The Brandon news., 1903-08-13

heart to myseE" L was reminded as | |
came down from Birghamton xhrongh the
mountains on Saturday II love those
neuntains. Il have been hungry, out on
the Western plains to see a hill You
would be surprised to sec what they call
hill out there. Why, an Irishn1an with a 4
could build a bigger mountain \
IN a day than some of those. nfountainsl. 4
looked over those mountains and remem- 4
bered an experience some years ago in tho /
Adirondacks., We started out early one
morning to climb mountain. The valley
was fun of light, and as we hooked back
from the top of one of the foothills in tho
valley at our feet the beautiful verdure
seemed to throw back the beauties of the
sunlight. Then we entered fog, where
we could net see more than five or six feet
away Where was the beauty gone? Our
to climb out of the fog. Presently we
emerged from it and wereson the mountain 1
top My, what scene There lay the 1
valley at our feet, hike an extensive world; {
towns, rivers and Tailways-the great Val
ley of the Mohawk. True, it was nearly
l5c miles away, bat we We're looking at 1T.
That was like the Christian experience.
When you came TO the seat that day you
were eon the foothill. You forgot all be-
cause Jesus was everything and you saw
the little landscape. You thought, The
Christian life is beautiful. l ana full of
5oy." And few weeks passed and you
said, "But to live 'as Cshirtian as not SO
ley, where is 1t? What a tremendous
thing it is to be climbing up to Cod And
the cloud settles sand you get to be selfish.
But If you pefsevered and climbed up
ward you have come to the mountain peak.
Experience, and you feel that all your
powers and love ought to be settled on
one effort to ocEmb still further and fur
ther in the vision of the Eternal. / won
der if some of us are not still in the cloud,
because we have lost the JOY of service.
Suffering Is only incident to service.
am perfectly8aware, when | ask you to en-
ter with greater zeal In the service OF God
that | am asking you to suffer. You will
not be killed, ,oor asked to move out of the
United States ior prosecuted because yoa
are Christian, but you will have to suf-
fer, and when you suffer you viii begin to
enjoy. No man laughs so heartily as the
man who weeps most bitterly. No laugh
ter rings SO IA heaven as that which comes
through the tears down here. By suffering
| mean you will be asked to endure the
cross. jesus endured tie cross. Now,
right here 1et me say that suffering is not
service. Some one says: See here, do you
mean to say that when | suffer for Jesus
Christ that ie not service~ That is exact
ly what mean to say. God has no pleas
ure in your pain, but if your service for
IlIIIl ueIidHuS IL, duO you UeaT III ueTOlC-
ally, He has pleasure in the attitude of
your life. Jesus Christ endured the cross.
Why? Because it was incident to the work
of saving bhis race. Somebody will call
me hereto, but | am not. believe, and
you believe, that Jesus Christ came to this
world to save this race. believe and you
believe that without Christ there is no sal
vation. The key note of all my ministry
shall ever be that Jesus is the. divine Son
of God. If 1ke is not divine let us stop our
preaching, sell our property and be inf
defs. 1t Jesus is mere man let us al quit
business. may be an old fogy, but as
long as this tongue breaches the gospel
Jesus Christ will be the divine Christ in
my message. do l mean that. Jesus came
to His cross by accident? Notqat all. He
saw the cross standing at the end of His
mission, and for the JOY that was set be-
fore Him endured and came to save this
race, and that meant the bearing of cross
and He. bore it. But the real mission was
the saving Of the race, not the bearing of
the cross. His mission was to save men.
"God so loved the world that He gave His
only begotten Son that whosoxer believeth
IN Him might not perish, but shave ever
lasting life." When the cross stood in the
way of the perfection of salvation Jesus
endured it divinely, heroically and .unfinch-
ingiy died upon 1t Ito save US. Suffering is
incident to service, and when / call you to
serve God you will have your cross. The
men you work with will say you are too
much of crank-aRdsa fanatic. 1t will. hurt
and pain and go deep, and you will finch.
Sometimes you viii try to apologize for
being a crank and fanatic, and you will
thank God there is something. you can en-
dure. 10 is part of service and behind the
suffering comes joy, deep and profound.
when you are true. Yes, you will have
shame to bear, too. Two or three young
ladies where have been holding meetings
lately and baptizing some have said, 81 do
not like to think of getting up before all
those people and being baptized" 1 won
der if we are going into the JOY of fulfilling
Gods command. If we are we have got to
endure some of that shame He endured.
Let me tell you if you had administered
baptism and you saw as minister sees in
the face of the believer buried out of sight
and raised to resurrection of newness of
iHe-if YOU saw what he sees just once you
would drop your quibbling now. Shame on
us If we cannot bear in the twentieth GEN.
tury light of Christian truth all that fol-
lowing Jesus demands of US A writer in
the British Weekly in an article entitled
Beating to Windward,," says sailing
against the wind by steam power was op-
posing one force to another, and was sim
ply a matter of victory for the stronger
force, bat to sail to windward IN sailing
vesse: was a matter of skill for here
forces that oppose are not opposed but
used" Brethren, we must "beat to wind
ward" Christian living that meet with no
opposition is not Christian living at adj. If
you are beating to windward for Jesus this
world viii oppose you. It is matter of
skill, then, TO take the opposing forces Of
suffering and sin and use them to advance
your life in the kingdom OF heaven When
begin to sacrifice [ begin to enjoy. Be-
loved, If yon would have the JOY Of Chris
tan service you must have the heart of
Christian sacrifice.