The herald., 1897-01-11
SELECTIONS Of SERMONS
The Rev. Burt Estes How.
ard on ChriSt-Life
THE LESSONS OF THE EPIPHANY
By Bishop Montgomery at the
Plaza Church
CHRIST'S NAME IN PRAYER
The Subject Of DR.. Thomson's Discourse
at Unity
Crowds Listen to Archdeacon Webber's
Closing Mission Services
Dr. Mclean Is Seriously Hills Pulpit
Occupied by Rev. Bland-A Mis-
sion Preachers Busy Day-Mr.
Davenport's Prophecies.

The Rev. Burt Estes Howard preached
yesterday morning at the First Presby-
terian church from Matt Xi:2S-30.
Come unto me all ye that labor and are
heavy laden, and l will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn of
me, for am meek and lowly in heart,
and ye shall find rest unto your souls:
For my yoke is easy and my burden
light.
IF any man." said the preacher "in
these closing days of the nineteenth
century should arise from the low Level
of poverty and obscurity, and. gather
ing about him little group of laborers-
mostly fishermen with one or two hold
ing a petty clerical positon-should
stand up in the face of our boasted civil
ization ard offer himself as the suffi-
cient antidote for all the worlds ills. and
claim with a supreme confidence that he
held in his own life and teachings the
key to all the perplexing problems that
fret humanity; were an unlettered car
penter to abandon his work bench,
and, setting himself up as a prophet, to
lift up his voice in our streets crying:
Come unto me all ye that toll and are
burdened, and l will give you rest we
undoubtedly would look upon him with
amused pity as a poor lunatic, or have
him arrested as a dangerous disturber
of the public peace. Yet Jesus was just
such man with just such a message.
AS the dying season arrays itself in all
color of n leaf
the world in the decay of the Augustan
age was draped in a majestic splendor
with which it vainly tried to conceal
it's lean and shruEken state. Faith was
dead, but with a feverish restlesSness
men bore its shriveled corpse from shrine
to shrine looking for some power from
the gods to vitalize it, Society was no
more; there existed power sitting
itself In blood or consuming itself in
debauchery.' The state was looked upon
with suspicion as organized oppressiOn;
religion was regarded with disdain as
organized hypocrisy. Everywhere dis
irtegration and dissolution were the
sole movement of the day. Stung into
an agony of unrest by a thousand forces
Which 1t could not battle. the age sought
release by plunging into the excitement
of sensuality or the dull stupor of hope
lessnesS In a little obscure shop
in little obscure village a son of a
despised people earned his daily bread
by the sweat of his face. Moved one
day by an impulse born of years of
brooding and yearning prayer. stirred
nightly by conviction that consumed
his very soul in it's fierce fire, this car
penter, whom men called Jesus the son
of Joseph, laid aside his tools and went
out into the life of his times, with it's
gilded mockeries, it's mummified relig-
ions. its wickedness and oppression and
ceaseless strife, and declared that if
men would take up his service and his
spirit they would find rest, and that life
would fall into adjustment. With
superb assurance this peasant from the
hills of Nazareth laid his worn hand on
the pulse of the world and claimed the
power to allay its fever and soothe its
jangling nerves. There he stood in the
seething, surging life of his day. the
unique character of history, stripped of
all the world regards as the elements of
power, without money or place or pres
tige, holding out his pitiful poverty as
king extends the sceptre of his royal
favor, and inviting the race to share his
life. Come unto me all ye that labor
and are heavy laden and / will give you
rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me, for l am meek and lowly of heart,
and ye shall find rest unto your souls
For my yoke is easy and my burden is
light
But look what a life 1t was that he
led in the world. From the standpoint
to which we are all given in making up
our estimates there IL. no figure in all
history around which gathers so much
of pathos and sorrow. From the morn
when his baby eyes looked out in Won
der at the rude furnishings of the stable
manger where he first saw the light,
through the years of boyhood and early
manhood poverty and labor had been
his playfellows. When under the stress
OF conviction that he could not with
stand he went down that day to hear
John at the Jordan only to be seized
with an intense passion to go out into
the world to redeem it from its wretched-
ness and sin, the loyalty to Gods call
brought upon him the taunts and sneers
of his own kinsmen With no means of
livelihood, penniless, social nobody,
without rank or influence, an obscure
jewish labOrer on fire with holy pur-
pose; looked upon by his own rulers as
an anarchist and an outlaw, hereto
with respect to his fathers religion,
driven here and there by the hatred of
his foes compelled frequently to go into
hiding in order to escape the yindictiye
violence of those who sought his life;
meeting on all sides criticism, disap-
polntment, desertion and scorn; called a
giutton and wine bibber. toiling from
dawn far into the night in order to help
the poor miserable souls that crawled
about him. pressing every hour full of
tender helpfulness and service and re-
ceiving but scant love and friendship
In return; with no roof to cover his head.
despised and rejected of men-a sort of
tramp. dependent on charity, with lit
tie handful of followers who misunder-
stood him and on none of whom he could
rely In time of need, lonely with that
deep heart solitude which is the most
awful or all isolation-this Nazarene
stretched out his hardened hands to the
world and declared that his life was
life OF rest and that if only the bent
totlers and the heavy laden would
come to him and take his yoke then
they too would find rest. To us who are
so given up to measuring our life in
terms of comfort and leisure and exter-
nal quiet, these words of the master are
q strange paradox. Beaten, buffeted
broken and torn by the malignant en-
nifty of those whom he was trying to
help. yet he lifts his life up before men
that ere telling and burdened, and