The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-04-14

An Interesting Sermon at Central
Christian Church.

The Rev. A. B. Philputt delivered an in
teresting sermon yesterday at Central
Christian Church, taking for his subject
Where There Is No Vision the People
Perish" His text was from Prov. xxx, Is
He said in part:
From their native deserts the Semitic
race seemed to have early acquired a ca
pacity for taking leave of the things of
time and sense and to have cultivated the
power OF vision. The three great religions
the Jewish, Christian and Mohammedan-
sprang from the peoples of the desert The
powers of intuition, of intrOspection, of
self-denial and of patience under poverty
and suffering are supreme characteristics
of the Semites. The proverb of my text
haC ample illustration in their history
Vision had created their national life and
vision had maintained it against countless
dsintegrating forces. Herein was the power
of the prophets. In the darkest hours they
held up the picture of the ideal life Isra 81
should have a Savior. One should be born
who would redeem his people Isaiah was
consoled If only a remnant could be saved
He said to the discouraged a remnant shall
be saved. The nation shall not utterly
lapse. No matter for bad king, a corrupt
priesthood and base morals, he says there
stands the Messianic promise: Ye are
chosen generation. They were to fulfill
some high end as the select people of God
They saw the nations around them falling
Kindred tribes were periShing because they
followed not the star of their DESTINY
is no vision the people perish. The God Of
Israel was a God of righteousness and
truth. When the gods of other peoples
had utterly failed and their idolatries
proved vain thing then would the nations
say, Come, let us go up into the house of
the Lord; unto the God of Jacob Then
shall ISraels glory shine forth and her
hope be realized.
This is the glory of any nation-not
wealth, or prosperity, but the ideals which
pervade its life. When nation is sunk
in fipi m ia1 In IL &c
in danger of losing the vision. Then it
needs a prophet to speak to its faith and
its conscience. Our own land has had its
vision-and still has, let us believe-though
not so clear now as in other times. We are
soon to dedicate with appropriate cere-
monies the splendid monument to the sol
diers and sailors of the civil war. The
hearts of the old veterans will swell once
more with pride as they revive the mem
cries of battle and recall the times that
tried mems souls. That was a period of
prophet. 1t worth while to have lived
then, and doubly so to have died in the
great cause. Shall America lose her vision
of a completed democracy, IL politics based
on moral issues, of an aristocracy of char
acter rather than of wealth?
IF she becomes blinded by her prosperity
and sunken in mammonisIn she will let
slim the most precious of all her Jewels
the ideal of national life.
The nations of antiquity fourished So
long as they kept their vision but when
I
her decline at the period of greatest pros
/ perity Greece, the land of art and beauty.
! lost all when she ceased TO follow her
| guiding star and sank in the night of SEN
/ sualism and decay. America as simply a
| great business corporation, making every
! thing else bow TO the power of wealth and
/ the exigencieS OF trade, is not interesting.
| When principle must give way to expe-
/ diency and the dollar become more precious
| than a man. it is time for a prophet 10
! call as back To the great ideals Of the
/ fathers Where no vision is the people
perish.
4 What is true of a nation is even more
\ true of an individual Sad is the lot of any
\ one who sees his vision period fading back
/ behind him: who counts his dreams as
/ mere pleasant recolections instead OF guild
\ ing inspirations. We come 10 think thai
| our lives are made W Of that which We
/ have or Of that which we are. But it Is
/ not so The things which measure one 5
i but its desires, its expectations its imagin-
/ entertainments. of course and as We LOOK
I have followed such phantons OF unreality
/ work YOU have done under the strength and
/ light of that enthusiasm. Every day those
/ dreams of earlier years which seem to YOU
\ dead are in other forms the real inspiTa-
tons OF your life
i Ones vision passes into his work As
we trudge along the dusty highway so un-
/ emotional, so calm and prosy, IL is really
the fire OF youth, the bright vision Of other