Arizona republican., 1899-06-04
OUR SUNDAY SERMON
By Rev. Win. CroSweII Doa ne, D. D., IL. D., Bishop of Albany, EpiS-
 CopaI Caihe draL Albany N Y.

Even 50 it is now."-St. Paul to, the
 Galatians, iv.: 29.
 One of the great conflicts going on
 in the world today, everywhere. is the
 same that St. Paul recognized and il- lustrated by the Old Testament story, wherein Sarah, Abraham's wife, saw
 Ishmael (the bondwCmans child)
 ''mccking" her son Isaac, the child | born of promise. And it is not to get
 at either of the historical statements 1 or the rabbinical traditions. but to find cut something that may be of inn | mediate and personal practical value i to you and me in our daily lives now. 1 that 1 want you to think with me to- 1 day about this passage.
 i St. Paul gives us the clew to its use ! in this particular way, and brings out the point distinctly-not alone to those
 of his own day, but to us-when he | says: Now we, brethren, as Isaac
 was, are the children Of promise But
 as then, he that was born after the
 flesh persecuted him that was born af- | ter the spirit, even so it is now i We are to study in this true old story the re,atiCn between a Christian and 9 man of the wotld-the strife and ! contest and questionable compromise l that is perpetually hanging in the bal ance, between them.
 1 dc not think it means. here, be-
 twscn the carnal and the spiritual na- ture Of g man-fOr these are two dis tinct and separate personalities--so
 much as the strife that is constantly going Cn between a child of God, a
 Christian boy or girl, or man or We
 man, and the word with all it's outer
 influences in which he lives In the
 one there is the continual refreshing
 T,Fy yI-.1 1,,aI,-
 there is only what is temporal and
 physical and carnal The word that
 is translated prosecuting" means
 mocking. The story of the event It.
 self, in Genesis, says: Sarah saw ths son of Hagar mCcking." And where it
 is used elsewhere, it is translated
 playing with.'' Prosecuting, mock ing, playing with.
 So successfully has Christianity been adapted to the spirit Of the times that there is very little room and very lit- tie provocdtiOn left for presenting They were healthier and stronger days, when the world and the church were over against each other; when the church lifted Up her voice against the l world. That day for good CT evil, at any rate, is gone. You can. I can. l practice Christianity-either in the | thin and imperfect way in which most | af us do practice it, or even in the more l way in which it ought to be 1 racticed-without the kind of perse- cutiOn which lighted fires in the old | days-fres that illumine not only the story of those days, but that give the light of glCry and triumph to all the ages.
 The persecution of today is really ridicule. You can go back to the very beginning to find this. I am 1uite sure we have very real recollec- lions of it as children; and, while more pardonable in the very young. think 1t is about the most cowardIy clement in human nature to be afraid of ridicule. Just little sheer, just a title contempt; somebody that says to ! boy with ali element of reverence in lim, or in the midst Of some act of worship, that is effeminate, that is ! eeble, it is silly, it is foolish. it is cow lrdly'; and the boy mOcked is fright med out of the open and avowed state nent of what he believes, CT cut of the practices of his religious life.
 This h2ppens over and over again. )ne thanks God for the boy or the girl, specially the boy, who goes through i
 public school or boarding school, CT me of our great universities (which | l elves from religious principles), and Cmes home for his Easter or Christ mas communion, with the same child leart that he inherited from his fath- r and mother
 It is the same with men and women There is a great, big-hearted Goliath [ vho walks through the world today, ] the Intellectually of be- ( ief; lifting up his big head and in a Oud voice declaring that on the whole t is unintellectual to have faith; shat aith belongs to effete things, to old ( ines, before the printing press, before I he critical glass had been applied to Oly scriptures, and before the light Of [ discoveries had shone down nto and showed their errors That T ak perpetu2lly and constantly reiter- f ted (and nine times out Of ten the i nly evidence of intellectually in the z nan is that he talks in this Way) is 7 lower Of evil which few boys and not z many men are brave enough to resist z | gets by and by to be fashionable and lreva.ent, and to insinua5e itself into . he minds Of people who want to be bought intellectual, who will net see : hat nothing is so reasonable as belief nd that faith is the croWning glory c f mans intelligence. It is the child q lat is born of the flesh mocking the U hid born of premise. That is bad s nCugh. i
 But there is Q danger that is still E lore prevalent. That is a curious ex- F