Omaha daily bee., 1899-10-09
Rev. George Edward Walk Discusses
SulInnf nj Dnul,s

Rev. George Edward Walk rector. OF st.
Paul's Episcopal church, preached yesterday
morning on the subject, ''the Pure in
Heart" taking his text from Mathew SIS.
The sermon was one of a series the rector
he been delivering on "The Beatitudes."
He said in part:
Religion is eminently of the heart and
the heart is addressed as the region or
seat Of the affections. With the heart we
love and with the heart we hate. With the
heart we love God, or with the heart we hate
men. Men are said to believe with the
heart, to act from the heart and to be cir
cumsized in the heart. Those convicted OF
sin are said to be pierced in the heart and
those who firmly grasp the promises OF
God by faith said to have new hearts
The heart therefore, is the fountain OF
thought, of everything in man that is good,
and it is also the fountain in him of all
that is bad. Keep the fountain pure ana
the stream will be pure. The fountain
cannot at the same time send forth sweet
| waters and bitter. The people of God must
| be pure in life, but this they cannot be
| unless they pure in heart. The tree
| is known by its fruit. We easily discover
| the nature of the tree, though we never saw
| it, when we partake of its fruit. You do not
| gather grapes from thorns, or figs from this
ties. Even so by the fruit of Christ's dis
| ciples shall they be known.
| Polish the tree as much as you may;
| hang 1t all over with ribbons and garlands;
speak rapturously of the beauty of it's trunk,
| the graceful shape and symmetry of its
| branches, the fragrance OF it's flowers; but
| this will not make it a good fruit -bearins
| tree Now all these familiar illustrations
| OF the Savior are intended to teach us the
| folly OF hoping by mere outward adornment
| Of life to purify our hearts. The acts OF
| we as readily detect the character of a man
by his acts as we do the nature Of a tree
| by its fruit. BY this standard our LORD
| Himself judged men and by this standard
| He authorizes us to judge them. A man
| cannot be pure unless he is pure in heart;
a man cannot be a Christian unless he Is
| Christian in his heart
| I'm short, when the scat of a mans man
ners is in his heart, they will always be
good; when the seat of his religion is in his
heart, his religion will be good Otherwise
he will be a clown in manners and hypo-
critic in religion Some men with hard
hands and patched garments are the most
perfect gentlemen in the world, while other
men in broadclOth and fine linen are base
and corrupt. A lady does not need the aid
of fine dress and jewels TO show her lady
ship. We can see the lady all the better
without these adventurous aids. If the
heart Is pure, we need no moral dsinfect-
ants to neutralize the offensive odors OF
bad ordered lives Anything essentially
pure contains no foreign ingredients or ad-
mixtures. pure house contains nothing
that ought not to be in it, a pure diet con-
tains nothing that ought not to be in II
/ and a pure heart contains nothing that ought
not to be in IL. Abstaining from mere out
ward sins and improprieties will not give
. a man a pure heart. Overcome an evil
passion or desire in the heart and it will
be overcome in the life
Let the heart be purified from pride by
the deepest poverty OF spirit; let 1t be puri-
fled from anger, from all worldly and turbu-
lent passions by the meekness and gentle
ness of Christ; from every desire but to do
right, to please God, to do good, by an in
satiable hungering and thrsting afte
Righteousness and the heart will not be fal
! from pure. 1t will then be such heart al
. God will be willing to make His home. 4
= pure heart does not exclude the possibilit!
of temptation. Do not be discouraged anC
= conclude that you are no part of Christian
a that you have no purity OF heart, beeaus
y you are greatly tempted to do evil. This l.
. no evidence that q mans heart is not pure
Nor is purity of heart inconsistent with tn
- idea of a mans falling into sin and making
4 crooked paths for his feet. The possibilit
> OF fall and lapse into sin on the part o
> men who have been good is fully recog
3 nized in the scriptures. Do not say, becaus
c certain man has fallen, that he never wa
honest-or that he never was pure in heart
Say rather that this man, instead of over
e coming evil with good was himself over
o come of evil.
o "A sinful heart is necessarily impure. A.
Is the moral corruption that blights and curse
the world flows from sinful hearts a
streams Of water from fountain. Conver
Of saton is an unfallible index TO the characte
II OF the heart You have only TO listen at
tentively to the conversation OF people t
learn the character Of their hearts,
ee "It requires pure spiritual nature to Sc
Is God. Sin blunts our perceptions and blind
IT our spiritual vision. Sin pollutes, debase,
degrades and renders US insensible to III
= puro and holy influences OF God by whic
We are surrounded A very wicked and gros
man does not see God in anything; he ofte
does not even recognize the existence
+" God. The eyes of a mans understandiu
being opened, he sees God in all his ord
= nanoes and appointments and thus seeiu
| God in all things invests them with a certai
indehnable divinity and sacredness whiC
they would not otherwise possess
III We ever walk up the shining way tn,
a. leads to the great Whita thrOna and loo