The free press. (Poplarville, Miss.) 1890-19??, 1902-05-15
A Little Sermon.

NV feet to steps that lead me upward vet
H. v. Sutherland, in Christian Register.
A Little Sermon.
Daily in a large city museum a little
creature was exhibited, in years a woman,
but in stature not so large as healthy
baby Her picture was sold in which she
appeared sitting on the hand of a giant
OF a Snowman. the contrast making her
appear like a doll. Her eyes were wistful
and her pinched features drawn in a
pitiful expression. Unhappiness, dissatis-
faction sat upon her face. Her hands We're
shrunI5en and claw-like. Poor little
dwarf! What was her life but a show?
All the grandeur OF a woman's existence,
her youth, her JOY, her love, shut away
from her forever. Her body had never
grown to its full stature and her strength
was not equal to the tasks OF the great
work in the world. Of what use was she
but to be a showman's puppet?
How like was she to many Christian
lives, puny helpless things, with but a
name to live. The only use they have for
religion is to exhibit it, and alas, they are
not even curiosties like the tiny dwarfs
of the museum! They are all about us;
nay, let us be sure that we ourselves are
not numbered among them. The spiritual
ginning than is the physical, and the fact
that it is so common a thing makes it
seem no calamity. A lack of physical de
velopment is looked upon as a cause of
great sorrow, but lack of spiritual de-
velopment passes unnoticed. Indeed. to-
day the man who has grown in grace to-
ward his full measure of the stature of
Jesus is looked upon as the curiosity a
sort of spiritual giant not to be ranked
with other men at all.
In certain otherwise happy home, the
eldest son, a young man OF twenty-five,
sits all day long shaking a stick with a
rag tied about it. This is his sole amuse-
ment and employment in the world. He
is an imbecile and nobody ever expects
anything else from him. There are many
in the church who are metaphorically
going about shaking sticks with rags on
them. They are given some little thing
to do to keep them contented and no one
ever expects any other church work OF
them. They never have grown enough
since they united with the church to be
| able to do anything else. They stopped
short with the act of accepting Christ
I they never have grown an inch. Their
! strength is not great enough for even the
simplest service Christ asks of those who
have named His name. They are full
grown men, able to go out into the world
of business and make a success in life,
but in the church sitting dumb when there
is need for some one to pray or lead a
meeting, utterly incapable of pointing the
way to Christ because they know Him
so little themselves
There are a few essentials of physical
life which we dare not ignore and hope
| to live. 1t is exactly so in the Christian
| life. We cannot grow in grace without
I the same essentials. The first essential OF
| life is breath We must have air ia
| breathe or death comes instantly.
Prayer is the Christians vital breath,
The Christians native air:
Without it how can we live? Physi-
| clans say that the cause of many phys
ical ills is that We do not breathe deep
enough. The brain worker is sometimes
so absorbed in his work that he barely
draws in enough oxygen to keep his heart
going, but not enough to expand his lungs
fully and give the poison in the blood a
breath. With how very little prayer
some OF us manage to get along!
The next essential is nourlshment The
Bible is the food of the Christian, and
many Christians exist on one meal week
on Sunday and that not hearty one
either. Who has not watched a thoroughly
normal baby eager for its food, casting
aside playthings, pushing away everyone,
caring not for gold or ghttering treasures,
or ambition, or anything in its future, SO
it may get its food?
1t is that way we are to read our Bible
AS newborn babes DESIRE" mark that
word desire-"the sincere milk of the
word" Everything else is as nothing to
the Bible. Who of us feels that way?
How many Christians are almost unwilling
to pledge themselves to read the Bible
every day because of the time it takes :?
What baby feels so about its daily meals?
And yet that is the condition of growing
IN grace
There are other essentials, too. Exer-
else for instance. Christian work is the
daily exercise we are to take.
But the most glorious part of it all
comes in our last selection of Scripture
There is coming time when all ministry
of the gospel shall be unnecessary, when
we shall have grown to a place where we
do not need teaching and preaching, when
we have attained, all of US, "the measure
of the stature of the fulness of Christ"
And it becomes us to take heed to the
warnings, and to put aside all hindrance
and apply our hearts to growth for some
OF us have great way to grow before we
shall ain.-Grace l.. Hill, in the New
York Mail and Express.