The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-01-02
UNTO THE PERFECT MAN |
New Years Sermon at the I'm
manuel Presbyterian Church
BY REV. A. I. GOODFRiEND
The Soul Is Like Seed-Must Invest
Itself for a Great Purpose-We
Must Store Our Minds With
Useful knowledge.

Rev. A. I. Goodfriend of the Imman-
| uel Presbyterian church last evening
| preached sermon appropriate to the
| day, taking for his text, It'll We All
| Come Unto the Perfect Man" He
| said:
| 1.-THE soul is like a seed which must
| be planted, Watered and cultivated if
It's possibilities are to be developed.
Every soul like the seed is capable of
| Fulfilling its mission in the world. The
soul, therefore to make most of itself
must invest itself for a great purpose.
| The world is tough place for slug
| CARDS, for lazy people. That man is
ready for his burial robes. who has
| nothing sublime to live for who mag
mes that the world owes him a living.
Religion, condensed in a nutshell. is to
make most of oneself and as my text
declares, to come unto the perfect
| man.
Men take pride in building beautiful
MONIES, in controlling large business en-
terprises, in enriching themselves with
worldly goods and in clothing themselves
with worldly honors but is it not of
greater Importance to enrich ones heart
and life, and to become as Lowell ex-
pressed 1t, men with empires in their
bralns.' The richest treasures of the
world are not hidden in the mountains
in the seas, and in stocks and bonds,
put IN men who have made most of
themselves and have thus become the
'favorites of heaven Happy is the
man that findeth wisdom, for the mer-
chandlse of it is better than the mer-
chandise of silver and the gain there
of than fine gold
He, who would make most of life
must nave IN view the training of the
9oas; me pody is to be symmetrcally
developed. Physical symmetry, ma
Jesty and beauty, have been the high
est type Of the ancents, of noble man
mood NO man Is true to himself who
Ill uses his body. No man can be ac-
counted religious, who even for the sake
OF religion, will abuse his body. The
Christian should do the most to make
ms body as perfect and powerful a ma
chine for the mind, as is possible for it
to become. Christianity is yet to be-
come a saving power in the realm of
the physical. Any teaching that in
terferes with the making of true man
hood with the development of a race
strong in body, strong in intellect, and
In soul powers, will be out of date in
the near future, and condemned as
heresy by the court of public sentiment
Religion is not merely praying
kneelng, and burning incense. The re-
liglous man is one who makes most of
himself in order that he may better be
able to make most of his fellows The
intellect is like assheet of paper, upon
which may be, written the grandest
thoughts of heaven. Man is seen to be
a double creature. The physical de-
Veloped without the spiritual makes
him splendid animal, but the animal
often becomes, like the companions of
Ulysses, metamorphosed into a swine
The spiritual must be supreme 1t is
the only way to perfection for the in
diVldual and the race. Without intel
lect, without heart, without God, man
is no better than the horse, 1t is the
soul, that plucks rich treasures from
the temple of knowledge, that feasts at
the banqueting hall of learning; the
soul that has grand ideals and aspira-
tons and and communes with its God
in the paradise of light and knowledge
that has the apostles idea, till we come
unto the perfect man.
I said moment ago, that the mind
is like sheet of white paper uron
which may be written the grandcst
thoughts of heaven. 1 wish now to say,
that it is God who is the originator Of
thought, and it is God who is wiring
1t upon the mind and heart of man
When God would order great revclu-
ton in history he writes the thought
upon the heart of one qualified to re-
ceive it. Thought is the mightiast wta-
pom of the spirit of God. BY thought,
Moses led Israel out of bondage ard
framed a code of laws that have bless
ed the world. BY thought, the pro-
phets grasped the geometry of the plan
of God and foretold events of the fu-
ture. BY thought, Tyndall climbing the
Matterhorn revealed to the world the
antiquity of rocks and their formation,
and Gods great design in creation. BY
thought, Herschel and Proctor explor-
ed the heavenly bodies and revealed to
US universe of law and order, of
symmetry and beauty, made by the
great architect of the universe. It is
by reading Gods thoughts in the heav-
ems, in the rocks, in all of his revela-
tions in the natural and spiritual world,
that we acquire the knowledge that
enables us to go on unto perfection.
Man becomes divine by receiving Gods
thoughts into his own heart and life.
Who can estimate the might of a
thought that contains a great moral
idea? Where is the power that can
combat against it? Who can measure its
influence, and its beneficence? Who
can follow its footsteps? 1t knocks at
the door of tyrants and causes thrones
to tremble. 1t goes on through the CEN
turtles and sheds pathway of light on
the worlds civilization. Of all the
wonderful things God has made, thought
that contains the plan Of God, the wis
dom of God, the purposes of God is the
most wonderful.
''God has endowed us with a three
fold life, the physical. intellect and spr-
itual The physical alone will develop
a Spartan, the intellect and physical a
Grecian, neither of which are true types
of manhood. 1t is the moral life that
makes nation or an individual great.
A nation to be strong, must be moral in
its laws. its institution, it's ballots, No
power can destroy nation whose ideas
are divine, or in the individual, life is
won or lost by whatever thoughts are
uppermost in the heart. so with nations.
Great thoughts, moral ideas, contact
with God will make US strong and pro-
gressive, and will help us to reach the
goal of perfection. Let US therefore be-
gin the new year, the year 1899, with a
determination to store our minds with
useful knowledge, to be moral and to
live in the atmosphere of Gods
throne"