The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-12-16
PASTOR FROM MICHIGAN
REV. WILLIAM C. COVERT, OF SAGI-
NAw, AT SECOND PRESBYTERIAN.
His Subject Was ''The Widening
WOrld"-A Discourse RepIete
with Interest.

4
The subject of the sermon preached at
the Second Presbyterian Church by the
Rev. William c. Covert, of Saginaw, Mich.
yesterday morning, was THE Widening
World" 1t was the purpose of the dis
course to indicate how the events of his
tory have widened life and given greater
scope to duty. The text taken from
Esther iv, IA: who knoweth whether thou
art come into the kingdom for such time
as this"
Rev. Covert said in part: IF any man
has a helpful word that he feels is of God
and is calculated to inspire men and send
them forward to larger things, now is the
time for him to speak. We have just
crossed the threshold Of what is to be the
greatest century in the history of the race.
We are evidently entering something
larger, grander and more heroic, and If you
have anything to say that will make me
more ready and capable to gather up the
responsibilities of the new and vaster con-
ditions to which we have come you should
say it. There is an inspiring call to Chris
tan work in the enlarged and charging
conditions of life to which we have come.
desire to indicate some of the things God
has used and is using to enlarge the scope
of human life and by which also He has set
this generation into larger realms of duty.
During recent centuries silent and revo-
lutionary forces have been at work. They
have brought to the life of our day new
and vaster amplitude than our fathers ever
dreamed of. This amplitude affects our
duty. This is a day when entire nations
being born again. knowledge never
was so rich, so mutual, so universal. DR..
! Dennis speaking of our day and its herit-
| age, says: We are living in an era of cum
ulative and mighty consummations. Rich,
| full currents of history have converged upon
our century and have lifted us on a flood
| tide of material prosperity, intellectual Gull
ture and spiritual power The young gen.
Grafton just stepping to action is appealed
to by conditions more inspiring than his
tory has hitherto afforded. Shame to us if,
| after God has set before these wider
| fields and put into our hands these larger
| powers and set up these new and mutual
| relations in the earth, we of this day do
not see our duty and go forward to dis
! charge
DEVELOPING HUMANITY.
did you ever stop and think how God
has been constantly developing humanity
! by breaking down the little selfish walls
with which she has circumscribed herself
|
er currents of the worlds life. He has al
ways done it; He is doing it to-day. In
this great fact lies the inspiration to which
/ have referred. Look at some of the OBJ
| vious facts in history.
go back to the fall of Constantinople.
] There the roots Of our twentieth century
are buried. Over western Europe was the
| darkness and ignorance of the middle ages.
/ Languages were crude, men depraved, life
! barren. Constantinople was the home of
| les TDin no and
| philosophers and theologians of the day.
/ There they stayed though men were hun
gering and dying out there in the west 1t
| is not Gods way The cruel Turk won his
ambitions, smote the brilliant capital and
sent by the blessed calamity these poets
| and teachers into the needy west. They
were the couriers of the new learning and
| of a wider life Then knowledge was bound.
| No books; priceless manuscripts were
! chained In monasteries. Thls barrier must
! be taken away, so God moving through
| Gutenberg set up the types and through
some other genius gave us paper and
! knowledge went on the wings of the morn
| ing. This was but the beginning Of the
widening process. The spirit of adventure
arose and mingled with the desire for
| learning. The sea had kept Europe at
home and her life bound. This barrier
is next removed. God gave men the mag
netic needle and moved in the heart or
Columbus and the barrier disappeared:
thinking and of being saved was pre-
scribed by men. Proud spirits chiife un-
nailed his thesis to the church door at
| Wittenberg and the world stepped out
| into a freedom hitherto unknown.
Copernicus came and widened the skies
| and made a new heaven over a new earth
! and quickened thereby the imagination of
men and set life in great bounds. New
| forced upon us and our field of duty thus
enlarged. Railroads and steamships and
telegraph lines bind the ends of the earth
| together and every man-white, black red
| or yellow-has become neighber. The
gospel missionary has contributed to this
| amplitude. He has pushed the horizon of
! the churchs duty farther out.
LARGER LIFE AND SERVICE.
sour own Nation has had a cali TO larger
life and service. We were a people isolat-
ed, prosperous and respected. magnifying
our own politics and in peril OF losing our
soul by gaining a world of wealth God
had other plans for our development. We
were too rich and strong to be idle. We
were approached by a moral duty great
wrong was uncovered before our eyes and
we found ourselves at war. And when il
was over we found Cuba free but our Ma
ton bound. and every virtue and grace
of national character put to the test. Never
| did the people Of this Nation have so plain
a call TO larger responsibility and never
! has any national event given so wide
range to national life and duty. We
are out into the swiftest currents Of the
worlds life Shall we go on 10 strength
and true greatness? Now what does all
this mean2
Touching our mutual feelings, it means
that the truest motives for world wide
| evangelizatiOn have been discovered. All
men have been brought together We look
into the eye and feel the heart beat of the
poorest, darkest man In Africa. To see is
10 be appealed 10. 1t means that the church
is face TO face with the greatest Opportun-
ity in her history. The world is open be-
fore her. May God improve her people
that the opportunity may be met
1T means, too, that God intends so TO
widen our life, so 10 bring men together
so 10 set up these mutual relations OF
business and literature and religion that
If the Church OF Christ will keep her heart
pure and urge upon men the claims OF
Jesus that the day will come that shone
IN Christ's own eyes when the kingdoms
OF the world will be His. For this OFious
contamination may the church labor,'