame, they are only
falling to the flowers through a sunbeam
Thus the spiritual soul, the sout filled
with the Spirt-living well-living in vir-
tue--living the Chrst-life falls through a
| sunbeam, and helps make a sublime pic
ture on all the conditions that surround it,
The Holy Spirit panoplies for service
The Spirit of God wants us to do some-
thing. He stands ready to help us do it,
The early disciples were not told to pray
for the descent OF the Spirit, but they were
commanded to pray the Lord of the Har-
vest TO send more laborers into the field.
In some way, hard to explain, the notion
prevails that the Holy Spirit has times
and seasons An eminent college preSi-
| dent said to a friend of mine last sum-
mer that years ago the good old Dr. Good
rich. of Yale, was accustomed to say at
| the opening of the college year: Now,
| young men. we are assembled foe work,
and as we gather in this chapel service We
must be ready to receive the Holy Spirit
when He comes. In all probability He
will come in December and January, and
we must not grieve Him away Preachers
have prayed for the outpouring Of the
Holy Spirit-when the truth is He was
filling ha T,1apa "a her hoy mi
er. Too many times preacher and people
are spiritual non-conductors. COmmuni-
| cation is everything in the spiritual world
IA II is in the natural world.
HEAVEN BY A LONG ROUTE.
| remember to have been housed up in
Brooklyn for seven days when that great
March storm blocked the traffic Of two
cities and sent into exile nearly all life on
the Atlantic seaboard. Communication
with New York and Boston was by way
of London The little wires strung be-
tween these two cities u few hundred
miles apart were useless. and the cable
| under the throbbng ocean told New York
the suffering of Boston. Heaven. and the
| power and blessing of heaven are all near
er STILL but We don't live constantly in the
atmosphere Of this nearness--sOme storm
OF adversely. or self living has snapped
the wires, and We feel that heaven Is Il
great way of and We send our prayers
away around some imaginary continent
| for help and blessing.
DR.. kerfoot was once talking with a wo-
man and trying to persuade her to begin
u Christian life but she hesitated--and to
her hesitation there seemed added the ele-
| ment Of confusion-for she held in her
arms a restless child, just ut the moment
| when the preacher thought his plea had
Sn
| full of the murmur spirit. the little thing
looked up into its mothers face, and
| said, "Mamma. say you will" The words
of that little child co-operated with the
words of the pastor in bringing that wo-
man into the Kingdom
| Brethren of what use Is an ideal unless
we make ii real. OF what use Is tear OF
| sympathy unless We crystalline it into a
| deed of mercy. The world rcaps no har-
vest of comfort and blessings from man
who believes In II creed. but Is an atheist
| in his deed. Many people quote as Scrip
ture from Millions sonnet on his blindness
that telling phrase. ''rhey also serve who
only stand and wait" and far too many
of us fulfill the first two conditions in that
notable trinity of things Paul declares
We ought to be: "He We steadfast unmOv-
able, always abOunding in the work of
the Lord"
be consecrated? How may be filed with
the Spirit. that may ill my place in the
world and do 1t well? y cpnsecration that
will take every organ. every faculty. cv-
cry power of our being and annoint them
| for service. Let me ask you then TO cease
! the folly of waiting for some one to come
from afar and bring II conSecratio 10 YOU
already made. ready to pat on aS you
would put on coat. Your consecration
will come in doing for God every thing
you do, and helping struggling men beside
YOU though you were helping God him.
sely! There is no sacred and there is no
secular-it is all divine. whether. there
fore, We eat or drink or whatever We do
do all TO the glory of Cod
OJ'R DOUBLE SELVES.
ON recent summer Sunday. after
| preaching in the morning. | was sitting in
the afternoon looking out of my winloy
in one Of the far up stories of ST. Georges $
hotel, Brooklyn. The eye swept the horiz-
| on, the pennants lying from the topmasts
of the shppine-the towers and cables CT
the great bridge, until finally read he
letter on the gable of Plymouth church.
My mind was busy with thoughts of other
days and of the mighty ministry sent forth
| from within those Walls-when the eye
caught the figure of a man walking. in the
! great plate glass windows in the third
| story Of building across the street
said il can't be that man is on the ground
and can see his forS1. the manner of his
| walk away up there--and | reached far
| out to see. and sure enough right below
me. on the same side of the street this
man was moving along the pavement
! Had he been deformed his deformity
l.. 4.