The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-06-30
A SERMON TO MEN
"BE Up AND DoING,v REV. BAsCOM
ANTHoNY's THEME.
THERE is WORK FOR ALL"
OPPORTUNITIES NEVER MORE NJ
NERVOUS THAN THEY ARE TO-DAY.

!
of the Present Is the Heritage OF
the Past and 1t Is the Duty of This
Generation to Transmit Its Glory,
Untarnished, to the Future.
A special sermon to men was preach
ed by Rev. Bascom Anthony at Trim
ity Methodist Church last night. 1t
was a vigorous protest against that
modern weakness that inclines a man
to do nothing because he cannot hope
to accomplish all.
Mr. Anthony's text was taken from
John iv:3S: II sent you to reap that
wherein We bestowed no labor; other
men labored, and We are entered into
their labors." Mr.. Anthony said in
part:
For every man there is a possibility
of missing his place in the world. This
failure is due to misrepresentation as to
the relation of the present to both the
future and the past.
MANY despise the past as barbaric
and primitive age with little worthy
Of perpetuation or even of remem-
brance. They eat of the fruit of the tree
and yet contemn the years of it's Gull
| ture and growth satisfying their own
hunger they forget the past which
| made it, and the future with its de-
mands upon it.
This is a vain and inflated egotism,
| born Of ignorance and selfishness, the
prolific parents of a direful brood
which curses the sons and daughters
of men to the very verge of destruc-
IN hot
of speedh which eXtols the present to
the detriment of the past, and
with superficial smile
looks upon all that has
gone before, with it's loves and it's la
| bors, as a fossiliferous remnant, valu-
able as a curio, or useful as a means
| of comparison to show our superior
wisdom and merit.
Wasting Their Opportunities.
ION the other hand many waste
their opportunity in lamenting that
since the masters have come and
wrought in the earth there remains
nothing worth the doing
This, to, is an evil spirit, the pro-
duct of vanity that knows not the
value of fidelity to duty, and regards
all things as vain unless wrought amid
| the applause of the publican ap-
| plause made all the Sweeter to syanity
because its detects in it the tones of
envy as well. 1t knows not that he
who halts by the humblest duty and
proves his fidelity there, more surely
crowns both it and himself with glory,
than ever did royalty crown chivalry
with knighthood.
THE text states the great truth that
would save alike from both these err
rors. Other men labored and We are
entered'-not into rest-but into their
labors.' They have wrought, there
fore must we labor, conserving all that
has come to us, adding to it according
to the measure of our ability and OPP
portunity, and handing it down to pos
terity for yet greater enlargement.
All the centuries since God said
Let there be light, and light was have
conspired together to make the present.
Prophets and apostles, poets and ar
lists, philosophers and sages, states
men and warriors have labored and
we are entered into their Iabors The
richer our inheritance the greater our
Indebtedness to the past, and the
weightier our obligation to the future.
| There is no room for a supercilious or
a cynical spirit. The future and the
past as deep calling unto deep blend
their voices in a mighty call to us.
THE pioneers of the church did
much but their work is by no means
|
is head over all things shall reign the
undisputed Lord over the new heaven
and the new earth wherein dwelleth
righteousness. They fought the wilder
ness, and the savage, the wild beasts
and the coarser forms of sins. We
must contend with a goddess learning
and debauched civilization, the sins
of the slums and the vices of veneered
gentility.
Fate of the First MethOdists.
1.-THE first Methodist preacher in the
city, Hope Hull, in 1850 was stoned
from the community because he said
that slavery was contrary to the
laws of God, man and nature, and con-
trary to the, dirctates of conscience and
pure religion. The first Methodist con-
gregation of our city was gotten to-
gether in 1907 byI Samuel Dunwoody.
who volunteered for the work and who
supported himself while he preached.
The first church built for us in this CITY
in 1872 so entangled the preacher, James
! Russell, in debt, that it cost him his
| place in the Conference and cut short
a glorious career. OF him Bishop An
drew said He possessed the power
| of persuasion beyond any man / ever
heard. He was one of the most re-
markable men of his time. In such
blood is the foundation of our church
laidl
And shall We the descendants and
| successors of such heroic souls. who
We're stoned, were tempted, who wan
| dered about in sheep skins and goat
skins; being destitute, afflicted, tor
mented; of whom the world was not
worthy, shall we through softness or
eftenimacy, through the sheer of the
cynic or the jeer of the god
less. through the Establishments of
wealth or the patronage of sin, forget
our debt to this heroic past, or our
duty to the future A patrimony
bought at so great a price deserves
not only to be held in lasting rever-
ence, but to be perpetuated at great
est cost.
Let others keep the count of their
gold If they will; let them find prefer
ment by conniving at crime If they
wish; let them sit silent and lip-locked
In the presence of the evils that en-
cumber us If they desire; but peo-
pie with a heritage such as ours can
not. must not dare not prove faith
less to God or to men.
Recently l stood in one of our
squares and saw there assembled the
flower of the youth Of our city. In
the place of honor was the remnant
of them who went up to battle in the
sixties and who so bore themselves
that the glory OF their arms shall
abide among men till valor shall
cease to be a virtue and heroism be-
come crime on the platform were
few representatives OF that type OF
womanhood developed in the old DAYS.
a type than which all the gardens OF