Democratic messenger., 1903-03-07
POVERTY AND P,ETY."
Sunday S:rmoa By Rev. lanes Aiex11-
der jenkins.
The Preaching Of tine Gospel is an Evidence ei
Far-Relchins Mercy of God.

Dy the Kew. james Alexander jenkins,
pastor of Emmanuel Congregational Church.
His text was chosen from Matthew xi: ):
The poor have the gospel preached TO
them"
The words of our text constitute part of
the reply of Jesus TO John when He sent
two OF His disciples with the anxious ques-
tion, Art Thou He that should come or
do we look for another" In this reply
the Master assumes that John is familiar
with the character of the work OF the ex-
pected One. so He sets before the messen-
gers His own work as meeting the require
ments. The blind see, the lame walk. the
lepers are cleansed. the deaf hear. the dead
are raised up. the poor have the gospel
preached to them"
The preaching of the gospel TO the poor
may be regarded as only an evidence of the
far reaching mercy of the great God, but
it may also be regarded as testifying to the
preparation of the poor for receiving and
spreading the good news from God. Ii we
believe IN the fitting of means to ends in
the world of nature, If we are upholders
of the great law of design. may we not
with reason insist that the Father through
the course of the ages prepared certain of
the sons OF men for the reception of the
truth. If we eoncede this we behold in the
preaching OF the gospel TO the poor an ar
rangement of providence, a far reaching
pan OF God.
The pages of the gospels reveal Jesus as
the preacher to the poor. The rich He re-
garded as being for some reason less fitted
TO be chosen rs pioneers in the work of es-
tablishlng His kingdom. OF the rich men
OF the New Testament, not Dives. not the
rich fool. but the young man who came to
Jesus with eager inquiry, may be regarded
ss typical in the mind of Jesus of the
hosts OF the rich and powerful. Thinking
OF him Jesus said: "It is easier for a camel
to 60 through the eye of needle than for
a rich man to enter into the kingdom of
God. From this statement we naturally
infer that the absence of wealth or poverty
is most favorable to the receDtion of saw
ing truth. to the entering of the kingdom.
Jesus Himself. coming as the founder of
the kingdom OF God. chose the material
mpon which that kingdom shall be built.
He did not preach to the poor because 9TH
He could have commanded, strength of
arms He could have enlisted. wealth would
have served Him. But He chose. desired.
determined. 70 preach the gospel to the
poor. Says DR.. Bushnell, Speaking of the
character OF the ministry of Jesus: He
adheres to the poor and makes them the
object OF His ministry. And what is more
neculiar. He visiblv has a kind of interest
in their society. which is wanting in that
of the higher classes. perceiving. apparent
ly. that thev have certain aptitude for
receiving right impressions which the 9TH
prudent. filed with the conceit OF learning
and station. but they are the ingenious
babes OF poverty. omen to conviction. pre-
rared by their humb'e lot to receive
thoughts and doctrines in advance of their
age" With equal acnmen does this great
write -ecognize the fundamental and dis
tinguishing nature OF the choice OF .Iesus.
as coatrasted with the teachings of the
sta'csmnn and philosophers who had gone
before Him. They began at the ton. He
began 1T the bottom. and so His work. be-
cause it was true to nature, was lasting,
abiding. eternal.
The twentieth century finds society di-
vided. as il has always been divided. into
two classes, the rich and the poor. Civil
zation has crept onward, changing many
things. but it has not removed the distinc-
ton between wealth and poverty. The
distinction may be less brutal. less crude,
but il still exists. ard the very refinement
OF the classification of men is often the
cause OF added bitterness. So to-day the
student OF men and events. whether he be
socioloyist, economist or preacher. is con-
fronted by the difficulty of adjusting one
part OF society to another. We are con-
stant.y asking certain questions and clam
oring for a reply. Can the poor man Sc
cure a just share of the good things of
earth: Is il possible for him to get an ed
ucation? VIII society receive him? And
now, it seems. another question presses
upon us. What is the relation between
poverty and piety:
It would seem that the world. in an
swering this question, has hst sight OF the
teaching and practice Of Jesus. for the con-
clusion usually arrived at is that the poor
man is at disadvantage in his struggle
for the soul culture which every human
heing should desire. Many. listening to
the reasoning OF the world. have, because
of their poverty, surrendered their religion,
rfaI h. &A1 sAA
Christ. To them the Christian worker las
come to seem the advocate of impossihiliJ
ties. but this attitude of mind is not con-
fined TO the simple and unthinking, FOR we
are reminded that even thoughtful writers
seem TO assume the existence of a natural
hostility between poverty and piety.
Let us keep in mind the attitude of the
Lord Jesus toward the poor as He deliv-
cred His message. and let us. remembering
that. ask ourselves what that piety is, the
relation of which to poverty we are to lie,
termine. Let us ask whether there is in
piety any element to the producing of
which poverty is hostile and let US find,
on the other hand. whether it may not be
possible that poverty assists the soul IN its
endeavor to become the possessor of true
piety.
Piety is not. primarily, something in the
atmosphere; it is the rather something in
the heart of man. Among the elements
which enter into 1t. few of the principal
ones may be mentioned: Sensitivencss of
things true, beautiful, good; receptivity,
or the ability to appropriate the good that
appeals to the soul; power to apply the
principles OF truth: recognition of love as
the great animating, sustaining, God
knowing principle. Let us see whether
poverty may not be an aid to the soul in
its development along the lines indicated.
We may, l think. claim with justice that
poverty renders the soul supremely sensi-
tive to the best things Poverty is too fire.
quently regarded as synonymous with pau
perism, and pauperism is the embodiment
of grim, unfeeling heedlessness. Pauper-
ism is cold. Indifferent, dead, but poverty
is warm, alert, alive. Poverty needs its
every faculty, its every power. II must
fight battles and anticipate the onslaught
of unseen foes. 1t must read the signs of
the morrow in the evening sky and adapt
itself To sun and shower and storm. The
man with the hoe" is not the poor man,
for poverty neither deadens nor brutalizes.
Were ! to choose my illustration of honest
poverty shoald find it in the humble toll
ers of The Angelus." Clad in the rough
garb OF workers in the fields, holding in
their hands the cumbrous instruments of
their daily toll. they are, nevertheless.
keenly alive to the beauty, the poetry, the
susgestiveness of the sounds waited upon
the gently stirring summer breezes Truly
typical are they, as with bowed heads they
stand, of the succeeding generations OF
Gods poor. as, amid toll and tribulation,
they seek to find the good, to know God.
The sensitiveness of honest poverty!
see it in the little children of the rabble as
they followed Jesus through the streets of
Jerusalem, and l see il in the children who
to-day clutch the flowers carried into the