The herald., 1897-08-09
Rev. G. G. Pierce on "The
Need of the Age"
THE POWER IN CHRISTIANITY
WORK OF BETHLEHEM INSTITU-
TIoNAL CHURCH
Services Held in the First Presby-
terian Edifice-A Small Con-
gregation Doing Good

"And he that overcometh and keep
eth my works unto the end, to him will
1 give power over the nations. ."-Reve-
lations, 1925.
A large congregation assembled yes
terday morning in the First Baptist
church to hear Rev. c. c. Pierce Of Chel-
sea. Mass, speak on 1.-THE Need Of the
Age" After referring with poetic ap-
probation to the beautiful California
mountains, which Mr.. Pierce said i'm
pressed him with the feeling of human
ity and the thought of God, who lies
back of humanity, the speaker attack
his subject, and said, in brief:
THE great need of the age is power.
We need it as we need nothing else.
There is no doubt in my mind what God
wants man to do. We all know what
ought to be done, but how can we do
it? Prayers alone cannot accomplish it;
what we need is power, and, alas! we
haven't it, If ideals were realized, plans
brought down to the actual, and aspi-
rations carried out, the world would be
transformed in a year; wickedness and
wrong wuld flee away. There are
prayers enough asked to transform it
if that were all, if we only had the power
to do what we want The great question,
the great quest of the age. is power.
All the educational institutions seem
powerless to explain and provide that
power. The schools of philology, the
ology, philosophy and science are open
ing the way to light. but the need is for
power"
In illustration Mr.. Pierce spoke Of the
engine as the most magnificent piece
of mechanism human genius has devised.
Man knows what it is, and throws open
the throttle, but the monster stands
there is no power, for no fire has gen.
Grated the steam. 1t is beautiful to look
at, splendid to theorize about, but use
less without power. Its lungs of brass
and sinews Of steel are waiting for the
fire to generate the power which makes
the monster leap.
just SO stands the church of Christ
waiting to perform it's great mission
stands after eighteen centuries in the
presence of great needs, great prob
lens, and evils, unable to either solve
or to overcome. The church has accom-
plished a marvellous work, has exercised
wonderful influence in the development
of brotherhood between nation and ma
ton, race and race, the elevation Of NOR
ais and the downfall of great evils, but
there is a great and mighty work re-
naming to be done before which the
church stands helpless, waiting to know
how to carry out it's ideas. Sunday
schools, missionary societies, temper
ance brigades, all these and other multi
plying methods and machinery stand
baffled, amazed and overwhelmed, some
times almost defeated as to how to carry
out the ideas God has put down to be
carried out.
Where shall we find the power to bring
the ideal down to the real? The text
says God gives power, God is the great
source Of power. Life without power is
as much a mockery as an engine without
fire. God alone knows the secret of
power of physical power, and also of
spiritual power; and God gives and loves
to give. If he loves to bestow power in
the blossom and the fruit, think you He
loves to deny spirit power to His chill
dren who are seeking to know His will,
to get the reservoirs of strength to carry
has everything; everything gives way
before power. If it is good power,
evil gives way before it.
But God doesn't give His power into
irresponsible hands. He puts power
into the hearts of men and women who
have shown they can do something with
it; He gives power to those who over
come-as Christ overcame-self, and
who look to Christ not as a savior, but
as leader The most dangerous thing
in the world today is selfish man; the
one great sin is that of selfishneSs AL
truism is better than cannibalism.
When man has learned to trample on
individualism, has learned to love his
neighbor as himself, then evil will disap-
pear. God will come down into the
hearts of His children, who will then
have learned to overcome self. HE that
loseth his life shall find it" The world
is moving on by leaps and mighty strides
why? Because men make a step for
ward and stand there till they can go on,
rising all the time to greater and grander
achievements. So God puts power into
men and leads them on if they will learn
as they go. If we make every gain the
stepping stone to better things, do not
sit down on the step, but move on to
greater heights; when the church re-
members that we win the world in this
fight from ocean to ocean, from pole to
pole, let us not falter in the great work
with which we are commissioned-"To
him will be given power over the ma
ton"