The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-09-11
A Guilty Conscience
Rules One Out of
the Arena.
FATAL TO HESITATE.
Prompt Achievement an
Imperative Neces-
sity.

The theme of the evening sermon by
DR.. A. 2. Conrad at Old South church
yesterday was When seas divide and
rivers stay their course" The text
was taken from Exodus xiv:16 and
Joshua iii:11: But lift up thy rod and
stretch out thine hand and divide it,
and the children of Israel shall go on
dry ground through the midst of the
sea" Behold, the ark of the cove
nant of the Lord of all the earth pass
eth over before you into Jordan" DR..
Conrad said in part:
Two historical events of immense
historical Importance are suggested by
these texts. You may never know the
strength of a peoples faith until they
are cornered. Emergencies reveal the
power or the weakness of nations or of
individuals. Generations had passed
into centuries while the people of Israel
were in bondage to the Pharaohs of
Egypt. The birth hour of their redemp-
ton had come; the leader had been dis
covered and introduced and was under
the mandate of heaven; the mystic rod
of Moses had transformed, terrified,
triumphed; the march for freedom had
begun, but the oppressor had repented
his nasty consent and with a twofold
wrath was in pursuit of the fugitives.
The people were cornered. The Israel
ties were defenceless against their
enemies. The rod in the hand of the
leader was the only weapon. The fall
ing of his rod was the signal for the
sweep of the breath of God and the
Of +I,o
people went across the sea, which the
Egyptians assaying to do were
drowned
The subsequent years for the Isra-
elites were years of great trial and tri-
umph. Like the rise and fall of the
tide, in advance and recession, so they
passed their lives. The great leader
whose lifted rod had divided the waters
was dead. The intrepid Joshua had re-
ceived command from the Lord God
Almighty with the repeated exhortation
to be strong and of good courage. An
other great emergency had come into
the life of the people. Yonder were the
walls of Jericho, challenging the ad-
vance of the invader. The host of Isra-
Ell under Joshua stood by the rolling
Jordan. They were to enter the land Of
promise. The ark of the covenant was
now the symbol of the divine presence.
The ark was to advance to the very
edge of the waters of the Jordan while
yet they were flowing with their resist
less power Then the promise had been
given that the hand of the infinite
would sweep back the waters until the
people had crossed over, right to the
walls of Jericho. And it was done as
it was promised.
These two incidents are full of in
struction and suggestion. They are
declarative of the way of prosperity,
the conditions of success. They appeal
powerfully to the Christian to fulfill
the conditions of success that make for
righteousness and insure permanent
success. The most encouraging fact
regarding human life is that each indi-
yidual is under commission. The very
fact of creation is declarative of a holy
purpose. Our presence in the world
presupposes possible success. But we
are not left with this advantage We
are given a larger one in the distinct
and definite commission which we re
ceive first of all in our consciousness.
and in the opportunities which are
without; and Furthermore, in the reve-
lation of God, which is full Of promises
to men who will perform. Every i'm
mortal soul is under commission of
heaven to accomplish something worthy
of a creature whose creator is infinite
and in whom are the issues of life and
death eternal.
The sea of life is strewn with wrecks,
Half builded structures are a. constant
declaration that someone has blum
dered. There are those who do not
make a failure of life, and yet lose
life's highest honors. They do not be-
lieVe in commission. They are con-
scious of incompetency. The conscious
ness of incompetency will not warrant
excuse when the call is evidently a call
from God. He will reveal to us wheth-
err this call is a call of the spirit or not
and if it is, then no consciousness of
incompetency will lead us to doubt the
ability of God to supplement our nat
ural energy and effort and make us
equal to the task, whatsoever it NAV be
Then, again, men lose the honors of
life through fatal hestancy. To hes
itate is usually to fail. And there are
those who shirk from the greater re-
sponsibility. They are hunting for
someone else to do the work which has
been brought to them. Others lose the
highest honors of life because thew
weigh themselves down with the cares
of the world, with unnecessary ankle
ties, with forebodings of evil with
dread of failure, and they hesitate and
falter and turn until they become in
capacitated
But by far the largest class Of people
are prevented from the highest and
best achievement in life through an I'M
Willingness to make temporary sacri-
fees for the sake of permanent honor
and success. No man can amount TO
very much in this life who does not get
rid of his sins. A guilty conscience
will rule every soul out of an arena.
The seas do not divide, nor do the
waters stay their course for selfish aims
or selfish reasons.
1t is appropriate at this time, when
so much is said in behalf of the down
trodden and forgotten, to remember
those who seem to be most remem-
bered, and yet in reality are most for
gotten the successful men and women
in life, the victors; those who have
stood against the tempest and who
have been tried and not found want
ing. In the time when people are ready
10 count success crime we may well
say word for the man who succeeds
and call attention to the glittering dia-
dem of the progressive world. We NAV
pity the poor victim who, going from
Jerusalem to Jericho fell among
| thieves, who stripped him of his raj
ment and left him half dead. but we
must not forget the good Samaritan.
whose precaution and good Judgment
kept him away from the thieves and
enabled him to minister to the man
who had perhaps incautiously and fool
ishly permitted himself to become a
prey.
Whatever we ought to do as a church
we can do. We do not need to argue
about 1t, or discuss it to any great
length, or waste our time in disserta-
tions as to possible messages; and,
above all, we must not make the fatal
mistake of inquiring whether, after ali,
1t is necessary to perform the work
which seems to be laid upon us. The
spirit of immediate, prompt achieve
ment is our imperative, our urgent me-
cessity. Having this. without taking
.nll laenl Of th1a q