The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1901-03-25
AT CHURCH OF THE MESSIAH
"VHO rs THE MASTER Or CHRIS
TENDOM.'
Rev. w. r. Dickerman Repeats by Re-
quest Very Interesting Sermon.

Rev. w. r. DicIserman Repeats by Re-
quest Very Interesting sermon.
At the Church of the Messiah yester-
day morning the Rev. W. F. DECKER
man repeated, by request the sermon
: on "Who is the Master of Christen-
dom?" 1t was received with particular
attention and interest 1t was as fol-
lows:
One is your Master even Christ, and
I'll We are brethren.-Matt 1913.
In science art, literature, religion we
recognize leaders who have worked out
certain principles in a masterful way.
In whatever field we are engaged we
place ourselves in the school of one of
these masters. Thus our endeavors, our
lives, are dominated by the ideas and
methods Of the master-spirits in the
particular art or life work to which we
are devoted. Stated in more general
way, our character and actions are col
ored and classified by the persons we
admire, the company we keep. Those
who like the habits and association of
sordid, ignoble or trifling people an
nounce without words their own inci-
nations and tastes. They who pay hon.
age to a champion prize-fighter, or adj
mire a gamester of any name cannot
disguise their i'll nature with conven-
tional pretexts. Ones bent of mind is
as surely determined as the inclination
OF planet towards it's central lumina-
ny. BY an inevitable selective impulse
we gravitate towards the center of at
traction most congenial to the mental,
moral and spiritual habits we have cul-
tivated Our attitude to a scholar,
saint or reformer indicates our kind of
Hthinking-our principles as clearly as If
we had pronounced them in our creed.
The mighty leaders in thought, the
sanity men and women whose lives
were as stars in the very night of histo-
nv still furnish marching orders for a
tagging world and hating civilization.
No one who thinks can escape the sub
tie charm and affinity of those master
minds whose image we love- in whose
steps we would walk AS we take upon
us the revered name, we become the
loyal partisan, the valiant defender of
the truth which that name represents.
1t. is often the unhappy lot of men
and women who secretly believe in a
master whose principles they deny in
practice. This is not an uncommon lot
in our day. We are so Unframed in the
economic system of the time, so solidly
damned in the social compact, that we
move only as the mass moves, like Nam
sens ship in the ice-pack of the Arctic
circle. To sail in free, clear water
holding our helm and guided by the I'M
deviating and uncorrupt Pole-star of
heavenly truths is a plain duty not Of
ten performed Our life is so complex
there are so many interests to conserve,
we live on a spider-web so sensitive and
fragile that not a goseamer thread must !
vibrate except to softest and most popu- |
lar airs. A clarion blast of truth would |
shatter our comfortable nest, destroy
our craft. Things on the wing, that
range the free air, truth that has not |
where to lay it's head must respect our
habitat, must remember our surround |
ings, for our web, like the spiders, is
attached to kings palaces, the castles
of noblemen and even the sanctuaries
of religion. In our respectable corners |
we toll and spin, weaving the silken
web that catches the flies on which we
live In that social fabric 1--WE live, |
move and have our being" and which |
is not always God. Thus our hand and |
feet are bound by the web of custom
and interests which supervise our con- |
science and censor our opinions. We |
start at every noise and turn pale at |
every finger pointed at us. To be called
by certain party, church or class names
we know to be social poison If cer-
tain persons are asked to speak word
In behalf of some good cause, that yields
no milk of praise, they begin to look
around for patrons or patronesses. I
How can any soul so tied up in a
corner be free to follow a master who
has nothing to offer but simple truth?
Haying chosen champion spirit, be- |