St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1903-07-15
A Mans VIII: How to Be Moved.

Tine Oh Lie nOSs AStaps~ oAoAScSSS at
The recent Congregational convention at
burlington was by Principal Thomas Of
the Burlington High School. We give
below the greater portion of this address:
We have been listening to some dis
customs about the modern mans
strength and weakness and the way in
svh;ch his intellectual and emotional
assent to the gospel of Christ is to be
won. The topic of this paper takes up
another part of 'the modern man." and
;s 10 study for few minutes, the way in
which his will is to be moved to this
same gospel; in other words, how he is
70 be moved and melted to conscious,
deliberate action in respect to the &C.
ceptance of the gospel OF our Lord Jesus
Christ into his own life, with all that
acceptance involves. Inasmuch as we
have to do only with the human and
practical side of this question / shall
state my topic in other words: What
shall we Christians do to induce our
fellowmen to accept, consciously and
deliberately, the gospel of Christ into
their lives? Very briefly, there are three
elements ia the question: The modern
man, we Christians. and what we are to
do.
suppose not many words are neces-
sary upon the modern man, for take it
he is not different, essentially, from the
man of the past nor from the man OF the
future. He is the same lusttul beast, the
same sinuous liar and the same god-like
weakling that he always was. Very
likely his surroundings and conditions
have changed little, and sometimes for
the better; very likely he has advanced a
little in some directions; he is probably
a little less shameless and open in his
vices and little more forward in his
virtues; but fundamentally and essen
TALLY, as far as the modern man himself
is concerned, our problem is not much
different from what it has been since the
days OF earliest history.
For example, few days ago the paper
said we had prize fight in Burlington
at which q good many of our church
members, and leading citizens were re-
ported present. Yet these men probably
declaim eloquently to their Sunday
school classes and on political platforms
against the brutality of the gladiatorial
shows of Rome and fairly glow over the
advance man has made in that respect
since the days of Nero. One man then is
little less brutal, but more of hypo-
critic But further. when / asked one of
our best citizens if such things were not
against the law and if we had not Off
GERS sworn to protect the city in such
cases, he said, eyes, but if they enforced
the law according to their oath they
would not expect reelection" Just so!
Pontius Pilate-to compare large things
with small-made a similar excuse for
not doing his duty and he has not been
in very high repute since that day,
heather though he was. You assent to
this, but how about the crowd that
made him fear for his position; have you
ever heard much good said OF them |!
And yet it is this fundamental sameness,
this undergraduates of the essential
nature OF man that gives me hope in the
solution of such problems as are before
us today. 1t is great help to have the
experience that others have had in deal
ing with him written out tor us, and to
know that it still fits the case. There is
great encouragement in the thought that
il he persists ia his wickedness he no less
persists in his goodness, because on the
day that his Maker created his body
perishing earth He breathed into his
nostrils the breath of life and made him
living soul; and there is bright hope
in the fact that though he has tried many
times. he will try many times more to
satisfy himself with swine's food, he has
never yet succeeded and will never sue.
coed, because he is the son of the Divine
Father.
This brings me to the second element
in the solution of our problem, and here
I wish to speak with great care and yet
with as great plainness as the brevity oil
my paper will allow. Men are moved
to a conscious and deliberate acceptance
of the gospel largely if not mainly by the
lives and words OF Christian men, or to
speak more concretely still, by our lives
and words, and the Importance of this
fact cannot be over estimated. 1t fol.
lows, then, that ii men are not moved to
such an acceptance of the gospel. our
lives and words are at fault. That this
conclusion is true we recognize by what
we often say, that if the whole church
were perfectly true to herself the world
would speedily be won to Christ. Now
in whatever degree the charge of un'
faithfulness is true when brought
against the whole body OF the church, il
is particularly and pointedly true wher
made against those who lead and direct
its counsels and it's work, and do moi
now include the clergy. I suppose there
are two reasons for this; first that tn,
pietistic element is largely represented ir
the church's leadership, and, second
because the position of leadership tends
to beget in us, as custodians, much
more moving sense of the failures O
other people than of our own, and some
times the notion that greater freedom
from restraint is allowed us by reason o
this leadership.
Next to our failure in life and words il
its influence upon men, and related tt
it, sometimes as cause and sometimes al
effect, is our insistence upon non-essen
tials in Christian living. Not many
months ago, when said "non.essen
tials" in meeting similar to this Twas
challenged to name the non.essentials o
Christian living. declined to do so TO
the very obviously good reason that my
exact text OF non-essentials is for me ant
me alone, But will undertake to sa,
what the prime essential is in Chris
tian, and that is the spirit OF Christ
This is the sine qua non OF the Christian
life. And mean by it not any abstrac
ton, but real, living spirit OF love ant
kindness, mauifesting itself at all times