The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1903-03-16
FAREWELL SERMON
BY Mr.. J. G. MURRAY
continued from Elfth Pace

| SSHh'ndCu iiSHi rum TdSSJ
and | speak for myself and all mine-l
ask nothing more of God in this life than
such uniform loyalty, sympathy and sup
port as have been granted me by this
people since the day of my first coming
among you to this hour. And at no time
have l been more conscious of your love
and touched by your unparalleled kind
ness than during these last few weeks of
our earthly pilgrimage together. You
have always been near to me, but never
so near before as now in the days that
specially emphasize the nearness of our
temporal separation. How unworthy 1
have been and am only God and myself
know; but this to you l can truthfully
say, l have ever desired the best for you,
and in SO far as human frailty and infirm-
ity would permit have faithfully en-
deavored to bring that best to you both
by honest prayer and earnest labor. Dur
ing the years of our companionship we
have known many joys and have shared
many sorrows, and no one among you
all has ever had joy | would not have
augmented or ever experienced a sorrow
l would not have allevlated by becoming
a participant in 1t and sharer of IL.
And as 1t has been, so is 1t now, and so
shall it ever be. Time can never efface
distance can never destroy in me and for
me the memory of the sacrifice and sor-
row we have experienced in common and
the remembrance of the hopes we have
INDUCED and the realization of those
hopes we have enjoyed as children of GOD
and brethren of each other.
The Good Work.
And now that the good work in this
parish may go on, In a certain sense by
you our accomplishment together is to
be forgotten, Notwithstanding all | have
apparently said to the contrary. Forget
ting those things which are behind" says
st. Paul, land reaching forth unto those
things which are before | press toward
the Mark for the prize of the high calling
of God in Christ Jesus" Forgetting
those things how? is at this juncture
not only a very natural, but also highly
important question What does the Apos-
tie really mean? Does he no longer re-
member that question of his Lord the
echoes Of which had been ringing in his
ears and the exhortation of which had
directed the action of his life for more
than thirty years. saul. Saul, why perse-
outest thou meT' The friendship of the
brethren, the stripes of persecution, the
conversion of the Gentiles the apostacy of
Israeli the founding of the churches and
the manifest blessing of God for almost
a generation of time-are all these not
only to be forever of the past. but also
to be effaced from memory's tablet for
the future? The Apostle himself, in this
same chapter, answers for us, "Neverthe-
less, whereto We have already attained.
let us walk by the same rule. let us mind
the same thing" And this latter ex-
hortation is no contradiction of the true
meaning of the former declaration. lie
forgets the things that are behind only
in so far as tempted to consider them, the
completion of his work for God and
man. They are his foundation for the
accomplishment of the things that are be-
fore. He knows the foundation to be
secure. He builds upon II confidently,
not allowing contemplation of it to inter-
fere with the erection of the superstruc-
ture but by virtue of his assurance re-
garding 1t, going forward persistently
and faithfully in his development of the
whole, along the lines of Its original con-
ception.
And so do we find the position of the
Apostle illustrative of yours now. For
get nothing that is past in so far as Ii is
an inspiration and encouragement to you
for the accomplishment of the work of
the future. Forget everything that is be-
hind that would suggest to you such COM
pletion as would retard you from reach
ing forward to the things that are be-
fore.
Reminiscent.
Which one Of the eleven men who. at
the midnight hour. more than six years
ago in a little room In the old rectory,
wrestled with the problem of laying the
foundation of our common work together
as rector and people in such way as
would insure the erection of a solid, sub
stantial structure by the church of the
Advent. in the moral and spiritual arch
itectural development of this community.