Democratic messenger. [volume] (Snow Hill, Md.) 1869-1973, 1903-10-24
The MORAL CONQUEROR
A Brilliant Sc mon By Rev. 7. r.
Williams.
We Should Spend Our Few Brief Years
Fighting Sin and Serving Man.

BROOKLYN, N. Y.-The Rev. T. Rhond-
',ia Williams, pastor of the Greenfield Con-
gregational Church, Bradford, England,
preached il Plymouth Church arsr aenes
The Rev. DR.. Newell Dwight Hills intro
duced Mr.. Williams. Earnest attention
was given to his thoughtful sermon, The
subject was Lilies. Yield to the Moral
Conqueror." and the text was from pas
sages in the Apocalypse. Mr.. Williams
said:
of Asia closes with Il promise. They con-
tain threats and warnings and command
ments, but at the close stands the promise
like a distant hill in sunshine, seen
through the storm, to lure on ever the
worst-beaten to the better things OF God
and man. The messages lay down the
moral task without compromise, but they
close with the assurance that
"The topping crags of duty scaled
/ Are close upon the shining tablelands,
To which our God Himself is moon and
=; sun"
There is here a twofold aspect of life
which every morally earnest man is &C.
quainted with. He knows that its condi'
tons are stern. that there is vigor in it..
but he knows also that the vigor is blended
with tenderness, that all its struggle ls
permeated by promise. We might indeed
say that moral earnestness and hopeful.
ness go togther. Stand Loyalty under the
bower of duty, and YOU will hear the bird;
of hope sing Unfaithfulness to the moral
ideal breeds pessimism of the worst kind;
fidelity, while it does not encourage cheap
and lightsome optimism, does inscribe in
the heart of the blacklist duty the shining as
us that EMBODIED in the bosom of loyalty
lies the assurance of triumph for the. good.
Now, it is this loyalty to the good, this
fidelity to the moral ideal, this persevering
attitude, which l take to be indicated IN
the word overcoming or "conquering."
cometh" or who "conquers." Not, mark
you, to him who has overcome, or who has
conquered in any full or final sense. These
promises are not of gifts to be bestowed
at the end of the course, but of experiences
to be realized in going on, so long as you
go on in the right way. Now, is it fact
from the facts of life-that the promises
made to those Asian churcheG in the name
of Christ. sent to them by John as direct
from Christ, are to be regarded as promises
made to us by God? For myself can
not regard them so. except SO far as
they contain truths attested by the exper-
to the churches of Asia are not entirely
from Christ as He was, not from Christ as
we understand Him to-day. but from
Christ as John understood Him.. When
we read the promises of the moral life we
read not only the facts of our moral expe-
given by more than one bias. such as the
personal bias or the national bias. The fu-
ture we depict may be in essence guaran..
teed by the universal laws of the moral
life, but the depletion may bear personal
or national coiors.. which must fade; per
sonal and national elements which must
be eliminated. John was Christian, but
he was also Jew. Like every man, he
had temperament, both the nationality
and the personality would affect his vision
of the future. Our Christ never takes alb
solute and full possession of Us, our very
best understanding of Him has some mix
ture Of ourselves in it. which is not in Him.
TO him that overcometh and keepeth
My word will give power over the ma
tions, and he shall rule them with rod of
iron, as the vessels of potter shall be
broken to shivens, even as I received OF
My Father" Here are words attributed
to Jesus which none of us would like to
find in Jesus any. promise Of authority
over nations to rule them with a rod OF
iron, as the vessels of potter are broken
to shivers; nor do we think of Him as
claiming to have received such from His
Father. That is not our way OF thinking
come to hear Christ say that? Because
John had been reared in the atmosphere
and fed upon the sentiments of Psalm ii.
His Jewish teachers hau taught him to re-
gard Psalm ii as Messianic. And what was
the Messiah to do? The Lord said to Him,
".:Ask OF Me and I will give thee the ma
lions for thine inheritance and the utter
most parts Of the earth foc thv posses
sion. Thou shalt break them with rod
of iron; thou shalt dash them to pieces
like potter's vessel" Some Jews some
times believed that that was one OF the
things the Messiah would do. When a
Jew came to believe that Jesus, was the
at least. throw off that old notion. Jesus
had said. Come unto Me all We that labor
and are heavy. laden" etc. 81 am meek Of
heart, lowly." blessed are the meek,
character and teaching of Jesus was the
Messiah. Yet the jew who believed that
Jesus was the Messiah carried over with
him good deal of the old national con-
ception and attributed it to Jesus. That
is what John does here. 1t was not Jesus
speaking, but his own nationalism that
surprising when YOU remember that Chris
tians even vet take the Psalm ii to refer
to Jesus. Nothing could be more unlike
Jesus of Nazareth than the description of
the Messiah in Psalm ii. 1t is high time to
protest. as Cheyne does. against the habit
of Finding Christ" in passages unrelated
to Christ and His religion" IT fear"
says Canon Cheyne, "that our unmiti-
gated adoption of the Psalter as it stands
may. connteract that spirit of love which is
one.half of Christianity" The fear is too
well founded: What did the great St.
Bernard say long ago regarding the wars
of the Crusades upon the Mohammedans?
These are his words: "They are ministers
of God to inflict His vengeance. For them
to give OF receive death is not a sin, but
most glorious deed; the Son of God de-
lights to receive the blood of His enemies.
He is glorified in the death of the pagans."
It is most astounding that Jesus could
have been conceived as the incarnation OF
Gods redeeming. purpose and love and yet
as One who could delight in the blood of
His enemies. The Messianic Interpretation
of many psalms undoubtedly tends to un-
dermine the value of the revelation of God
in Christ. In a Christian magazine of
some time ago one article is entitled ."The
Tenderness of Jesus" and the next is '"The
Imprecatory Psalms indicated" al
ways maintain that there is a severity in
the law of life, that divine love is not soft
ness, nor mercy license to indulgence;
pain, suffering, retribution are here; there
was a severity in Jesus because Jesus was
true to life's law. but the Spirit of Jesus
was not the spirit of the imprecatory
psalms, and the Messiah of many psalms
is quite unlike our Christ. So far as we
are under their influence we need to eS-