The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1903-10-21
The MORAL CONQUEROR
A Brilliant Sc mon By Rev. T. r.
Williams.
We Should Spend Our Few Brief Years
Fighting Sin and Serving Man.

BROOKLYN, N. Y.--The Rev I. Rhond-
gregational Church, Bradford, England,
preached in Plymouth Church Sunday
morning. There was large audience.
The Rev. DR.. Newell Dwight Hills intro
duced Mr.. Williams. Earnest attention
was given to his thoughtful sermon. The
Conqueror," and the text was from pas.
sages in the Apocalypse. Mr.. Williams
said:
Each one Of the messages to the churches
Of Asia closes with a promise. They con-
tain threats and warnings and command
ments, but at the close stands the promise
like a distant hill in. sunshine, seen
through the storm, to lure on ever the
worst-beaten to the better things of God
and man: The messages lay down the
moral task without compromise, but they
close with the assurance that
"The toppling crags OF duty scaled
Are close upon the shining tabelands,
To which our God Himself is moon and
sun"
There is here a twofold aspect Of life
which every morally earnest man is ac-
auainted with. He knows that its condi-
tions are stern, that there is vigor in it,
but he knows also that the vigor is blended
with tenderness, that all its struggle is
permeated by promise. We might indeed
Gay tildJ mural tdTIeStHtsS duu IDpelui-,
ness go togther Stand Loyalty under the
bower Of duty, and you will hear the bird
of hope sing Unfaithfulness to the moral
ideal breeds pessimism of the worst kind;
fidelity. while it does not encourage cheap
and lightsome optimism, does inscribe in
the heart of the blackest duty the shining
word of the coming time God has so made
us that EMBODIED in the bosom of loyalty
lies the assurance of triumph for the good.
Now, it is this loyalty to the good, this
fidelity to the moral ideal, this persevering
attitude, which l take to be indicated in
Every, promise is made to him who over
cometh" or who ''conquers." Not, mark
you, to him who has overcome, or who has
conquered in any full or final sense. These
promises are not of gifts to be bestowed
at the end of the course, but of experiences
to be realized in going on, so long as you
go on in the right way. Now. is it a fact
for it is no use preaching theories away
from the facts of life-that the promises
made to those Asian churches in the name
Of Christ, sent to them by John as direct
from Christ, are to be regarded as promises
made to us by God? For myself / can.
not regard them SO, except so far as
they contain truths attested by the exper-
ience of men. Indeed, the messages given
to the churches of Asia are not entirely
from Christ as He was, not from Christ as
We understand Him to-day. but from
Christ as John understood Him. When
we read the promises of the moral life we
read not only the facts of our moral expe-
rience, but also a certain Interpretation
given by more than one bias, such as the
personal bias or the national bias. The fu-
ture we depict may be in essence guaran..
teed by the universal laws. OF the moral
life, but the depletion may bear personal
or national colors which must fade; per-
sonal and national elements which must
be eliminated. John was Christian, but
he was also Jew. Like every man, he
had temperament, both the nationality
and the personality would affect his vision
OF the future. Our Christ never takes alb
soute and full possession of us, our very
best understanding of Him has some mix.
ture of ourselves in it, which is not in Him.
To him that overcometh and keepeth
My word will 1 give power over the ma.
tions, and he shall rule them with a rod of
iron, as the vessels of a potter shall be
broken to shivens, even as ! received OF
My Father" Here are words attributed
to Jesus which none of us would like to
think of Him as speaking We could not
find in Jesus any promise OF authority
over nations to rule them with a rod of
i:on. as the VESSELS of potter are broken
to shivers; nor do we think of Him as
claiming to have received such from His
Father. That is not our way of thinking
of Christ TODAY. Then how did John
come to hear Christ say that? Because
John had been reared in the atmosphere
and fed upon the sentiments of Psalm ii.
His Jewish teachers hau taught him to re-
gard Psa Inn ii as Messianic. And what was
the Messiah to do?- The Lord said to Him,
ASK Of Me and will give thee the ma
tions for thine inheritance and the utter
most parts of the earth for thy posses
sion. Thou shalt break them with a rod
Of iron; thou shalt dash them to pieces
times believed that that was one of the
things the Messiah would do. When a
Jew came to believe that Jesus was the
Messiah you would think that he would
at least. throw off that old notion. Jesus
had said; Come pnto. Me all ye that labor.
heart, lowly" blessed are the meek"
etc. "Other cheek" etc. The general
character and teaching of Jesus was the
very opposite of the Psalm ii conception Of
Messiah. Yet the jew who believed that
Jesus was the Messiah carried over with
ception and attributed it to Jesus. That
Is what John does here. 1t was not Jesus
speaking but hls own nationalism that
was representing Jesus. This is not very
surprising when you remember that Chris
tians even yet take the, Psalm ii to refer
Jesus of Nazareth than the description of
the Messiah in Psalm H. 1t is high time to
protest: as Cheyne does, against the habit
Of oi"hndihg Christ, in passages unrelated
10 Chrlst and His religion. Il fear,
says Canon Cheyne, that our unmiti-
gated adoption of the Psalter as it stands
nay connteract that spirit of love which is
one,,half of Christianity" The fear is too
we'll founded. What did the great st.
Bernard say long ago regarding the wars
St the Cmsades upon the Mohammedans.
These are his words: "They are ministers
Of God to inhict His vengeance. For them
10 give or receive death is not sin, but q
most glorious deed; the Son of God de-
lights TO receive the blood of His enemies.
he is glorifed in the death of the pagans."
I is most astounding that Jesus could
nave been conceived as the incarnation OF
eod's redeeming purpose and love and yet
y One who could delight in the blood OF
us enemies. The Messianic Interpretation
many psalms undoubtedly tends to un.
aermine the value of the revelation of God
N Christ. In a Christian magazine OF
scme time ago one article is entitled THE
tenderness OF Jesus" and the next is "The
imprecatory Psalms Vindicated." al
.says maintain that there is severity in
'he law of life that divine love is not soft
less nor mercy a license to indulgence;
pain, suffering, retribution are here; there
vas severity in Jesus because Jesus was
ifae to life's law, but the Spirit OF Jesus
vas not the spirit of the imprecatory
palms, and the Messiah Of many psalms
Quite nnlika our Christ 30 far as we