The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1898-05-24
DOING THR BRsr WE CAN,

A Short Sermon by Philips Brooks
There is one thing thai people say
very carelessly that always seems TO
me to be a dreadful thing for a man to
say. They say it when they talk about
their lives to themselves, and by and
by they often say it upon their death
beds with the last gasp, as though their
entrance into the eternal world had
brought them no deeper enlightenment.
One wonders what is the revelation
that comes to them when they stand
upon the borders of the other side and
are in the full life and eternity Of God.
The thing men say is, 81 have done
the best I can" It is an awful thing
for q man to say. The man never lived,
save he who perfected our humanity,
who ever did the very best he could.
You dishonor your life, you do not
simply shut your eyes to certain facts,
you do not simply say an infinitely alb
surd and foolish thing, but you dishon-
or your human life if you say that you
have done in any day Of your life, or
in all the days of your life put togeth
er, the. very best that you could, or have
been the very best man that you could
be. You'll What are you1 Again I
say, the child Of Odd; and this which
you have been, what is it, Look over
it, see how selfish it has been, see how
material it has been, how it has lived
in the depths where il might have
lived On the heights; zee how it has
lived In the little narrow range Of sci
fshness when it might have been as
broad as all humanity; nay, when it
might have been as the God Of human
ity. Don't dare to say that in any day
Of your life, or in all your lie togeth.
er, you have done the best that you
could. The Pharisee said it when he
went up into the temple, aud all the
world has looked On with mingled
pity and scorn at the blindness of the
man who stood there and praised his
taithfulness; while all che world has
bent with pity that was near Co love, a
pity that was full of sympathy because
mar recognized his condition and ex-
perience, for the poor creature Rrov.
Cling upon the pavement, unwilling
and unable even to look upon the altar,
but who, standing afar eff, said. God
be mercitul to me, a sinnerI" What
ever else you say, don't say, 81 have
been the very best I could" That
means that you have not merely lived
IN the rooms Of your imprisonment,
out that you have satisfied to count
tnem the only possible rooms of your
life, n that the great halls of your
liberty nave never opened themselves
before you. Shall not they open them
selves, somehow, to US to-day, nv
trlendsG Shall We not turn away from
this hour and go back into our bust
ness, into III Offices, into our shops,
INTO the crowded streets, bearing new
thoughts Of the lives that we might
i've, feeling the letters on our hands
ana feet, feeling many things as letters
WHICH we have thought of as orna.
ments and glory of our life, determine d
70 be unsatisfied forever until these tet-
ters shall be stricken eff and we have
entered into the full liberty which
com9s to tho = alona who are dedicated
TO the service Of God, to the compile
Eon OF their w nature, to the accer.
lance Of the grace of Christ, end to the
attainment OF the eternal glory of the
SPIRITUAL life, first here and then here
alter, never hereafter, it may be, ex
cept here and now, certainly here
Snc now, certainly, as the imms
uafe pressing privilege and duty
VI our llvesl So let US stand up on
UuF feet and know ourselves In all the
ocnlesS and in all the aWtulness of
OHE 9umen life. Let US know ourselves
CSrudren Of G ID, and claim the liberty
~ has given to every o of his
SSnuaFen VINO will take it. God bless
o9u and give some of you help, some
C1o us 70 claim, as we have never
Wbb;ned before, that freedom with
'Dlcn the Son makes freel