The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-08-04

the Davenport Congregational church Sunday in the absence of the pastor, Rev MT. Prentiss. His topic for the morning sermon was Two Mile Reli- zion. or the Realm Of Loving Service" He smoke in part as follows. the text heinz Matt. 5:41, "Whosoever shall compel thee to go a nliles go with him twain"
 Here We have expressed in prosaic form a life principle. The first mile rep resents what We must do. the second what we may do. The former gives the realm of necessity, the latter our pos sibility. The one is the law of compul- sion; the other the law of love. It is in teresting to note how the incidents in the common life reveal our life's prin- ciple. It was the rule in Jury that any one could be pressed into service to show the way for the distance of one mile. Further he need not go,. even un- der the pressure of the Roman soldiers. ] Jesus says in Illustrating this spirit: Don't stop abruptly on the mile; go two miles,"
 Christ. found men doing what they were compelled to do. He looked; be- yond and saw what men might do and might become.
 Fretting under Roman rule, doing perfunctory their religious duties, living by a limiting social rule, the people lmustha a vision of a larger life. Jesus l.came to give it to thef and to us. There are some things in. life which we must do: other things we may do. If we merely do the former, we will not do as Jesus expects. The spirit of these. two miles is in marked contrast. The scholar who stays after school to fill up the measure of required duty does re- IuctantIy and with little benefit the task assigned in comparison with one who stays by choice to do special work. So the teacher or clerk who merely tolls to \ draw his salary is in a different class from him who puts himself into his task. Jesus urged that the spirit of the
 second mile be put into the first mile. In anticipation of going freely the sec
 ond go the first one as heartily
 Observe how this law appears in dif- ! ferent lines of life. Tn the home we I need a two mile life. There are some things we must do; clothing, food, house I must be provided. The state can com Del some things. The flour must be
 supplied, but how about the flower Of Hove blooming there, without which a home is not a home? Children and pa rents never study how little they are
 compelled to do.
 h organized society. too, we must pay our taxes; we cannot steal one. anoth- CTS money and reputation; our homes cannot be nuisances. But the large l part of what makes our homes and. city a blessing and delight lie in the realm of the second mile.
 Miss Sullivan, devoting her years to opening the world of knowledge and be-- | ing to d Helen Keller is equal to that I woman whose deed was ever to go with
 the gospel message as Illustrating us | spirit of possibility for man.
 The Church of Christ has her lines of necessity. We must pay for her sup port. attend her services, unite m for nal membership But we miss the real l help which she can be to us and the 5 help which we can render through her I unless we go beyond the necessary
 tasks in church and Sunday school, and j ask how much cad be to the world about me?
 This lesson touches the man who IS {. not a church-man, For in our more al lrect relations to God we find that His
 natural laws compel us. Laws oi E health cannot be broken. The moral law holds him who would be respecta-
 ble and successful. Some stop there
 The moraiist lives in this first mile < l,The Christian lives in the second mile
 Christ came not so much to help us dc $l the needful things as to help us out into the possible. The Christian spirit
 means enlargement of life everywhere I In God we find this two-mile principle
 disclosed. Some things He must do He is pledged to His laws of the uni
 verse. But He so loved His wayward and needy children that He went be.
 yond the laws of compulsion into the realm of love and gave Himself thai
 whosoever believeth might have the |abundant life. The ground for oui right to pray and receive an answer lies | in this sphere. If we continue to have Jour lives enlarge in loving service we Iwill find that we see necessity in more land more of lif's service for the possi. Ibilities are seen as obligatory; but all lof life is at the same time one joyfu
 work for God 4z |