The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-09-04
GROUNDED IN LOVE.
Rev. Moses III. Harris
Deals With the
Subject.
GROWTH OF HUMAN QUALITIES.
Richest Soil for the Chris
tian's Spiritual
Nature.
GROWTH OF HUMAN QUALITIES.

| AT All Souls Church yesterday morn
ing Rev. M. H. Harris, D. D., preached
from the subject Rooted and grounded
in love" The text was from Ephesians,
ill.,, II.
DR.. Harris said: Everything that
Hives has root. The plant draws sus-
tenance from two worlds. A world of
darkness and a world of light. Even
the air plants, as we call them, that
seem to live entirely on the light and
atmosphere, still derive their nourish-
ment in part from tangible substances.
The higher the growth upwards, the
deeper the root downwards. The stem
of the crocus and violet is very short.
A child can pull them up with its fin
gers; they need no depth of soil The
oak tree that is to last, perhaps, thou
sand years, under whose shade gener-
atoms of children are to play, draws
the nurture that sustains it from an
area wider than 1t spreads over in the
sky
The analogy holds in regard to hui
man beings. Every individual man and
woman has root, and the grander the
growth of human qualities the deeper
the root. The person who overlooks his
generation, you may be sure, underlooks
his generation as well. According to
the height of the character is the depth
Of the source from whence it draws
supplies. Here is a man who, in the
season OF popularity, is open minded,
of1ght-hearted, happy, warm in his af
fections, generous in his impulses. He
seems to be ennobled by the regards of
his fellow-men.
Is he unpopular? The withdrawal of
the sunlight of common favor, the with
holding of the praise of ordinary peo-
pie take from him the very breath by
which he lives, and he blackens and
dies.
His faith is that of the country he
soJourns in. He worships with the
multitude whatever their superstition.
He is as he happens to be. Like the
chameleon, he takes the color of the
ground he lies on.
another man takes root in his ances-
try. HE is leaf on family tree. He
refers back to his precursors, is proud
of their blood in his VEINS red blood,
the blue blood, the father, mother or
some more distant ancestor furnishes.
rms man is mindful of the stock he
springs from. He carries himself with
proud consciousness of superior
worth. if the stock be noble. A kind
OF noplllty characterizes his look and
manner There is a good side to this
pride OF ancestry if the ancestry be
worthy, but there is a bad side to il
even then. The material that a man
derives from his ancestry, no matter
however rich, does not make him human
IN noble sense. 1t makes him re-
served, exclusive, opinionated.
Wnen man really makes no dis
tlnctlon between Jew and Greek, bar
parlan or Scythian, bond or free. con-
slders simply this one question, whether
the Individual has the attributes of a
human being; such a man has real
roots. He is interested in what con-
Germs his fellows; he strikes down into
principles; he draws sustenance from
an idea; his sympathies are world
VIDE; he touches every person at the
point, where all touch each other.
Deeper than this, deeper than hui
man nature, it is impossible to go.
WI men we see a man reaching down into
This principle of human nature we see
one who reaches down into the core
Of things; we see one who is proof
against the severest tribulations, sor-
rows, temptations. No wind can shat
ter him; no tempest can unseat him.
he stands up under calamity, and
comes out stronger from the Shock of
elemental war.
Some men confine themselves to a
sect But sect is a fragment, some
thing cut off from the domain of
thought; 9. small ground plot, a yard :
not an, open field. The sectarian is a
class or clique man. Some men confne
themselves to the church, and allow
the church to think for them, to be-
lieve for them, to worship for them. to
lntercede for them. The church takes
care of them, and guarantees their
future. They tread an ecclesiastical
path, pass through an ecclesiastical
doorway, and enter an ecclesiastical
heaven.
Such people believe they are in a
safer place than their friends of other
forms of belief. They feel sure of their
past, their present, and their future,
and they are good enough to be sorry
for their fellow-men.
The man who goes down so deeply
into the Old Testamen that he takes IN
everything there, would be a giant
among men. But all depends on the
thoroughness of the exploration. Does
one sink himself in the letter or the
spirit? That is the question. If a per-
son goes down into the heart of the
New Testament he has something in
f1nitely richer The New Testament is
the older, because it is the heart. the
soul of the Old Testament. When YOU
have penetrated the secret of the beati-
tudes, when you have got at the soul of
the parallels, when you have searched
out the hidden thought of the sermon
on the mount, then, and not before
you have touched the center of power
in the Bible, and when you have done
that you have struck into the richest
soil that is offered to the spiritual ma
ture of the Christian.