The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-08-07
THE VOICE OF THE PULPIT
WILL 1T PAY. AN ANSWER FROM
THE STANDPOINT OF RELIGION.
short Sermon by Rev. Philip A. Fits,
pal Church, Henderson, lay.

Va @het - " COLLe.-l llhuOAHys w o.
These words are from a very old book,
but they meet the question which rings out
upon every hour of the busy rushing life
of to-day. the question with which the
world challenges every temporal enterprise
Will it pay?
And anything that asks for standing room
upon the choicest places of this crowded
world ought to vindicate its claim and right
to be there.
Some years ago tho bishop of one OF the
Southern dioceses said to a bright boy, My
son, don't you want % be minister?'
Looking up into the face of his questoner.
the little fellow answered, Bishop, will it
pay?'
In one sense the boys thought was right.
Although his words reflected an unsound
sentiment and showed the infection of the
air around him, his question was a legiti-
mate and pertinent one. If the action of
that boy in entering the ministry was not
to pay-pay the church and pay the world
then it was better for him to stay out of 1t.
whether it would pay him or not. The lat-
ter would depend upon the form in which
he expected to receive his pay. And this,
at last, is the main difference between men.
Every man of spirit of independence.
wants his work to pay-his life to tell upon
the world. The difference between them
consists in the very different shape in which
they wish their wages to be paid. There
may be men who are satisfied with money
simply, and for it's own sake but its chief
value even for those who seek it most as
siduously, is in that which it represents
in its protean power to assume thousand
shapes to transform itself into the worldly
possession which they most desire, its
power to bring other things.
To the man who is seeking money solely
for its accumulation, should be compelled
to say that religion will not pay TO that
end. But it can change him. elevate him to
a higher plane, from which it is possible to
take larger view of life, to see the value
of other things, and use his possessions in
a way to bring him greatest, most perma-
nent satisfaction. 1t is this that constitutes
the distinctive and peculiar character and
value of Christanity-it is profitable unto
all things.
And just because it is for the practical
to-day, as well as for the great unknown
tomorrow. it is ''proftable"-it will pay.
Having promise of the life that now is"
Men with the pressing burdens and respon-
sibilites, wants and cares of this intensely
real life upon them and around them want
something that meets and helps them in the
present And it is here that the religious
systems often fail. To many religion" So
called, ignores the life that now is. and
| secular life looses sight of the failure-the
failure of religion and of life. Give men
what they need, and the best and truest--
| those who are really in earnest-will not
contend about the name.
THE PREVALENT THOUGHT.
Tho thoughts of this age, so far as the
| great mass of men is concerned, are not so
much How shall we be saved in the next
| world?' but how can we and our fellow
| men escape the moral and social ruin in
this world? Show them that Christianity
or anything else help them here in
their dire necessity now, and they will not
| care how much you claim for it a super
natural origin and a divine character. When
they see that it is what they need; that it
is not claimed and preached as something
that is in some mysterious way to save
mems souls in another world, while leaving
them in doubt whether they have souls to
be saved, and doing nothing to save them
from meanness and corruption in this world.
they will accept it.
Christianity gives us the key to this pres
ent life by revealing the fact of another
and showing us the connection between that
life and this Without that connection and
that key this life is locked and hopeless
mystery. And we do not have to go to the
Bible for proof of this. That only accounts
for the condition of things which exists
without it; that description and account OF
man as being endowed with needs and
aspirations which are to be satisfied here
after, destiny which he cannot accomplish
here.
And the best men-those who have made
their mark, and left it upon the history of
the world-these have either come to this
at last as the solution of it all, or else they
have gone out confessing and bewaiIing the
failure of life. It is wonderful how the ex-
perience of such men corroborates the testi-
mony of the Scriptures as to the vanity of
life.
Bismarck, the man who made the German
empire, the infrmities of age-the enc
mics that no skill or courage can escape or
conquer-as these began to fall upon him,
said: IF this were the last of it, life would
not be worth the trouble of rising in the
morning and retiring at night" Edmund
Burke, at the close of a career which left
his name foremost among those that star
the story of the world" when affiiction fell
upon his darkened home, he wrote the let
ter to Lord Aberdeen in which he said: II
very much deceive myself If. in this dark
season, would give peck of refuse wheat
for all that the world calls fame or honor
These things alone have never satisfied
the wants of men. Because, however they
may minister to the life that now is they
are not sufficient for that which is to come.
And human experience proves that these
are so Joined together that you cannot sat
isfy the one without the other. Our worldly
enterprises do not go far enough. 1t is
right and necessary TO plan for this life
ho he
you are seventy or eighty years old-but
what are you going to do when you are
$1,000?
This Is a legitimate pertinent, practical
question. And any system that claims to
meet the needs of man must answer it.
Christianity. practical Christianity. and that
alone, does answer IL. 1t Is the only thing
that covers the ground of his physical and
his moral. spiritual nature.
TRUE RELIGION NEEDED.
If it fails to do this ii is because we have
suffered it to deteriorate. We are suffl-
GENTLY alive TO the evils of a deprecated
currency. We do not seem to know how
much we are suffering from depreciates
religion. Men will not take it, But give
them true religion. pure and undefled. and
they will receive it gladly In political