El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1897-09-27
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tie. The greatest courage is no
! physical courage.
= The speaker then showed his them.
: in three portraitures. The curtain rise!
. on the first in Jerusalem 1900 ye ars ago
Nicodemus a ruler of the Jews visits
Christ; and in this connection the
!, speaker referred to the general charac
, teristics of the Pharisees, especially
their much boosted morality, and
Christianity, showing how a man does
not develope the best points in his
manhood until he becomes Christian
When a man becomes a Christian he
feels the change and it's effects, but he
can not see the agency which &C.
com plished that change any more than
he can see the wind, as Christ remark
ed to Ntcodemus at the time of his
visit. The Savior had planted in the
heart of the. proud Pharisee the new
birth. Thank God for men who will
brave the world and have the moral
courage of Nicodemus AS man fol-
lows the truth so will the light be shown
| him. Copernicus, Gallileo and others
followed the truth in the face of the
opposition of skeptical world, and
| they came into the greater light. In
fact, a man who does not follow the
the light God has given him will be
deserted of truth. Many men have so
worn away their finer feelings that they
come to think that everything is a
! farce and that there is no God. God
has put faith, love and hope in you, and
what we want is to resurrect them, and
bring forth the most beautiful fruits.
Let man neglect his mind and he will
come to be an imbecile. Let a man
neglect his soul and he will have soul
blindness-unable to see the truth.
God never sends a man to hell; but he
sends himself there in neglecting the
welfare of his soul. A man developes
according to the direction in which he
grows. You care nothing for God for
a year and you will care nothing for
God. Let man neglect to follow the
spiritual life and he will surely drift
into vice. He can not escape this.
Every man who sees his duty and dos
not follow it, grows smaller and
smaller.
The speaker then said this closed the
first picture, and he would now raise
the curtain on the second. Two and a
half years after Nicodemus had made
his visits by night to the Savior, there
was feast of the taternacies being
held in Jerusalem, and of this feast and |
its SURF Oun dingS the talented speaker
gave a remarkably fine por nature. 1t
was at This time that the rulers of the
Jews sent men to arrest Jesus. who " as |
preaching iu Jerusalem, and the men
instead, they returned to the sanhedrin |
saying. "Never spake man as this
man." 1t was on this oct aston that
Nicodemus stood up in the sanhedrin
for Christ, and effectively too, as the
narrative shows. This reminded Mr.. |
Moore of the courageous stand taken |
by James Russell Lowell at a London
banquet when skeptiosm WAS respond
ed to in a toast. He TOOK up the de-
fa of ric fu in
ske. ticism, showing that life and prop
erty was only secure in proportion to
the progress of CT ristiapity, and that |
there was no quarter of the earth in |
which they were respected until the
Christian missionary had been there |
first and planted the seeds of Chris
tianity. Gladstone said he had been in |
public life for fifty seven years and had
personally known sixty of the master |
minds of the world: and of these sixty
fifty five were protesting Christians. |
1t is only through Christianity tn at the |
world s problems can be solved. It is |
only through the Christian religion |
that mans soul can experience the |
sense of pardon for sin. Philosophy |
can not do it. Philosophy can not lift |
men up to God.
The curtain again raises-this time |
on the third act. 1t is six months af-
ter the last act, and the scene is again |
in j. pusalem, this time at the feast of |
the passover. The regular population |
of Jerusalem was three millions, and |
on the occasion of the annual feast, the |
population was doubled. Here follow
ed graphic descriptive of the scenes
in that famous city and at that famous |
time, the day of the crucifixion. The
process on to the hill of calvary was
detailed with q power tn at will not be |
soon forgotten by that Y M. G.. A. au-
dience; also, the terrible scenes which |
followed, notably the earthquake, the |
rending of the veil of the temple, and |
the OPP -ning of the graves and the ris-
ing from thence of resurrected corpses. |
Then Joseph of Aramathea and Nico-
demus went before Plate and asked |
boldly for the body of Jesus. They de-
clared themselves his friends, although |
he had ust been put to death by an |
infuriated populace. Yes, one of the |
greatest characters in history was
this grand old Pharisee He loved our
the motherhood of civilization. A |
man. worth is ths nature of his dis
position In additional illustration of
this fact, the speaker cited a motto
found in the book of a Christian girl,
"WhOm never having seen 1 love-"
Mr.. Moore made fine concluding
argument on love for the son of God,
and detailed how pleased he was when
he found young men following the
light of Christ. Have the moral
courage to come out and say, II will
begin the true life There is no COM
fort in skepticism. 1t is only the
Christian who can take up the teles-
cope of faith and see beyond this world,
the beauties of the new Jerusalem, the
city of our God.
Music for the occasion was furnished
by Miss Josie Phelps at the organ,
with a cornet, French horn and cello
for instrumental accompaniment, and
male quartet consisting of Messrs
Barnes, Sloan, CullOn and Rokahr.
A Farewell Discourse.
Rev. A Hoffman preached last night
IN the First Methodist church his last
sermon for the conference year, as he
goes this week to conference to Albu-
querque where the annual conference
of the Methodist church is to be held,
and he may be returned to this station
for third year, or he may be station