The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-01-22
an APPEAL FOR MONEY
Is MADE BY THE REV. ALLAN ID.
PHILPUTT AT CENTRAL CHRISTIAN.
The Audience Room Not Large
Enough to Hold the Crowds-An
Interesting Sermon.

As the Rev. Allan b. Philputt. pastor OF
the Central Christian Church, rose 10
preach yesterday morning and noted the
crowded condition of the church. he said:
when people come to see me always like
to give them comfortable seat. We have
not room enough here. Is there not some
one who will give us $4,000 to enlarge and
change this audience room? Some of you
would hardly miss il and it would mean a
great deal to u.s. The request created
something of sensation in the audience,
but at the close the pastor found that a
number Of members were disposed TO take
his request seriously, a few going so far
as to say what they would give If the plan
of enlargement were undertaken.
The pastors text was Hebrews XII, q:
For he CMoses) endured as seeing Him
who is invisible"
In the course of his sermon he said:
Moses was one of the greatest of mankind.
his name overshadows antiquity. Grotius
traced the laws of Attica TO those of Moses
He is the predecessor of Blackstone. Dean
Milman says, "He has exercised more in
fiuence over the destinies of mankind than
any other man i'm all the annals of time"
His name is coupled with the highest glory
in the phrase, the song of Moses and the
Lamb. He is the traditional author of the
ninety psalms wherein life is called labor
and SORROW The text cites him as a noble
example of endurance He is said to have
forsaken the riches of Egypt ant. the pleas
ures of royalty to suffer affection with the
people of God. He turned away from what
hnN 1n oh IA
despises. He is enrolled among the i'm
mortals. The lives of all great men as they
are uncovered to us show the same quail
ties. They know suffering, conflict, opposi-
ton, achievement Such things produce the
masterful spirits. Paul said: Endure hard
ness as a good soldier"
Here the speaker paid tribute to the
prompt gallant and chivalrous bearing of
the well-trained soldier. saying that he
could wish we all had the soldiers spirit.
He continued:
Endurance is a great virtue most highly
commended in holy writ. 1t is more than
patience and pertains to that which cuts in
upon our pleasure. A man endures his ene-
mics, not his friends. Christ endured the
cross. The solution of lifes responsibilities
is in enduring and not in avoiding them.
Paurs thorn in the flesh was something TO
be borne not enjoyed. And so We are TO get
the personal equation of our strength by
finding out what We can hear. This then,
is the first word of Christianity to those
who suffer, bear il, be brave and calm
But you ask what is this above the phil
osopny of the stoics? Socrates drank the
hemlock, Seneca and the Roman philoso-
pliers advised the meeting of misfortunes
with serenity. . Ii is much higher. They
were pessimists. The saints of God have been
triumphant optimists. Moses endured, but
1t was as seeing Him who is invisible.
Paul, with the clanking chain about him
saiu: Il glory in tribulation.' Our Lord
himself in the hour of His great darkness
said TO His timorous disciples. be of good
Stephen died an optimist, though his fading
vision looked upon mob. Savanorola con-
quered. though the last sounds that fell
upon his ears were those of jeering priests.
John Huss expired in a sea of glory, though
his winding sheet was flame of fire. What
is the difference? These see Him who is
invisible. In their lives they have sought
the will of God. They believe that His pur-
pose is somehow, in some measure, full
filled in them. Here it was Phillips Brooks
calls the idea of mutualness,' making life
vivid and interesting. 1 do not care much
for God as an arid, isolated fact: for i'm
mortality as vague speculation of time
to come. L want them to break through
somehow and express themselves in my
life The great abstract ideas of religion
not useless. They lie back of every
concrete action. Every pious father S
prayer or loving mothers gracious bene-
diction have in them and back of them all
theologies and theophanies. The giving OF
q cup of cold water has some close connec-
ton with the doctrine of God.
What we need is to feel these great
truths of our religion. What is IL for
Christ to live. except He lives in me?' IL
is one thing to endure the ills of life as a
grim fate and quite another to do so as
seeing Him who is invisible