The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-07-05
Cbrlst.Like Personality Demanded by
Americas Present Problems.
SERMON BY REV. DR. BURROUGHS
Preached Yesterday Morning from
the Pulpit ofthc First Presbyterian
Church--Too Much Playing with
Problems, and Too Little Real
Good Individual Living.

ent Problems" Taking his text from
Luke 12 56--"Ye know how to interpret
the face of the earth and the heaven,
but how is 1t that ye know not how to
interpret this time?"-he said:
When a mans eyes have been opened
to see life as a reality, then is he truly
blessed. But the blessing often seems
connter-balnnced by the vision of the
shains Of existence which meet the keeh-
ness of his newborn sight. The heart Is
made sick: for all about are the stage
players In mask and buskin. Saddest
sight Of all. is the evident fact that these
men, thinking, feeling, acting on the sur
face merely, are conscious that they are
hypocrtos. They do not know that they
have no anchor-hold upon the things that
are; they see not that they are living
like the insects Of day sporting on the
face of the stream of life. These men
have always been. Christ found them all
about him. 1t was of these stage players
OF his day, the hypocrites of his genera
tion, that no said, How is 1t that ye
know not how to interpret this time?"
For, Jesus was the deepest thinker of
his day, and of all time as we'll They who
go beneath the surface TO lay bare the
roots of things, always find him, If they
look far beyond them in the path, search
ing for-and tinding-things as they are.
Think a moment. How then must this
world of ours, with all its mock show,
have appeared to his preternatural!y keen
insight. How heavy must often nave been
his load of heart sickness. Is it strange
that ii is said of him, He groaned in
spirit and was troubled?'
Always, the man WHO lives on the sur
face cannot endure the presence of him
who reads life's secrets The dance of
existence loses its zest, when he stands
by one who knows you better than you
know yourself. Your schemes for the
louder applause of those before whom you
play your little part miscarry, for he IS
near who wonders why there should be
applause at all. Naturally and of noces-
sity, therefore. Jesus come into conflict
with these men of his day. He under
stood them-they knew 1t; but they could
not understand him. Our own safety, so
say they, is put out of sight this un-
yomfortable, this imrFactical realizer
AS a social necessity, all factions joining
hands in the common cause, they led him
away to be crucihed. They understood
the face of the heavcn-the weather and
its signs-but they could not interpret
their time. They were not equal to the
problems of their generation. Its move
ments, its facts in action beneath the sur
face, were too deep for their shallow ma
lures.
But Jesus of Nazareth, the realizer
could not be killed. AS in body, so in
spirit, he did not belong to the grave.
Men everywhere, quite aside from any
especially religious thought about Christ,
are leatning that he mistakes utterly who
imagines that Jesus dealt, when mere,
simply with the Jewish problems of the
first century. This Christ was the king
of prophets; nay, this Christ is the sec'
of humanity--so says the man whose eyes
have been today opened to see the real.
His testimony, increasingly clear, Is this:
When discern truly regarding the pres
ent questions of mankind, / find myself
standing in company with this wonderful
nan of Nazareth. | am discovering tnat,
would l understand the movements of
my day, l must look at them from his
angle, / must study them in his atmos-
rhore and with his spirit
This, tlen. is my theme this N orning. n
theme not inappropriate, l trust to the
day-Christlike life and thought, Christ
Nike personality, demanded by Americas
present problems.
HuNIANlTY'S PROBLEMS.
1t is my personal conviction that this
Is true, because / conceive these present
problems to be not simply ours but to be
pre-cminently humanity's problems. 1t
Is my thought. therefore, that Christlke
life and thought are, first of all, demand
ed for correct vision of them, for that
adequate understanding which is prere-
quisite to any possible solution of the
difficulties which they present. Can we
believe that il is any moro possible for
the genuine follower of the Christ to pass
by the questions of humanity at the pres
ent tran it was for Jesus to pass them by
nineteen hundred years ago? Surely not.
| That man is most truly worthy of the
name Chris tian who turns his thought,
with that faith in God and in the high
destiny of man which was so character
istic of Jesus, upon tho questions of hfe
which are pressing so strongly at present;
that man is most truly Christian who is
thus endeavorlng to deal with these
questions right manfully.
The twentieth century, what shall its
| history be in America? We are almost
fearful to put the question; we are fear
ful to try to answer. History of some
kind there must be on this continent in
the next hundred years. All the clements
that go to fashion history are here. We
who so socn are to step upon the thrc sh-
hold of this rev time shall both observe
| and take part in, shall ! say progress
Certainly we shall take part in move
ment, rapid, strong, colossal. Yet 1 be-
| licve we must confess that the outcome
OF the various conflicting forces about us
Is, to large degree, uncertain. All, we
must agree, depends upon this-this su-
| premely, l had almost said this only--the
factors of personal life which shall enter
| into these years, upon what these shall
in their character be. Will Macauley's s
| prophecy of the overthrow of our repub-
Nc, because we carry too much sail and
too little ballast, be fulfilled? Many
things which he pointed out as mlestones
ON the read to national disaster, we have,
| apparently, already reached. Are we.
then, pressing on to ruin? We cannot
say, no. Rather our reply must be, The
history OF the coming days, what they
shall disclose. depends upon the thought
ful men OF TO-DAY, upon what they shall
| do or shall not do. 1t depends, in the al
innate analysis, upon the thoughtful
Christian men whose intelligence is pos
sessed by the spirit of Jesus, who own his
mastership who follow his leadership.
VIII these put their personal life into
Americas history? Win these not simply
try to think out-Yery probable this can
not be done-4but will these live out Amer.
icas questionsF How many of these men
are there to be? How much are these
to count for? This, l say, is. after all,
the fundamental problem. Why? do yoI
ask ! reply, first, because of what Amer
| ica's questions are, and, second, because
of what Christlike personal life is.
THE COMING STORM.
This much, then, let me say about
Americas questions. We cannot fail TO
see that the problems which face us have
come TO us by reason of our phenomenal
past prosperity. They are the outcome of
the blessings which have been granted us
as nation. Our wonderful natural re-
sources, our unparalleled development as
people, our unbounded personal liber-
ties and advantages, these have brought
to us what we have TO meet. The skies
have been too bright to make Us thought
full OF a coming storm. The smooth seas
have, In no small degree. taken away
our power to struggle with wind and
wave. Had our evils arisen from adver-
sity, we should have been I'm a measure
prepared for them, We should at least
have been seeing that they We're here