The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-08-23
POWER, LOVE AND WISDOM
REV. DR. D. J. EDWARDS, OF LEIP-
 SIC, AT CENTER CHURCH,

SIC, AT CENTER CHURCH.
 Union Service of United and Center
 Churches-"rhe Trinity That Makes a
 Complete Life"-God Has Endowed Man
 With Potentiallty Sufficient for Growth
 in Grace-A Large Congregation.
 The United church held a. union ser vice yesterday morning with the Gen. ter church congregation in the latter's edifice. The preacher was Rev. Dr. D. J. Edwards, pastor of the American church in Leipsic, Germany. Dr. Ed wards is visiting this country after an absence of several years and while here has been invited to fill a number of pulpits. He is a. very pleasing and in- teresting speaker, and his sermon yes- terday was greatly enjoyed by g large congregation. It was deeply thought ful and eloquent, compelling close att tention despite the humidity and op- pressive weather.
 Dr. Edwards chose for his text g. Tim. 1:7, Revised Version. For God gave us not spirit of fearfulness, but of power and love, and discipline" He said in part:
 think 1t is a fact, that most persons and more especially, those who have real mental ability, find themselves pos sessed with what the apostle calls in the text a spirit of fearfulness-a spir- 1t of fear, felt and known to themselves, if not manifested to others, respecting the performance of some work or duty, they have been called upon to perform. Thus Moses sllrunk from the work to which he was appointed, from g. sense of his unfitness, in view of the mighty task required; and so did Aaron, and Isaiah. and Jeremiah, and many oth- CTS, as well as Paul himself. It is not in these cases because there was an unwillingness to be useful, that these men felt this sort of timidity, but rath- CT because of the magnitude and inn- portance of the work to be done; and hence they felt that others might do it. more efficiently. This is what is called in the text "a spirit of fearfulness,' natural enough, perhaps in view of ones health, temperament, environ- ment. and the like. but a spirit, which. if yielded to, would interfere with, if not prevent, the performance of most of the great undertakings of life. [ cannot say that I like to see men or women without a little of this sort of fear; 1t evidences something besides, modesty. It manifests 8 sense of re- sponsibility, that all should feel, who engage in serious work, and they who have it, if its influence be not excessive, do better work than they who are very bold and self-confident. It Is not un- common experience to see the man with great assurance fail in a. task. where the person with a spirit of "fearfulness' succeeded, (Shakespeare,s Richmond, Maeduff, Gen. Gordon our own President eLincoln). But Paul's thought in the text does not refer to this quite natural and becoming fear. but another quality, which becomes al- lied to 1t, when one permits fear to be controlling. For a man who doesn't do what he knows should by him be- done, even though he feels his ineffi- ciency, is more than a fearing man. He is a coward; permitting his natural fear to degenerate into miserable weakness. Let us give the word translated '.fear'' or ''fearfulness' in the text, its full meaning and then we shall render 1t thus. God hath not given us a spirit of cowardice, but he hath given us a spirit of power and love and wisdom..'
 Now this was not rhetoric with the apostle; not an outburst of fine writing but the expression of a. fact, the belief in which had made all the difference to him between being a slave, a pol- c1tf fcoeo rS nd conqueror! For, when Paul realized His call of God, he naturally eonsid- cred his ability to respond to 1t; going into the inner chambers of his thought and there laying bare to his mind and heart, his personal endowments and fitting for the work of an apostle of Jesus Christ and all that this involved. We may we'll believe that he questioned his ability to do what was to be per- formed. Were there not other men bet ter fitted, larger gifted? Were there not those from among the twelve who had been with Jesus and had received daily instruction from him, partaking of His secret and power and who could therefore as eye-witnesses, testify more convincingly of that Tight which lighteth every man that COm6CH lutO the WOTlu lie, n1u1Self. as to his spiritual experience, was, as lone born out of due time," while as to his physical power, had he not much more to- contend against than some of the stronger and more stalwart of the disciples? For at PauPs time as we'll as to-day, men took personal presence into the account in forming an estimate of fitness for certain work, and. poor Paul! He must have felt somewhat crestfallen, if like another Duke of Gloster, he held the glass, that he might see his shadow as he passed"- short in stature with meeting eyebrows, a large protuberant nose, bald-headed. bow-legged," his bodily presence, he tells us, himself, weak and his speech emptible"-perhaps he stammered a bit as the noble Charles Kingsley did and only in the glow of utterance for got his infirmity-bad eyesight, possi- bly partial blindness-all these things together made up that thorn in the f1esh," probably, from which he so ear nestly prayed to be delivered, and caused him to have "a spirit of fear''