The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1902-10-27

ed right
But after all the difficulties that our
text suggest I'm the way OF laying on us
small tasks as preparation for great
ones Is at the same time the hope OF man
and the glory OF the Gospel
No man is expected 10 DO great things
who has as yet only the undeveloped ca
pacity that is fitted for small things. The
board or directors In a bank doesn't ex-
pect the errand boy 10 make loans while
the cashier is on his vacation. No more
does God expect a man upon his entrance
into the kingdom OF God to raise the dead
while there are the living 10 be fed and
clothed.
THE NARROW GATE.
I take II that definition here may not
be unnecessary II we should attempt TO
define the narrow gate we might say that
for each one OF us IL is that particular
duty which lies so near us that We can
do IL better than any one else. The wom-
an who neglects her household duties for
a reading circle, or any other kind OF
circle. has missed the narrow gate. The
man who neglects his family for the
club has missed the narrow gate The
girl who goes as home or foreign mis-
sionary and leaves her widowed mother
10 support a family has missed the mar
row gate The church that spends It's
substance on other fields TO the neglect
OF it's own has missed the narrow gate,
and when a man or a church misses the
narrow gate it's on the broad way 10 de-
strucuon.
The difference between men, churches
and nations is the difference In the en-
trance to the paths they travel. The diff
ference between life and destruction for
humanity and its institutions is the diff
ference between a narrow entrance and
small one. Forget not the day OF small
duties for it is the day Of life and Infinite
possibilities.
But when we advance to the second
thought OF our text, the straitened way.
we seem TO have gone forward homileti-
cally at the expense OF our thought
which has remained stationary. Yet
there is an advance. If the way is
straitened just as the gate is narrow we
must admit that 1t is one thing to start
and another thing 10 keep going. You
can start a toy watch but we must ad-
init there is considerable difference be-
tween that and a pedfect time piece Air
ships have been invented that aave en-
circled Eiffel Tower but what is sought
is one that will encircle the globe
There are plenty OF people who will IN
ter the narrow gate al revival service.
but it's the man that endures TO the end
who is saved. With all our Christian ex-
perence stretching back over two thou
sand years we have not learned two OF
the most simple lessons that these words
suggest
THE ROAD ITSELF.
In the first place the scheme OF saliva
tion as pointed out by Jesus Christ isn't |
a road house but the road itself. IL isn't |
a point, it's a line. Grow In grace.A youth \
comes out of college In debt. He enters 4
business In middle life he is still in debt /
He retires in debt. Would you call him a |
successful business man?
4 VounP man niVaS his Testimony In /
prayer meeting that he is a hopeless sim !
ner. At forty the testimony is the sasne. |
Again ut hty-4fwe- take him at his |
word there he dies In his sins. According |
to the standard OF Jesus Christ would you |
call him Christian? OF course we sin,
but we haven't neighbor who couldn't |
tell us more about our sins than we ever
Imagined. One OF the most helpful things |
IN our own prayer meeting is that men |
stand up and tell not what they are of |
themselves but what God In his infinite
grace has made them.
But the kind OF a way. AYE there's the 1
rub" It's Strengthened. II we observe the |
signs OF our times we are struck with the |
fact that the intelligent and scholarly |
writer's OF today. dealing with the prob |
lens OF the spiritual life, emphasize what |
Is termed the thorough .ethicising OF re- |
ligion There is a reason for this both !
In thought and practice
Where there Is so much smoke IL is nat
ural 20 conclude there is at least, a little
fire. The reason for II in thought Is due !
TO the fact that we are overwhelmed
with anti-ascetic theories. We are hav- /
ing forced upon us by this busy throb-
5ng Industrial world that we are mu-
tually dependent and that every man Is
IN a vital sense his brothers keeper To |
retire from the battle, II for any other
purpose than to strengthen ones weap-
Dns, is to turn deserrer and be ranked as
4 coward. This in turn has had Its in
huence on thought.