The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-01-22
SERMON TO THE MINERS
Is PREACHED BY THE REV. A. j.
GRAHAM At CHRIST CHURCH.
The Church Filled with Delegates to
the Convention-First of a Series
Of SermOns-Other Services.

The Rev. A. ]. Graham. pastor of Christ
Church, preached special sermon yester-
day morning to the coal miners who in
attendance at the United Mine Workers
convention. When the hour for the serv
ice arrived there was not vacant seat
in the church, and many of the late ar
rivals were compelled to stand through the
entire service. Mr.. Graham chose his text
from Proverbs XVI, u. ''Seest thou a man
wise in his own conceit? There is more
hope of a fool than of him.
In part Mr.. Graham said: ST desire to
speak to you on the all-important subject
of deepening, not only the spiritual and
moral, but also the social and intellectual
life of man. 1t seems to some of us that
there is abroad in the land the same spirit
of vanity and superfiuity which led the
author of the Book of Proverbs to give ex
preston to the text. and which more than
200 years afterward led st. Paul to say,
BE not wise in your own conceit.' Most in
telligent people will probably agree that
the most disagreeable type of man is the
one pulled up with an overweening sense
of his own Importance: one who seems to
think that wisdom was born with him
and will die with him. There is more hope
for a fool than Of such an one, for very
often the fool will accept advice; the
latter rarely will. Young people live in
their own conceit and old people also. /
excuse the former, hoping that discipline
and observation may broaden and deepen
them. but the latter are almost hopeless.
even as an old fool is the worst fool of
all.
MULTITUDE OF COUNSELORS.
"In a multitude of counselors there is
wisdom, and Wendell Phillips once said,
referring to Daniel Webster on one side
and the Abolitionists of New England on
the other, God never gave to any man so
heavy a brain as that of the community,
nor so clear a judgment as the counsel of
the many Lord Bacon, in speaking Of
human culture and education, says that
the first thing one should do is to destroy
his idols, his preconveived notions, and
open the windows of his life to the re-
ception of truth from every quarter. In
all public assemblies the wise man will
speak last and calmly, while the conceited,
self-opinionated man will be anxious to air
his own opinions at the earliest possible
moment.
Gathered in this church are the repre-
sentatives of more than 100000 men who
come from all parts of the United States,
and want to ask what is the cause of the
assemblage of these representatives in this
city at this time? 1t is because they know
that in organized labor there is strength,
ana If they stood as individuals they would
be bound to go to the wall, And I refer
to the mine workers as i would to any
otner organization, merely to illustrate
the idea that organization is the ruling
idea of the age. or course there is danger
in organization when it is carried too far.
but that is another question. The function
of the Christian minister is not to instruct
In the worldly professions, but TO give the
message of Jesus Christ. wonderful adj
vance has been made in civilization during
the last fifty seventy-fve years, with
the almost innumerable inventions and
discoveries, and these things have natur-
ally turned mems minds toward the phys
zeal side of the universe, and their ideas
and visions of God and the human soul
have become conceited. narrowed and dark
ened. This is according 10 a law of God
for civilization is something which man has
the inherent power to advance, but the
knowledge of God and the soul is a revela-
ton and not discovery. The world by
wisdom knew not God said the prophet
and therefore God must show himself to
men.
THE WORLDS DELIvERER.
80, sweetly and silently, you see on
that holy night in Bethlehem there was
born the worlds deliverer, passing through
the natural life of childhood and of man
hood, becoming more and more conscious of
the great mission he had undertaken as a
man, preaching justice and love- mourning
hatred, unjustly condemned, crucified, ris-
ing from the dead, establishing his influ-
ence and bidding 1T travel through all time
and all countries. So then, not an ecclesi-
astical organization. but a living Christ
is that body; not ministry, but the Mas
ter whom that ministry represents is the
object of worship and emulation for ear
nest thoughtful people. Not to any hui
man organization do We bid people to yield
their judgments and their wills. but to
the eternal God as revealed in Jesus
Christ. We bid them turn toward the only
source from which they can gain that ex-
tended vision and that deepened life, which
| is the only true panacea for the worse
| than fool referred to by the author of the
| Book of Proverbs. Let him that thinketh
he standeth take heed lest he fall"