The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1897-02-22
FAITH AND PATRIOTISM.
Sermon by Rev. A. M. Lord Yester-
day Forenoon.
Faith Of Washington and Lincoln Won
and Saved The Nation.

street church yesterday forenoon IN
vein appropriate to this birthday season
of our two great national .leaders-Wssh-
| ington and Lincoln. The theme OF the
| discourse WAS, tThe Faithfuiness that
Makes Faith" and the text was from
| Isaiah XXVI. 12-"Lord, thou wilt ordain
| peace for us; for thou also hast wrought
all our works In u.s."
The main portions of the sermon are ss
| follows; In the sold, unhappy, far off
days" mans most intense activity, his
| power OF noblest attainment, mis- oppor-
tunity for most complete self-sacrifice,
was found in warfare; the man OF action
was pre-eminently the soldier.
In "old, unhappy, fer of days" mans
| highest conviction, his most vital faith,
the great controlling ideas ot his life
were wholly bound in with dogmatio
tneoloGy--a narrow fsnsticism.
The shadow of both these conditions
still fingers with US, but, thank God-it
is a lessening shadow. The sphere OF
honora bic activity, the scope for the skill
of hand and inveptiyeness of brain has
widened immensely. The men OF action
today are merchants, inventors, discov-
erers, manufacturers, far oftener than
they are soldiers.
The conditions OF religious faith, the
ways that open from the spirit of God
| into the soul OF man, steadily increase
| and widen year by year. They are no
longer confined to priesthood or book
! or a tradition. But here is my point
hu.
| altered a hairs breadth since the Begin
ming Of time. As il has been, so 1t Is
now, so it ever shall be.
Faith born of action and experience,
created, colored, shaped out of faith are
still the characteristics of the best man
hood aud womanhood. 10 find God In
thought and to put God into word or
a deed without satisfaction or loss-that
is to lay hold of eternal life.
In other words, believe that all history
and all prophecy can be reduced TO simple
elements which each honest man holds in
his own soul; and only as history and
prophecy are so reduced, do they become
servicsable for you and for me.
Otherwise they are no better than the
passing OF a holiday pageant of kings
and queens and knights, or the bat
Elements and pinnacles we build in day
dreams by the winter ire, or the cities
we see in sunset skies that "evercome us
like summer cloud without oar special
wonder.'
1t is to such q reduction Of the passing
events of histcy and she changing dreams
of destiny to the terms Of abiding man
hood that the season and the hour invite
us. The birthday of Lincoln has just
passed; the birthday of Washington is
close upon US.
The times in which both of these great
leaders of men Lived were critical times
in the nations life. They were dark
days In the sense that they were uncer-
tain; there was no telling from any out
ward tendencies or signs which way the
fate of the country would incline. Often
the course of events seemed to incline
toward the deeper shadows. So it was
that me n fell back on their inner sense
OF Justice ana right-God in their souls.
The sustaining thought was, our cause is
righteous and as it has forced this con-
viction on our mind and hea-t, so at last
the same conviction must be forced upon
the world. Naturally the men who be-
came leaders and counsellors in those
DAYS were the men, in whom this strsight-
forward faith i'm the divine elements of
human nature toward the victory OF q
righteous cause, was clesrsst and steadi-
est.
In Washington, It has always seemed to
me, il Is the steady strsightforwaydnes
of that faith toward its end, which is
most apparent; in Lincoln, it is the deep
and broad hun snity, the uherring, human
instinct Of the source Of that faith which
is most apparent. Read any modern
biography of Washington aud you will
see what mean.
Ali ABOUT him were groups of sclf-eeH--
stituted leaders, many OF them we'll
meaning men, some OF them envious and
mean spirited all of them charac-
tarized by a lack OF the simplicity of
faith which was in Washington.
They wanted to accomplish little ad-
vances by pIottings and counter pl ottings.
compromises, couceslments; they were
timid about risking here and there; they
we're willing to take partial compensa-
tion; they were full of petty, changing
devices for passing safety and for incon-
sequentisl success.
Washington had perfectly plain
thought of large, plain end. lie had
the clear, simple certainty of inner con-
viction which Is peace of soul; and
through that transparency of inner quiet
he saw and worked toward the peace at
the end of struggle which God had or
dained for the land ana the people in the
defining and shaping of whose destiny
washingto found his life work. lie was
not fretted and fevered by the fsto OF
small hopes and confirences embarked
on countless little ventures. Envy and
malice. bafIled mbition, easily wouudsd