Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1896-04-13

Y eSterQaY Morning - u 0OON
Work for Paternal Beneficial Or
CARNATIONS - Special Services at
the Wesley Chapel-Other Rehg-
iOus Matters.
At the morning services at the Third
Presbyterian Church yesterday, the
pastor, the Rev. R. r. Bigger, preached
a very interesting sermon TO the mem
hers of the Shield of Honor. The
church was filed TO overlooking, the
members of the order occupying a sec
tiCn of the church reserved for them.
Following is the sermon in substance;
Love the brotherhood, fear God.
l. Pet. 217.
Our text lays before us two great
facts of life: the fact of brotherhood
and the fact Of God. Both OF these ideas
are as old as history itself Infdelity
has tried in every age to rule the idea
of God out of the mind of man, but the
result has been disastrous failure
Selfshness has aimed its shafts at
brotherhood TO destroy it. but it was all
in vain. These two ideas have been
indellibly written upon the human
heart by the Creator. They are a part
of the furnishing of the soul. That
these ideas should be in the minds Of
an men without resulting in organiza-
Ji0ns for their propagation, has been
an impOssibility. Therefore, the
Church OF God was established, that
men might be bound together by the
ties of Christian love and that the
knowledge oft he Lord might be spread
to- the utterm0st part of the earth. The
lodge was established that the idea OF
brotherhood might assume a more prac-
teal form. in affOrding help and SYM
pathy 10 the sick and distressed, and in
providing for the comforts of the widow
and the orphan The lodge is one OF
the products of Christianity, and it has
become a great and powerful factor in
the civilized world.
The presence of suffering and distress
i'm the world ought not to be considered
as a calamity or even as a thing TO be
deplOred. 1t is one of the greatest
means of opening the fountains Of
sympathy in the heart, and of binding
us close i'm the ties of brotherhood,
True character is brought out in this
way. There is great merit in doing
that which ought to be done. The Al
mighty has placed before you the need
of relieving your suffering brother and
the duty of helping to care for his loved
ones after he has been called away
The fact of sorrow and pain in the
world has been a great puzzle TO many
people; I cannot say that it has ever
bothered me in the least If the roses
blOOmed every day in the year we would
soon become so accustomed to them
that we would not appreciate them. and
if there were no sorrow in the world we
not appreciate the joys we experience.
would not appreciate the joys we eX-
perience.
Life is a solemn reality; solemn not
merely because we exist. but because @
the duties and responsibilities which
the fact of living involves. Our text
emphasizes the two great duties Of life:
Love for the brotherhood of men and
reverence for God. The all wise Crea-
tor has given us powers and talents
which enable us to perform these duties.
Your lodge has i'm view chiefly mans
duty TO man. The exercise of human
love and sympathy is as far above mere
animal instructive affection as the
heavens are high above the earth.
Therefore. man with all has pOssibili-
ties Of pleasure and pain, of sympathy
and benevolence, the climax of the
creative process. He has capacities and
powers which reach up into the infinite
and the eternal.
These powers were not given to us
for no purpose Therefore we are
placed in a world i'm which there are
many opportunities for the exercise Of
every noble virtue. and every tender
sympathy with which we are endowed.
because this world has sorrow and suf-
fering in it and because there are many
widows and orphans who need help,
some people are disposed to take
dark, pessimistic view of life. and they
rashly and rebilliOuSly assert that a
worse, a more cruel world than this
could not have been created. How fool
ish is this position. Did YOU ever stop
and think what would be the best pos
sible world i'm which man, with all his
powers, could live and move? Why.
free moral world, of course. And that
is just the kind of a world in which we
live A world without pain. without
irksomenesS of labor. without sorrow.
would also be world without the bless
ing of sympathy, the blessing of rest.
and the blessing of tender help and
loving care. 1t would be a One-sided.
dead. inSensible world; a fixed world of
mechanics rather than a free moral
world. Moral freedom implies good
and evil. pleasure and pain. Therefore.
when the skeptic and pessimist rashly
asserts that a world without pain and
without the need of help would be
better world than that which God has
created, he simply exposes his ignOr-
ance of the use of adversely and the laws
which govern it,
Suppose we have a world without any
sorrow, what would be the result?
Why there would be no JOY. Because
if we destroy the sensibilities out of
which pain proceeds we destroy of ne
cessity the source of JOY. for their
sources are identical. Suppose we de-
strOy the senSibilities Of hunger. which
at times causes suffering. then You also
destroy the senSibilities by which YOU
enjoy the good things that God has
placed in the world for us TO enjoy.
On the other hand, if the possibility of
doing evil should be eliminated from
the world, then there would be no vir-
tue. no merit in being good, for true
character, true virtue, true merit. CON
sists in the choice of good in the face
of evil A babe is, innocent because
the babe knows nothing of evil, but