The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1903-09-23
A SERMON FOR SUNDAY
AN ELOQUENT DISCOURSE ENTITLED
"DUAL MINDEDNESs OF CHRIST"

Impression With n Message Suggested
- by the Eighth Chapter of Romans
Mind of Flesh and Mind of Spirit.
WEsTF1ELD, n. 1.-THE Rev. C. j. Green
wood, pastor OF the First Baptist Church
here, who recently came from Meriden,
Conn, and is making deep impression,
preached Sunday morning on The Dual
Mindedness of Man" The text was chosen
flesh is death; but the mind of the spirit
is life and peace" Mr.. Greenwood said:
The eighth chapter Of Romans is full OF
startling statements and convincing eli
makes. 1t is the great assurance. chapter;
beginning with mo condemnation" and
ending with mo separation" 1t is re-
liable thermometer with which to take
ones spiritual temperature. 1t is spien,-
did cXcitant and tonic for spiritual heart
failure. ii taken in sufficient doses at ire,
quent intervals, it will relieve that tired
feeling which comes over so many OF US
during the summer months, when the hour
cially recommend it as wade mecum Ior
the Christian on his annual outing. 1t Is
a wholesale message to proclaim IN these
days when so much is being said about the
atrophy of the spiritual nerve and the oe'
cline OF religious conviction.
Robert LoGis Stevenson 8 great story OF
CDR. Jekyll and MIR. Hyde" is, after all,
but an elaborate working out Of the state
ment made by Paul in the text. A strange
book is this story of Stevenson's, and
stranger still the two minds that struggle
for the control of the man. Mr.. Henry
Hyde represents the mind OF the fesn'
He is a sinister, selfish, sensuous, mur1er-
Gus character. more demon than human:
DR.. Henry Jekyll represents the mind OF
the spirit He is generous, gentlemanly.
kind, considerate man. The two minds OF
one individual have nothing in common.
A bitter hatred exists between them, and
a fierce war that wages hotter and hotter
to the end goes on in the battlefield of the
soul Gradually DR.. Jekyll becomes de-
spondent, sickens, and the inhuman Hyde:
that ''insurgent horror Gagged in flesh
prevails over him and crushes out his life.
The book is the creation of Stevenson MS
weird imagination, but the counterparts
of Hyde and Jekyll are to be found IN
every individual. :,
In the Redemption Of David Corson'
we have the same contest between the two
charlottesville mind of the flesh and the
mind of the spirit, with. the result reversed
In the person of the hero. Corson. Hyde
and Jekyll find a field for conflict. In this
story the mind of the flesh triumphs over
the mind of the spirit, but the victory is
not decisive. Jekyll is sorely wounded, but
not slain. From the crimson field, with
uniform soiled and tattered, he rises, like
Jacob from wrestling with the angel, to
find Hyde mortally wounded and himself
the chastened and changed victor: The
same truth has been illustrated in the
scientific world by grating the gppa OF a
spider upon the pupa of fly. The result
&c {bo 4or'c cei11 ic a rn0Ocfpr Wit hin
whose viol; ted organism struggle. two IT.
reconcilable impulses The one Is a saw
age of the jungle with an abnormal appe.
tite for blood; the other is an innocent
creature with a passion for the sunshine.
In each one OF us there is dual-ninded'
ness. Two. combatants are engaged IN
fierce conflict. 1t is a struggle for ruler:
ship, and the victor will be either JelSyl]
To the ordinary mortal death is repuls.
or Hyde.
i've and life is pleasing. We adopt the
grim skull and cross bones as the symbol
Of our loathing for the former, and show
our love for the latter by filling the inches
of our art temples with Venue de Milos
and Apollo Belvideres. There is nothing
particularly fascinating about the dead
of desert. No one but the grave robber
or medical student is supposed to be in
terested in corpses. A morgue is the last
place you would visit unless compelled by
necessity On the other hand there is
nothing that will awaken greater interest
than life. To the Al pine traveller, the blue
gentian is a welcome sight, as it opens its
petals in the realm of perpetual SHOWS.
Sweet is the oasis with its shady palms
and solitary fountain to the caravan creep.
ing across the hot wastes OF sand. Beau.
tiful to the eye Of the child is the butterfly
as it spreads its wings Of gauze, and yoy-
ages through the empyrean blue. The
fisherman delights to watch the speckled
trout as he rushes for cover or the gray.
ling as he leaps from the swirhng pool.
One cannot watch the altered deer bound
through the forest glades and climb the
rocky steep; or follow the flight of the
eagle as he circles toward the sun, without
feeling his nerves tingle and the blood rush
through the arteries. While reading 1.-The
Cruise of the Cachalot," I became so in
terested that / wanted to join in the ex.
citing chase of the great sperm whale as
he charged through the waters in his rapid
flight. Life is the thing thai fascinates
us. Stir, snap, speech are the things that
catch the eye. That is why the cry is for
speedier autos and swifter Shamrocks.
But the common conception of life is
false. The vast majority of people, are
labcring under a delus:on. You stand
where the tides of humanity roll swift and
strong-you see men accumulating colossal
fortunes at bound and living in dazzling
splendor; you notice the sleek, fat and
pleasure-loving eplcurcans at the club
houses; the coarse amorous Falstaffs at
the social functions; the Cleopatras, the
Salomes and society queens whose studied
grace and wine flushed cheeks entrance
but to destroy and, and you say "This is
life--life at high noon and high midnight
of the twentieth century,"
Christianity comes to us and says: "This
is not life. This is DEATH" And a recent
utterance of DR.. Hills furnishes a spien'
did ritual for the committal service of the
modern preacher: Here We commit his
OK, his palate to spiced wines. dust to
dust, tongue to terrapin, while the spirit
returns to the animal and the beasts that
fed with it." Because thing is dressed
in tailor-made suit and moves about. it
ls not necessarily alive. Thunder and
smoke are not always indications of life
The meteor that comes plunging down the
sky with a roar and trail Of light is
dead. The heavenly bodies use it for a
football and toss it through space. Because
q man walks about on two legs, winks with
two eyes, listens with two ears and wags
his tongue, he may not be alive according
the Paups theology. Let me illustrate
here is a man whose occupation is such
that the world derives no benefit from it
Rather, his business exerts baieful and
blightins influence upon his fellows. The
business smirches character, destroys body
and soul, and the outcome is wreck cast
upon the sands of life's great ocean to
bleach and rot. lie conducts a physical
intellectual and moral slaughter house for
a monetary consideration. He knows that
his business is damnable in the sight oi
God and demoralizing to society He is
tattening swine or flooding the social or.
ganism with lepcrs. There are no extenu.
cial compensations. The results of his
business are evil and evil nnlv- Yet he