The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1899-05-30

DenlsOn pulplts have met with such
universal commendation and praise as
has this brief but eloquent sermon. We
feel that we cannot do it justice in any
condensation or synopsis, and through
the courtesy of Rev. Bateson we are
able to give it in it's entirety. We as
sure our readers that it will largely re-
pay the reading The sermon was as
follows:
CHRISTIANITY AND WAR.
L"Thou therefore endure hardness, as Il
good soldier of Jesus Christ."-2 Tim. III, 81
Paul is a christian veteran of up
wards of three score years. Timothy
is his beloved son in the Gospel; timid
and tender, to the conflicts of life un-
known, to its stern realities stranger.
As if giving him countersign to sue
cess, a key to the citadel OF every foe
Paul says, ''endure hardness as a good
soldier Of Jesus Christ" Paul is not
asking Timothy to do something he
has not himself done. Turn back the
folds of his garment and see his wrist
callous through enduring Roman bonds.
Turn back his tunic and count upon.
his shoulders some of those live times
forty stripes save one." Long ago he
declared II bear in my body the marks
Of the Lord jesus Could it be other
wise with body that had been beaten
with rods, stoned, shipwrecked; assail-
ed by robbers, by heathen, by country
men; cast amid the raging sea and wild
beasts of Ephesus? And now confined
In Roman dungeon as he probably
hears the Roman legions returning
from their winters campaign, as
through the gloom he glsnces at the
soldier to whom he is chained he ex-
horts Timothy to endure hardness. .
For the soldier what is more natural
than 'shardness?" What more neces-
sary than that he ''endure" it? The
soldier is reconciled to his lot by the
thought that he is a soldier. Is he in
storm? He's soldier. On long
march? He is a soldier. A soldiers
life, expects a soldiers lot. Murmuring
is disloyalty, complaining is rebellion,
and the end Of enduring is the begin
ming of treason.
The text has a military ring and
sounds as the language of the camp or
the campaign. But it may be thought
! that because christianity and war be-
long to different spheres, have their
home in different kingdoms and their
origin in different worlds, that between
them there is no relation; and that in
the one is no resident force designed to
affect or modify the other. Christian
ity is essentially religion, seeking to
shape humanity in the mold of divinity,
to bring good seed of the spirit in the
individual heart to a good harvest of
service in the life; to bring the judg-
ment Of the world to affirm that
that is manlike which is Godlike.
Its goal Of endeavor is MOTTO make men
more prosperous. happy or secure upon
earth but more virtuous, moral and
spiritual.
War is secular, social, political. True,
to us the fairest child of patriotism, the
guardian of the home and the sentinel
of the nation; yet, also, the witness to
abnormal conditions. ssRevolution is
delayed evolution" and war is the
opening up of roads and rivers along
which peace may pursue her course.
Yet if christianity is to have and to
hold divine place in the worlds econ.
0my a profound influence is to be look.
ed for on the public organized life with
which it comes into contact. If it can
make man more free, wise and just
more interested in men because more
intimate with God then it's final mag
niticent mission is not compassed until
it transforms peoples as well as persons
presents society bright in bloom and
delightful in fragrance ana purifies
households until the entire race be-
comes household of God.
That christianity has done something
to stimulate peoples, arouse and rescue
nations, charm the world with ANNA
ted hopes; that it is rich in promise anc
vivid in the display OF its moral re