The Penn's Grove record., 1903-05-22
. SERMON FOR SUNDAY
SCHOLARLY DISCOURSE BY THE
REV. Or. c. H. PARKHuRST.
Subject: Inconspicuous Greatness-A Per-
son May Have al Immense Amount
of Virtue and Yet It May Never Arrest
the Worlds Attention.

of Virtue and Yet 1t May Never Arrest
the Worlds Attention.
NEW YORK CITY.-Dr. Charles III. Park
hurst, pastor of the Madison Square Pres
byterian Church, preached a sermon Sun
day morning on a subject which might be
termed "Inconspicuous Greatness He
chose as his text Mark xii: 4l-44: "And
Jesus sat over against the treasury and be-
held how the people cast money into the
treasury, and many that were rich cast in
much. And there came a certain poor
widow, and she threw in two mites which
make a farthing. And He called into Him
His disciples and saith unto them, Verify
[ say unto you that this poor widow hath
east more in than all they which have cast
into the treasury; for all they did cast in of
their abundance, but she of her want did
cast in all that she had, even all her liv-
ing" DIR. Parkhurst said:
Which undoubtedly was an i~mprudent
thing for the woman to do, for perhaps at
a later hour of the same day she had to
borrow, beg or steal in order to meet the
necessities of her subsistence, but a beauti-
full intention may still be beautiful even
il it is a little careless and undertaking:
indeed, we like it still better if it is not too
careful and too calculating. The case is
like that related by St. Matthew of the
woman with her alabaster box of ointment.
WIZ SPCot-iH OnC ScLet VI Tile WOFQ
wasted--a prodigal amount of money on
Jesus amounting; it was extravagant and
reckless. but the recklessness of it was one
of it's charms, for it made only more evil
dent the sweet sincerity of her affection,
and if she had been more economical with
the spikenard less of the fragrance might
have foated down to our own day.
Jesus presumably was the only person in
the temple that day that took any account
nf tho mnuoon usfh fho fun vo.fac CLo 100.
simply one of a crowd and as uninteresting
and u~npromising probably as are the men,
bers of any crowd, but the fact that she
was, outwardly at least, uninteresting
makes it interesting that Christ was inter-
ested in her, and it is one Of the features
of our Lords character that He was i'm
pressed by unpromising people. Whoever
it might be that He was dealing with He
seemed to feel that He had a good deal to
go upon. No one. we should say, appealed
to Him to be ordinary. We were speaking
here some time since about the haphazard
way, one might almost say, in which He
selected His disciples, as though any one
He ran across that day, when He was walk
ing along the edge of the Sea Of Galilee,
would answer well enough for a disciple,
and SO for an apostle-this to- be under
stood not as disparagement of the position
He selected them to fill, but as recognizing
that even common men were so uncommon
as to be inherently able to fill the position.
He could doubtless have continued His
walk along the seaside and have selected
another twelve just as competent as the
first twelve, if He had cared at that time
to have so many. And, certainly, it is not
venturing much to presume that He could
have come into this city. yes, and into this
congregation, and have found a dozen PEG.
pie with natural qualifications that would
have made them as capable as Peter, james
and John and the rest to Law, in co-opera
ton with Himself, the foundations of the
Christian church.
Probably the most ardent leveler in The
world would not claim that all men are fun.
damentally alike, and fundamentally equal
and this is not the place, certainly, to be
drawn of into any nice speculation upon
that matter, but apparent differences be
tween people are not at all to be taken az
Just measure of their actual differences;
Christs eulogies are conspicuous for being
pronounced upon the inconspicuous, ans
that is a fact to be thought upon as tend
ing to change the attitude of our feelings
toward the submerged n~inety-nine per cent
Of the race. And | am urging this poinI
not for the purpose of establishing a the
Dry, but in order that those Of you wht
are evidently of a good deal of accom-
may see more reason for respecting ant
honoring those whose claims to your re
speet and admiration are of an undemon
s%trative type: Once let them have an opel
field and a fair chance and perhaps the,
viii change places with you. This may hav'
been a part Of what the Lord had in mint
when He said that "many that are frs
shall be last, and the last first"
The idea has been rather hard ridden
overridden-that if the possibilities of eli
feet are in a man or woman. those POSSIBLE
ties are bound to come to their realization
however untoward may be the circnm
once elegantly stated by one whose eio
quent face is still fresh in the memory O
many of us-s"How many Millions may hav
died in their mothers arms we eanno
state, but the grown-up Millions have bee
heard from" Easy to say, difficult to prov
and eminently improbable. OF a hundre'
kernels OF wheat scarce one ever fulfill
the destiny marked for it in its own consti
tuition, but the ninety-nine that are groun'
sibilities of "blade, ear and full corn in tn
ear" as the one that happens to b
dropped into the furrow. A tropical pair
will still be nothing less than a palm eve
though grown in a northern latitude, bu
however Astounding may be its native ener
gies and vital forces it viii be unequal t
the encouragement Of short days and earl,
frosts.
The apostle Peter has become a grea
power in the history of the church and o
Christian civilization, but if on the da,
gathering up disciples. Peter had been GU
at sea fishing instead of inshore mendin
his nets it is not probable he would eve
have been heard from. 1t is rather impoI
tant to be somewhere near the track whel
the train of opportunity goes by. Their
is undoubtedly a providence in things, bu
! at the same time there is an accident Il
things in the sense in which that word &C
cident can be properly used by us. 1o1
win recall the incident which st. Johl
relates as occurring at the pool of Beth
esda. There was some medicinal propert,
in the waters of the pool perhaps, at an,
rate at certain times an angel descende'
into the pool and troubled the water an,
the one who was fortunate enough to b
the first to get into the water after it wa
troubled was healed of any lnfrmity iron
which he might be suffering. That is, tn
man who CHANGED to be closest to the trael
when the train of opportunity went b.
could go aboard and arrive.
In Macaulay's essay on history there oc
ours this illustration, which, without an,
straining, lends itself to the matter We ar
now considering. "At Lincoln Cathedra
there is a beautiful painted window whicl
was made by an apprentice out OF I'll
pieces of glass which had been rejected an
thrown away by his master. 1t IS so ia
superior to every other in the church that
according to tradition, the vanqulshed art
list killed himself from modification.
Which means that the finest window IN tn
entire ediice was made out of glass that t
an inappreciative and unsympathetic ey
was good for nothing and cast out as shee
refuse. The miracle of the feeding of tn
5000 let's us see among other things ina
Christ had a very distinct regard for wha
the disciples probably thought were mer
odds and ends, and at the end of the re
past gathered up more than enough crust
anlscraps to feed the whole company owe
again.
This accounts for the surprises SO ofte
recurring when men who have never bee
credited with ability. either intellectual 0
moral, are accidentally pushed into place
OF responsibility and in that way nave
pressure put upon them that crowds thei
latent possibilities into active powers OF e.
feet. 1t has often been to me a matter {
amazement the heavy load that a perso
with seemingly no draft power, will pu
when once he has been caught and hal
messed and properly driven, and probabl
no one so much surprised as the man hin
sell. The difficulty is not in finding me
that are competent to do what Is needed
but in getting men to do enough to becom
themselves persuaded that they are comps
-