The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1902-03-18
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new style OF medicine is ever and anon
springing upon the world, that you
should understand that the highest
school of medicine is the school of
Christ, which declares that goodness
is profitable unto all things, having
the promise of the life that now is as
well as OF that which is to come" So
If you start out two men in the world
with equal physical health, and then
one Of them shall get the religion Of
Christ in his heart and the other shall.
not get it, the one who becomes a son
Of the Lord Almighty will live the
longer. with long life will I satisfy
him and show him my salvation"
Religion and the Intellect.
Again remark that goodness is good
for the intellect 1 know some have
supposed that just as soon as a man
enters into the Christian life his intel
lect goes into a ~bedwarfing process. So
far from that. religion will give new
brilliancy to the intellect, new strength
to the imagination, new force to the
will and wider swing to all the intel
lectual faculties. Christianity is the
SA~NS ~NASAai LIZ at pullOSOpuy
has lighted its brightest torch. The re-
ligion of Christ is the fountain out of
which learning has dipped it's clearest
draft. The Helicon poured forth no
such inspiring waters as those which
flow from under the throne of God
clear as crystal. Religion has given
new energy to poesy, weeping in DIR.
Young's might Thoughts" teaching in
Cowper's Task" flaming In Charles
Wesley's hymns and rushing with
archangelic splendor through Millions
Paradise Lost" The religion of Christ
has hung in studio and in gallery of
art and in Vatican the best pictures
Titian's Assumption" Raphaers
TRANSPORTATION" Rubens' Descent
From the Cross" Claude's Burning
Bush" and Angeles Last Judgment"
the world-Haydn's Creation" Han
dePs Messiah" Mozart's Requiem"
Is it possible that a religion which
builds such i~ndestructible monuments
and which lifts it's ensign on the high
est ~promontories Of worldly power a
have any effect upon q mans intellect
but elevation?
Now, l commend goodness as the
best mental discipline, better than
bellies lettres to purify the taste, better
than mathematics to harness the mind
to all intricacy and elaboration, better
than logic to marshal the intellectual
forces for onset and victory. 1t will go
with Hugh Miller and show him the
footprints of the Creator in the red
sandstone. 1t will go with the botanist
and show him celestial glories encamp-
ed under the curtain of a water lily. 1t
will go with the astronomer on the
great heights where God shepherds the
great flock of worlds that wander on
the hills of heaven answering his voice
as he calls them all by their names.
Again l remark that gOdliness is
profitable for ones disposition. Lord
Ashley, before he went into a great
battle, was heard to offer this prayer:
SO Lord, | shall be very busy today,
If 1 forget thee, forget me not" With
such a Christian disposition as that 4
man is independent of all circum-
stances. Our piety will ave a tinge
of our natural temperament. If a man
be cross and sour and fretful naturally,
after he becomes q Christian he will
always have to be armed against the
rebellion of those evil inclinations. But
religion has tanned the widest natures.
1t has turned fretfulness into gratitude,
dependency into good cheer, and those
who were hard and ungovernable and
uncompromising have been made pill
able and conciliatOry. Good resolution,
reformatory effort, will not effect the
change. 1t takes a mightier arm and a
mightier hand to bend evil habits than
and it takes Il stronger lasso than ever
held the buffalo on the prairie.
OF the Gospel.
A nan cannot 60 forth with any hui
man weapons and contend successfully
against these Titans armed with up
torn mountains. But you have known
men into whose spirit the influence of
the gospel of Christ came until their
disposition was entirely changed. So
it was with two merchants in New
York. They were very a~ntagonistic-
They had done all they could to inJure
each other. They were in the same
line Of business. One of the merchants
was converted to God Having been
converted, he asked the Lord to teach
him how to bear himself toward that
business antagonist. and he was i'm
pressed with the fact that it was his
duty when a customer asked for GER
tain kinds of goods which he had Eot.
but which he knew his opponent had.
to recommend him to go to that store.
/ suppose that is about the hardest thing
a man could do; but, being thoroughly
converted to God. he resolved to do that
very thing. and. being asked for a GER
tain kind Of goods which he had not,
he said. You go to such and such a
store, and you will get it" After
awhile merchant No. 2 found these
customers coming. so sent. and he
found also that merchant No | hld
been brought to God, and he sought