The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-08-14
THE VOICE OF THE PULPIT
CHRIsT's PROGRAMME AND THE
PROMISE OF FULFILLMENT.
short Sermon by Rev. Frank G. Tyr
reII, Pastor Central Church, Dis
cipIes of Christ, st. Louis, Mo.


(Matthew, /, 21.)
Names have meanings, commonly Now
and then they are peculiarly significant:
Alexander. a defender of men: Napoleons
lion OF the forest dell; Constantine. reso-
lutte; Francis. free; Esther, a star of for1
tune; Martha, ruler of the house. Theirs
are few, however. whose name is any index
to their character, or at all indicative OF
their career
But the programme or purpose OF the
Bethlehem babe was announced in His
name-Jesus, savior-and coupled with
promise Of fulhlment Here is namg
which is not only deeply significant, but He
who bears it will carry out the programme
indicated. Call Him Savior. for He shall
save His people from their sins.
But while mems names may not tally
with their characteristics or achievements
nor indicate the programme they wish ID
carry out. the world has not been lacking
in men who had a programme. Sometimes
it has been in war: they led great armieA
and won brilliant victories. Yet their prot
gramme came to it's end, they died. and
their glory faded: even their names peri
haps are forgotten. We feel to-day as if ths
names of Dewey. Hobson and other re~
cent heroes would live I'm history besdh
Nelson's and Farragut's and Grants. Ana
so they will, no doubt. for generations. But
'the name that is above every name" Will
endure forever!
Reformers have come and offered Ii
tighten the worlds burdens and ills a1
ounce or two and we have welcomed thenA
They have laid down a programme of ir..
vention, of discovery. of commercial enter.
prise, and we have hailed them with de.
light. The world would be cold, and history
dull, and civilization far less advanced
without our Luthers and Savonarolas and
Gladstones and Bismarcks and Washing
tons and Websters and Lowells and Edisons.
They framed a law or made a machine,
wrote books and creeds or evolved goverh-
ments-but Jesus saves his people from their
sins.
Says Dr. Joseph Parker: IT thank all men
who have done anything for me, but there
is fire in that Is burning up my life +
who is to put that out? For all temporary
mitigations of suffering l am thankful. bat
there is an asp biting my soul, and am dsf-
ing of its injected poison Who can touch
a mind diseased? This Son of Mary, Son oi
Cod comes with the avowed purpose of do.
ing this very thing want to have done.'A
THE WORLDS CHIEF EVIL.
Intelligent men everywhere agree that tAs
chief evil of the world is sin. 1t is the prp.
Life source of the worlds ills. The osd
story of dust and divinity, the serpene'a
SIM is enacted in the experience of eveEy
individual No matter what you think 81
Adam and his fall, you are thoroughly coi-
scious that Smith has fallen and Jones has
fallen. and whatever name you wear, you
may write it in the narrative in place IF
Adam, and II viii be veritable history. For
all have sinned. and come short of the glofy
of Cod
Count up the woes of the world. Esti-
mate the treasure wasted, the lives sacrl-
feed, the passions engendered by war. What
caused it all? War is always preceded by
intrigue, or jealousy or oppression or III
famous cruelty-by sin in some FORM. Oar
own conflicts-with England, with Mexico,
with ourselves, with Spain--had never been
necessary but for sin.
Pestience, with its grim horrors and
frightful Deaths gathers it's strength from
sins against the body, sins against clean
Illness. Social discord, from family jar TO
civil war, is confessedly the result of sin
in varying degree.
Employers are SHINING against justice ana
equity and brotherliness, and a strike f6i-
lows. Employees are regardless of the rights
of their employers, and lockout is the re-
suit Marshal the great army of hobcs.
whose rags and filth are the disgust of
every community, and see yome of the eYil
results Of sin. They tell of sins Of appetite
and sins of idleness. Pass to the opposite
extreme, and the moneyed arstocracy nf
the country, perpetrating all manner of ex-
travagance and promoting Industrial OPP
preston. stand as representative OF the
damning power of the sins of coyetousness
and greed and pride and arrogance. "All
have snned''
Every crime on the calendar is likewise
a sin, and the inmates of our jais and
penitentiaries were condemned by con-
science and condemned by God before the
jury heard the testimony and the court
pronounced sentence. The sin Of unbehef
sent the Hebrews back from the borders
of the promised land to forty years wan
dering in the wilderness. The sin of pride
and disobedience defeated them at All The
sins Of Saul overthrow them on the heights
of Gilboa. The sins of idoIatry and licsn-
tiousness swept them away captives to
Babylon And the sins of the nation found
their elimination in the rejection OF the
Messiah and the overthrow OF
Jerusalem, followed by the worldwide exile
of this chosen people, who are fifty. called
the miracle of history
NEED OF A SAVIOR.
touI we ueGQ lutH the pages or lalS~
tory nor study our own times to find ample
evidence of sin. That man who has the
courage to look into his own heart and life,
If he is not sublime egotst, a moral
coward or fool, will find there sin enough
to call loudly for savior. For sin is in
dividual and personal before it is ever ma
tional, and it carries with 1t guilt and PEN
atty, as a thunder cloud carries with it
blackness and destruction. Whether OF
conscious purpose or not, men are trying
to-day to excuse their SINS as Adam did.
They blame circumstances and enviF0n-
ment, they blame heredity and training,
they blame associates. they blame society;
and their cowardce finds it's elimination: OF
audacity when they impiously dare to
blame God. Sin is an act of a sovereign
viii. intelligent. conscious and responsible.
LET no man say when he is tempted. am
tempted of God, for God cannot be tempted
with evil neither temrteth he any man.
There is a disposition abroad in society
o-iay to soften and condone sin, to- be
cry lenient in judgment. SO far has shis
ndency gone that some sins have even be-
ome popular and are intrenched in public
savor. Men Of depraved tastes and blunted
perceptions have perfumed and gilded sin
and called II business or pleasure or