The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-03-25

- widen out your thought or God, beieNe
In a great God, powerful, very powerful
IL the body is i'll, believe in a God strong
enough to raise that i'll body up. III n
heart IS sore and sick. believe in a God
strong enough to heal that heart that Is
sore and sick. And If a man has gone
down into the deeps of shame and OF degra
dation. believe in a God whose arm Is long
enough and whose arm is strong enough
ana whose heart is loving enough 20 save
him, no matter how low he may go. .
mold 10 a great faith. build up the chufch
magnifically in a great creed and in a
great belief. and hope the roofs OF THIS
church will fall II you dishonor the great
ness OF your God.
BY NOBLE LIVING.
Another thing. you must build up this
church magnifcally by nobler living. Now.
faith is a mighty thing, and it has been q
mighty power upon this earth. You and L
owe to it pretty nearly everything that we
prize and that We treasure. 1t has given to
US the very best there is of art, it has given
to us the very best there is Of literature.
The ethical note in literature is the pure
contribution of faith to us. 1t has given
to us all our liberties and all those forces
and influences that tend toward the larger
and the fuller and the freer life OF THESE
latter days. Faith is a great power, a
mighty power, but after all there Is one
thing that is greater han faith, that
one thing is life. Jesus said unto us, i am
come that you may have life and life more
abundantly, and He comes not so much 10
give us physical life-though He does that.
He does that; the world has grown physl-
cally stronger under the regime of Jesus,
physically more salubrious under the
regime Of the Christ; He comes nos so
much to give us Intellectual life, though he
has done that. The horizons of the nina
have wonderfully, have marvelously
widened since Christ died for mans re-
demption upon the cross. But He has come
10 give us a greater gift than the GIT OF
the body, a greater gift than the gilt TO
the mind. He has come To give to the
moral man the great gift of nobility, ana
let me tell you that that Is a desideratum
even in these latter days. =.
I'VE are deficient in nobility, the world
is deficient in moral nobility. 1t has plenty
of moral strength, but it is lacking in moral
nobility, and what is true of the world Is
also true of the church of Christ. AS much
as / love and honor the Christian man, as
much as / love and honor the average man
and woman who follow after the manner
of Jesus, | have this TO affirm, after a long
observation within the church. that there
is a sad lack of nobility in the house Oh
God. a sad lack of that sublime element
that goes to make a great and stately man
in the average Christian who follows AFTER
Christ.
HONEST, YET SMALL.
"Why, you say TO me, are not Christians
honest? Yes, they are honest, but a man
may be honest and yet a very little man.
You say TO me, are not Christians vera
cious, are they not men of their word?
l say yes, they are veracious, but then a
man had better be veracious, even in these
latter days., even from the point of view OF
prudence and expediency, and a man may
be veracious and yet be a very little man.
You say to me, are not Christians gener-
Gus? Yes, they are generous, they give,
and so do men of the world give, give lib
0FnllU and UiVa largely and L nave nA0
a demonstration of that fact in these latter
days, that men who have not PROGRESSED
Christ at all put their hands down In their
pockets and give with a large, a liberal
and a lavish hand to the causes of charity.
But a man may be generous and yet, after
all, be a little man.
"Ah, there is a morality beyond all this.
and it is the morality that L have been so
yearning TO impress upon you. If there
is anything In all this world that l believe
in it is this, that God means every woman
10 be a moral queen. l believe that you
and | should walk this earth with a stride
of a god because we are of God, His chill
dren and His heirs. Now, this is what l
call nobility; / call a man who is high
minded, noble, who thinks on such a plane
that the vaporS of this earth never touch
him and never faint him; the man who
thinks no evil and whose thoughts are so
pure towards others that he believes all
men to be as pure as himself. High-mind-
edneSS, that Is the noble man. And a man
may pray all he pleases. he may talk all
the slick, sanctimonious cant that he likes,
and that man 10 me is a great big humbug
unless he is h~igh-minded in the estimate
and in his relation to his fellow-men.
CATHOLICITY OF NOBILITY.
"a noble man is always catholic. What
do / mean by that? a Roman Catholic?
No. but catholic, universal, and how few
men there are within the church who are
endowed with this great property of uni
versatility, How we are prone to believe
that God has given us the light. Il am
the prophet of the Eternal. Me and my
church, TO us have been confded the ora
Gle o 1 feel such commiseration for tina
narrow type of mindl i feel such pity in
my soul for that conception of the truth.
Now, then, as a last message to you
along this line l pray that this church may
be a universal church; l want you 10 love
all the churches, l want you TO believe
greatly in your own church-O believe in
the Presbyterian Church, and IT is a won
derful church and it has done a wonderful
workout also believe i'm every church and
do not be afraid to go a step further and
10 believe I'm the church that you are sc
fearful to believe in and whose name you
almost hate TO hear named within the
house of GOd-I mean the Roman Catholic
Church. Cultivate universally and love
the gentle, but not the gentle more thar
the jew. nor the Jew more than the gen.
tile. Love all truth from wherever that
truth may come, and love every church
that lifts a spire to the sky in the name
of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Now, 1 want you to strain after nobil
ity, which means, first, highmindedness. anC
then catholicity, and then, last of all. an.
may God give to each Of you this quality
L pray the Father now to give TO eacl
one of you this quality, the sweet spiri
of charity. Be gentle to people, and re
member, my beloved friends, the exceedin.
difficulty of life, remember the exceedin,
difficulty of right living. You say ii &
easy, that you find no trouble In beins
the man you think you ought to be. Well
l don't think you ought TO have any trouble
| think a man who is morally satisfied will
himself, who believes that il is a free
smooth and fluent thing. this thing Gale,
character. that that mans moral ideals ar,
so low that he can nave no trouble. bu
ii you are straining; o if you are strugglin,
after His ideal. TO be perfect even as gu
Father In heaven Is perfect, TO be holy ever
as He is holy, then you will find IL hard
very hard. and you. too. will need charity
Be chaCtable. j want your charity. / nee,
IL very much, and you all need each tn
others charity. There is not a man here
as / know him, that does not need charity
rOble and very beautiful and L love yol
very much. but you ave some weak spots
all of you, every man. Therefore, be ten
der one TO another.
SPIRIT OF REFINEMENT.
"Now. If you are going to build the churc'
of Christ magnihcally. there is anothe
the church with the spirit of refinement
a word we do not hear much Of in tn
church and conative of a quality we do no
expect TO find in a church. We expect tn
churches TO be prosperous. and we ar