Omaha daily bee., 1902-03-10
HARD FOR The NEW PASTOR
Rev. ECclss Finds Emmanuel Baptist
Full Of Gas.
STICKS To'Hls TEXT, NOTWITHSTANDING
nntroduces Himself ~ one Who be
ueves In Preaching from n Book
and a. Believing what
u Teaches.

II was under some dihiculties that Rev.
Robert Kerr Bccles began his pastorate OF
che Baptist church, Twenty-fourth and Bin
new streets, sunday morning. He arrived
last Friday from his former home IN Bow
ling Green, O.. about which city oil well
derricks tower as numerously as chimney
pots in London. and he was In a mood to
praise the clear, iDvigorating Nebraska at
mosphere, but 1t unluckily happened that
something had gone wrong with the furnace
ana the church was so full OF gas that the
packed congregation was all but in tears
from coughing and its newly arrived pastor
syae partially obscured by the haze.
In beginning his sermon, which was short,
ne announced himself as old-fashioned
enough TO preach from a text, and he read
From the sixteenth verse OF the second
Chapter of the epistles to the Romans.
breaches from the Book.
According to my gospel" he quoted. MY
gospel my friends, directs that l read from
Gods book and preach from what I read
therein / trust that your gospel and mine
may BE- In harmony. We each have q gospel,
undoubtedly, for Just as each man must
have a Christ for himself. so each man
must have a gospel for himself. There is
not an eye that can look out upon some
distant scene and see It just as another
eye would Still, the same general impress
sion may be had and the principle Of per-
sonal equation enters into these spiritual
views to Justify each man in saying my
gospel
az have wondered II my gospel would
suit my new environment, which seems so
pleasant. l will only say Of 1t that it is
Founded on the word Of God. l am not q
Spencerian, nor a Darwinian. / accept large
information from all these sources, but my
only rule Of conduct is the book, and II
there were 10000 evidences against some
thing clearly taught between it's covers I
would say with the apostle: Let all men
be liars, God is truth My gospel holds
that nearly all men are wrong and only
q few accidentally good-thst men, II let
alone go wrong; go to weeds just as the
grounds OF your beautiful exposition has
done since abandoned and neglected.
Places Itself within Reach.
"But mine is a practical gospel and It
goes right Town to q level with sinners
that It may be taken hold OF by them and
helped UP. In the slums 1t does more
good than a whole posse Of constables and
Il helps whom 1t saves, not only spiritually
but physically. l remember once when l
was a boy in the north Of ireland, a black
hmlln Whb CohNSlhSu W MOotAhbS INV
were beang held in his shop, because no
better place was then available, and the
next day he appeared upon the streets so
cleansed In face, as we'll as in heart, that
! did not recognize him. It was a healthy
gospel that he had.
II notice that Buddhism is beginning to
be preached in this country. The religion
OF Buddha like the religion Of Confucius
incorporates excellent principles, but they
remind me of a man who stood upon q
high bluff and shouted to a mar who was
drowning In a stream far below him to
come up and he would save him Ny gospel
would be to throw him the rope whereby
he might make the ascent. 1t is practical
and It Is what I hope to promulgate, trust
ang that 1t will suit In this. my new home. -