Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1902-05-30

were prone to turn away from the
Christian system and were especially
sensitive to the offense of the Cross
ST. Paul made this bold assertion
of the compelling theme of his minis
try among them, because he perfectly
understood them and was determined
to bring their acts and habits and as
pirations beneath the unifying power
of a. great principle, which was the
moral and spiritual dynamic of the uni
verse, the solution of all mystery, and
the clarifying of ali aim. People who
turn away from systematized religion
to-day are the intellectual children of
these proud Corinthians, inheriting
their weakness as well as their
strength. Men and women are found
everywhere who possess capacity for
the right and its doing, and indigna-
ton against any form of wrong. In
their various walks of life they follow
after an ideal; they know the nobility
of seIf-repression and of labor for the
social estate; they are kindly, honest
and gracious, but they tell us that the
evangelical faith has poverty-stricken
aspects and neglects some things
cause apart from them they could not
live their lives.''
DR.. Cadman claims that there are
several predominant ting features in this
announcement of ST. Paul which will
help us to understand each other bet
ter. For most of the differences which
vex our progress are due to the dim
ness of our earthly vision, and ST. Paul
urges upon us his voluntary dedication
of all knowledge beneath the superior
knowledge of the power of the Cross,
because
First. he says, nothing is discarded
which is legitimate, minor themes are
not lost but they are abs orbed in the
major one. A second point he makes
is that "the power of the cross is the
power of a fact" The explanat ton of
that fact we may only attempt, but
the fact itself shines steadily on, I'M
hindered by warning statements.
'But, further, the power of the cross
is happily expressed in the text, in the
ombination of the person of Jesus
with the principle of sacrifice.
And lastly, the power of the cross,
as we survey the future, is a multiply
ing power. There are two classes of
religious forces, those which absorb
and those which are absorbed by them,
and the cross is the supreme absorb
emit, whose vitality, always recurring,
can never be impaired. Rest assured,
you cannot eXaggerate this statement
and there is no need to qualify it. 1t
is the legitimate generalization of
Christian manhood, Christian thought
and Christian effort. While dialectics
change and literary fashions decay,
the pledge of the permanence of the
cross is in the person who died there
on and in the need of man for the bene-
fits of that passion and death.
Let US dismiss our fears and weep
not for the Cross Bearer, but for our
selves and for our unfaithfulness and
our 1ukewarmness. For did all
tongues fail and all prophecies cease,
the holy hill of Golgotha would send
out afresh new light and truth. There
shall we keep our tryst with men and
with the Father of men, and if we
fail. God will raise up ministers and
peoples which appear dumb as the
stones of the streets, and they that
are far off He will bring nigh, until
the work has been completed, which
beginning to completion. Then shall
the High Priest of our profession prof
fer unto God the Father Himself the
Kingdom thus recreated, and having
delivered it up, God shall be all and in
all"
Gist of Many Sermons.
Consider the standards and tests of
manhood. Many men misjudge them
selves, because they use false tests,
The warning is, let no man think of
himself more highly than he ought
to think. This does not mean that
men are to depreciate themselves.
Humility is one thing; self-deprecia-
ton is another. Power begins with
self-reliance; conscience is one of
Gods under agents, and an honest,
Just pride is another. In measuring
our manhood we must balance the evil
over against the good. We are what
we are on the average; if we are Gods
children we shall be what we are at
our best. only more.-Rev. DIR. Hills.
If there were men who had never
been awake during the day and had
never once seen the sun or felt its
warmth, and if these men had come to
doubt even the existence of the sun,
their doubt and every trace of their
agnosticism would be instantly re-
moved were they to come out but once
under the sky in which the sun was
shining. In like manner all doubt and
apnositicism with reference to God
| is instantly removed by coming into
Gods light.-Rev. w. S. Fulton.
A brilliant agnostic has said: eve
are known by the things at which we
| laugh And we all laugh at divorce.