The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1903-07-17
A SERMON FOR SUNDAY
A SCHOLARLY DISCOURSE BY THE
REV. Dr. c. n. PARkHURST.


son mny Have an Immense Amount
Of Virtue ana Yet ~ May Never Arrest
the worlds Attention.
New YORK CITY-Dr. Charles II. Park
hurst, pastor of the Madison Square Pres.
byterlan Church, preached sermon Sum
day morning ON a subject which might be
termed "lnconsplcuOus Greatness" He
chose az his text Mark xii: 4l44 "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 q iarthing. And He called unto Him
His disciples and saith unto them, Verify
l say unto you that this poor widow hath
cast more in than all they which have cast
into the treasury; for all they did cast in %
their abundance, but she OF her want did
cast in all that she had, even all her liv-
ing.o DR.. Parkhurst said
Which undoubtedly was an imnrudent
thing for the woman to 10, fur paraaps at
q later hour OF the same day she mad to
borrow, beg on steal in order to meet the
necessities OF her subsistence, bus a heauti-
M intention may still be beautiful even
II It IS a little careless and uncaculating;
indeed, we like IL still better il it is not too
careful and too calculating The case is
like that related bv St. Matthew of the
woman with her aiabaster box of ointment.
who spent-in Sne -sr-a Of the word
Wastcd-a prodisal amouf. Of money on
Jesus Amounting; 1t was eXtravagant and
reckless, but the reclllessness Of it was one
OF its charms, for it made only more cyi.
dent the sweet sincerity Of ner affection,
and If she had been more economical with
the snkenaTd less of the fragrance might
have tloated down to our own day.
Jesus presumably was the only person in
the temple that day that took any account
OF the woman with the two mites She was
simply one of a crowd and as uninteresting
and unpromising probably as are the mem
bers OF any crowd but the fact that she
was, outwardly at least uninteresling
makes it interesting that Christ was inter-
ested in her. and it is one 81 the features
of our Lords character that He was i'm
pressed by unpromising people. Whoever
1t might be that He was dealing with He
seemed to feel that He had a good deal to
so 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 Gahlee,
would answer well enough for a disciple,
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 lust 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 peo-
pie with natural qualifications that would
have made them as capable as Peter, James
and John and the rest to lay, 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
I drawn off into any nice speculation upor
that matter, but apparent differences be
! tween people are not at all to be taken az
! Just measure of their actual differences
Christ's eulogies are conspicuous for being
pronounced upon the inconspicuous, anC
that is fact to be thought upon as tend
ing to change the attitude of our feeling
toward the submerged ninety-nine per cent
of the race. And l am urging this poin
not for the purpose of establishing a the
DRY, but in order that those of you wht
are evidently Of a good deal of accoun
may see more reason for respecting anC
honoring those whose claims to your re
spect and admiration are of an undemon
strative type. Once let them have an opel
field and a fair chance and perhaps the,
will change places with you. This may hav
been a part Of what the Lord had in min,
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 ei
feet are in man or woman, those POSSIBLE
ties are bound to come to their realization
however untoward may be the circum
stances that stand in their way. 1t wa
once elegantly stated by one whose elC
quent face is still fresh in the memory c
many of US" How many Millions may hav
died in their mothers arms we canno
state. but the grown-up Millions have bee
heard from" Easy to say, difficult to prov
and eminentlv improbable. Of a hundre
kernels or wheat scarce one ever fulfil
the destiny marked for it in its own const
tuition, but the ninety-nine that are groun
up in the mill are each as full of the pc
sibilties of "blade. ear and full corn in tn
ear" as the one that happens to /
dropped into the furrow. A tropical pail
B will still be nothing less than a palm eve
| buUuBu grown III a ilpL Liitl IL ldJlLNhNs W
however Astounding may be its native enc
gies aud vital forces it will be unequal
the Encouragement of short days and ear,
frosts.
The apostle Peter has become a gre
: power in the history OF the church and
Christian civilization, but if on the de
| that Jesus went strolling along the beac
l gathering up disciples, Peter had been o.
= at sea fishing instead of inshore mendiI
his nets it is not probable he would ev
have been heard from. 1t Is rather impo
l tant to be somewhere near the track whit
} the train of opportunity goes by. The
! is undoubtedly providence in things, b
! at the same time there is an accident
: things in the sense in which that word 2