The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-01-03
a NEWCOMERS SERMON
REV. H. N. KINNEY BEGINS HIS PAS
TORATE AT MAYFLowER CHURCH.
An Alaskan at the Y. VI. c. AMIR. Al
lens Farewell TO sixth Presby-
terrain Congregation.

A large audience listened to the sermon
Of Rev. Henry N. Kinney, the new pastor
of Mayfiower Congregational Church. yes
terday morning. 1t was Mr.. Kinneys first
sermon rs the regular pastor of the chulch.
The topic of the sermon was: Success"
The pastor said in part:
Success has been defined as a termina-
ton which answers the purpose intended.
To know man is successful we must know
he has accomplished the purpose he had in
view. False estimates of success arise We
call men successful who seem to us so, and
more or less successful according to our
standpoint of observation. We Judge the
purpose by the result, yet that result we
often do not clearly understand, or compre-
hending, fail to place it at its true value.
The word success is often misapplied. If
mans work happens to be an ambitious
one, covering the wide field of action,
affecting important interests, we call that
man a great success. On the other hand
we deny success where 1t rightly belongs.
A general wins a victory which decides the
fate of an empire. The greatest success
of the age the world cries. In that gen.
erals army private soldier stands guard
over baggage wagon till a stray bullet
ends his life. The world is silent, yet that
soldier did what he meant to do-give his
life to his country if need be.
The career of Caesar Borgia is an illus
tration of the fact that you cannot tell from
one brick what the house is going to be,
yet that is just what men do in speaking of
success. Because the wicked flourishes for
a day they think it is successful for ever.
Things seem to tend downward, to promote
dependency, to defeat the just says Emer-
son, yet general ends are somehow
answered. If my purpose terminates favor
ably am successful There is a difference.
however. in the choice of purposes. Some
are absolutely good and some are bad. Sue
cess will therefore lie in the choice of pur-
poses. The ruler self-seeking is not the
success Of the statesman who seeks to serve
his country. The church that seeks to
minister in the name of Christ is, without
numbers or wealth, greater success than
enc ,is, that exists for its own glory, The in
dividual who seeks to serve God and his
IelloW-men will have a higher success in
1888 than he who cultivates alone those
miserable aims that end with self.
Whichever way we turn we find success
the result of the good and not the bad.
Rogues wear the livery of heaven to serve
the devil in Everyone shuns the red flag
of smallpox. One must seem honest, or he
will never obtain chance to succeed. The
president Of a bank may have succeeded
IN robbing widows and orphans of their
little all, but he wore the black coat and
white tie of minister, and SO seemed
man to be trusted. Byron, with better
morals, would have ranked high as a poet.
Turkey, the wickedest monarchy in the
world, is the weakest. The powers are the
Christian nations. Greek art cxcelled the
Roman, and the Greek idea of beauty ex-
eelled the Latin. Be beautiful, said the
Goodwin Smith has said that morals de-
pend on religion, and he thinks that as the
morals of the world are degenerating an
age of atheism will ensue. We doubt this
degeneracy, but accept his main principle.
The morals of a man or boy betray his re-
lgion-Puritan, Mohammedan or Norman.
To succeed our moral conduct must be
right. To have the right morals we need
the best religion. If you like the civiliza-
uoni culture, character and code of morals
of Confucius or Buddha be disciple of
their religion. Christianity, however, for
the seeker after success offers most sublime
opportunities. It's code of morals in the
Scripture is the purest.- In Jesus alone, of
all religions, it has produced an ideal man.
Its success does not end with this life, for it
is poor policy to be successful in this life
and fail in the next, and finally it appears
to poor humanity-faiures most of us-look-
ing toward the future, not dead wall,
but a glorious vista of possbility-even at
the eleventh hour chance to try again.