The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1900-10-15

SERMON ON
"RARD TINES.
Delivered by the Rev. G. II. oliphant
ut the First Christian
Church. f
SAYS EXTRAYAGAKT LIVING
And selfsbness Are Among the
Causes That Bring About
Hard Times
1t the First Christian church last

At the First Christian church last
evening the pastor, Rev. c. NJ. OIL
plant, delivered an Interesting and
timely sermon before a large congre-
CATION. He took for his topic, Hard
Times" and he handled the subject In q
forceful and logical manner. Mr.. OIL
phant took his text from the Galatians
II:G: Faith that works by love-
In his exordlum Mr.. Ollphant dis
cusscd the topic from moral and re-
lglous standpoint. There were three
causes of hard times. The first was
due to extravagant living, The Ameri-
can people in particular, were blessed
so much and yet they use these bless
ings In an extravagant manner. The
people Of this country live beyond their
means by INDUCING in iuxuries that
they cannot AFFORD If we follow this
out we'll find that hard times that
come to q great many people are due
TO the fact that they do not lay any
thing away for q rainy day.
Another cause Of hard times lay In
the lack OF confidence SO prevalent
among the people Of this country. tits
kind OF business agnostlcism that ex-
lists among n great many peo-
pie, as they don't know how
anything Is going to come out;
especially do they,>doubt the ability
Of a fellow man to bring about certain
results. Too many of us nre ready and
willing to believe anything but the
right thing.
The principal cause of hard times Is
selflshness. Too many people try to
live to themselves. There is not enough
of that philanthropic spirit that should
characterize true Christianity. When a
man separates himself from the COM
munal life around him he Injuries his
fellow man. For example banks become
locked up and the money is issued in
bills of credit, as though they were
paupers. Money sharks charge an ex-
orbitant price for cashing checks and
notes. The speaker here Illustrated his
discourse with story Of woman who
wanted to sell her husbands old coat In
order that she might secure n little
spending money. After dlsposing Of 1t
she learned from her husband that he
had placed the sum of $500 in the lining.
This was case OF being penny wise
and pound foolish.
Many towards there are whose hearts are
as false
AS stairs Of sand, yet wear upon their
The beard of Hercules and frownlns
Mars.
Who inward reached have livers us white
as milk.
Mr.. Oliphant then took up the rem
edy for hard times. Firstly, faith and
secondly, love. were the remedies. Why
should we not have faith in our nation?
He then traced the history OF the ma
ton from the beginning. to the present
day, showing how God had led her to
victory. There are too many people
that think the power OF our nation lies
in sordid gold and silver rather than In
womanhood and manhood. Why should
We doubt when among our people we
have so many heroes and heroines; peo-
pie Of righteous character. who with
willing hands and warm hearts are
leading US to progress?
We should have faith In one another
and we should have faith in God.
These were two great essentials for the
keeping away Of hard times. So long
as we did not possess these two great
Christian virtues Just so long will we.
have hard times.
Mr. Oliphant took up love as an es-
sential to the prevention OF hard times.
Love had Its climax in Christ. He
loves all men. Love takes on itself In
the form of benevolence. People who
give TO the cause OF Christ and human
ity are gamers rather than losers.
There was man. some called him mnd:
Tho moro he gave away, the more he had.
If we apply, these principles we rca-
lie that God Is III heaven and nll's well
on earth.