The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-02-26
AN INTERESTING SERMON
BY REF. DIR. PHILLIPS AT THE CHURCH OF THE REDEEMER.

CHURCH OF THE REDEEMER.
 Preached at Sunday Mornina's Servie
 -s'Unrecoanized BomefaCtors" was tn
 sub5ect-VaIuabIe Lessons Draw
 From the Incident at the Pool of Be thesda.
 At the Church of the Redeemer Sun
 day morning the pastor Rev. Watson
 L. Phillips. D. D., relivered stroni
 sermon on "Unreeognized Benefactors,
 which made a deep impression on his
 congregation, and which may be char,
 acterized as among the ablest sermon:
 preached in New Haven in some time It was from the text John SIP, IS
 They asked him, Who is the man that
 said unto thee, Take up thy bed and l walk? But he that was healed wist moi who 1t was: for Jesus had conveyed
 himself away, a multitude being in that
 place." and was as follows:
 It was at the Pool of Bethesda. Jesus
 had found one in the crowd of crippled
 folk about the spring more helpless and
 friendless than the rest. It mattered
 not that the mans misfortunes were the result of sin; the Lord'y compass sionate heart was touched by his sad condition and the word was spoken that removed his disabilities.
 It is not necessary to dwell upon the cure, or to discuss the manner of Je- sus' disappearance or His motive in re- maining unidentified. There are fre- quent accounts of his vanishing after some incident which would naturally make Him conspicuous. Sometimes His motive seems to have been to avoid His enemies, sometimes to avoid His friends; sometimes He evidently wished to escape the curious crowd whose selfish demands or thoughtless plaudits would complicate the situa- tion; often he apparently withdrew for the mere luxury of doing a good deed without being publicly thanked. It was not necessarily a miraculous disap- pearance. While the rulers were an grily debating the Sabbath question and cross examining the healed man. who was himself too much surprised to take much notice of his surroundings by the aid of friendly hands Jesus might easily have slipped away unob- served, and there always were friendly hands about Him; we are not to think of Him as always surrounded by ene- mics.
 The greater and more suggestive truth for us is in the experience of the man who had been cured; he knew not who had helped him; that experience gives us our theme, The unrecognized benefactors of the world. Confining that statement for the moment to Je- sus Himself, it asserts fact which lies against us all. The world is not yet aware of what it has received or mind ful in any adequate way of it's obliga- tions. Much of beauty and blessedness have come into our lives; we are fond of saying, It is the result of the steady progress of the race, of general enlight- enment, of the growth of pure senti- ment, of the advance of true civiliza- tion. But if you trace back these lines of influence you will find them slowly and beginning with Jesus Truths unknown or dinly seen found expression in Him; His character and teaching and life started the energies which have ever since been sanctifying the world. but we wist not who hath healed us; He Is still the worlds great est and most unrecognized benefaetoT.
 But I wish to turn your thought to- day towards the people who are bless ing us without our knowledge, whose are enjoyed without recog hilton or reward; the people who are erea ting atmosphere, keeping the moral -one pure, setting examples whose be- neficent results are reaching us inspir ingly. The people who are walking with God filled with spiritual aspira- ion and power, transmitting into char acter and life the high visions of holy .hings they have had in their sacred hours of divine communion and sending 'egenerative and stimulating currents ut into society. The world is better md happier for these men and women .hough it never calls the roll of their names. Among them are those into whose intimate companionship we are admitted, who are daily inspiring us to seek the higher experiences of life. They do not hand us the torch, but they l an the flame in our own souls and we Ire the nobler for the very contact. We | re not aware how much we are getting | rom the intimate associates of daily | fife; they stand too near, the relation is | % natural, we do not trace back to | hem the elevating influences we &C., But it is certain that | trough them God is speaking to us and urifyng and exalting us. Many a | nan has had his first revelation of his ndebt edness to his mother as he looked | nto her dead face, and it was too late | Q crown s1er.
 Many others seem to stand too distant or recognition; they are not among. hose we are accustomed to count as the enerators of saving energy. We are cry near-sighted often; we need to re- lember that the people we know and ssociate with, our friends, are not the nly people who are mindful of high lings, who aspire and struggle towards le light; neither are they the only ones Tho are making the opinions and GUS pms which save society. We are all lclned to provincialism in our notions, 1 e are insular in our prejudices and es- l. An ~ f