The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1902-03-06

mutual DleUSeS ol support from DOlI
congregation and pastor We're ex-
| changed.
| Prior to the sermon of the night the
choir rendered a beautiful anthem
taken from Gounod's Redemption, and
the splendid mixed quartette, which is
heard weekly at the church, sang
"How Amable Are Thy Tabernacles."
| The sermon was preached by Rev.
| owen Davies Odell, of Dubuque, Iowa,
brother of the new pastor of the Sec
| ond church and a young man whose
| career so far in the ministry has been
remarkable.
CALL TO INDIANAPOLIS.
He is only in his twenty-fifth year;
has been ordained but a twelvemonth,
and yet has recently received a call to
the pastorate of the leading Presby-
terian church of indianapolis, Il place
carrying with it one of the highest sal
aries in the Presbyterian church in
this country. Though boyish in appear
ance and rather fral in figure, this
young man is Il pulpit orator of eXcep-
tional brilliancy and preached a SER
mon last night such as has been sell
dom heard in this city. He has a voice
of such sonorous depth and extreme
tieXiblity as is seldom heard in either
an actor clergyman or public speaker
and coupled with this an eloquence
that never for moment descends to
the dead level of the commonplace
His sermon teemed with epigrams and
was delivered with the aid of-but
few notes
The text chosen was Acts. 3:25 ,"Ye
are the children of the prophets" and
in beginning his sermon Rev. Mr.. Odell
said that the Jews, who We're thus re-
ferred to, We're self-willed, wayward,
and disobedient to the laws of God
when it was written. They talked of
their pride of ancestry rather than OF
the ancestry of their pride.
But what of us?" said he "Of what
prophets are we the children? We are
the offspring of an accumulation of
knowledge and of divine revelation
which has been carried down the
stream of time to the present day. We
are children of no obscure parentage.
We. too. are the children of the pro-
phets, and shall the record of our lives
leave no tracing upon the living tab
lets of our hearts to gleam by night
and day?
WHO We're the prophets? Men who
had an insight into the spiritual des-
tiny of the race. God-given souls
named in the Bible and out of the
Bible. Men nameless in the Bible and
nameless out of the Bible. Prophets of
the Jew and prophets of the pulpit
Men with a divine right to live and
with a divine right to live for. Such
is our ancestry.
WHAT HAS DEVELOPED US.
ages have contributed to our maxi
ing. The toll and suffering of count
less men and women contribute to our
being. Prayers uttered, sufferings en-
dured and truths upheld have devel-
oped a higher power to pray and a
nobler capacity to endure. We are
children of spiritual host who fought
the good fight, finished the course and
kept the faith. Perhaps they are
lowering over us in great cloud to-
night watching us, Let us hope they
are satisfied.
I'VE inherit from our ancestors that
conception of life which caused the
true prophets to declare that the past
was Gods past; that the universe is
Gods universe, and that the future is
Gods future.
I'VE inherit the sublime characterls-
ties that gave birth to this conception.
We inherit the high q. llities of faith
and fervor and of passion and per-
sistAncy that dominated these great
men of God. Some misguided
souls there are who mistake fever for
fervor, and who think that boisterous-
ness is a synonym for earnestness.
They forget that fiery words do not
always imply molten thought
For all souls there are but two
ways, the way of chance and the way
of choice The way of chance is go-
ing after the will-o- -the-wisp, the way
that leads to doubt and despair. The
way of choice is the knowledge of
what one has to do and the doing of
it,
1T is we'll for us that we are the
children of these prophetic souls with
their great sacrifices and grand con-
ceptions of life-those men whose SUI
preme aim was to tell of the coming
of the Messiah. Let us follow them.
Let us not prove unworthy of our high
relationship and grand ancestors, who
are, mayhap, watching us tonight AS
you look back over their lives, resolve
in your hearts Ia prove not unworthy
of them and should your pride be
checked the sons of the prophets
shall become the prophets"
Immediately following the sermon,
Rev. Mr.. Lee. the moderator, con-