The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1903-08-28

end Of man. says the cateehism a 10 w0r.
ship God and enjoy Him. Exactly. So
shat duty Is part Of JOY iu service.
eeihshness y Incompatible with service.
The servant Is not the servant when think.
ing more Of the wage than the business.
You cannot serve and be selfish The sin
OF this age is sefshness. my friends. /
am thankful that | live in the age Of cleo
trlclty, wireless telcguphy and autmo-
biles, but let me tel you, the sin OF tha
age is pure. unauthorized solishnesg. Ten
thousand people to-day IN this greet city
are seeking absolutely their own selfish
pleasure, and when self dethroncs God and
enthrones itself the sin Of all sin in tins
age il committed "Son. give me thine
heart. No, you suy you cannot hdVg
IT, 1t Is mine | ana going 10 keep my
heart 20 myself i was reminded as I
came down from Binghamton through the
mountains on Saturday r. love those
mountains. III have been hungry out on
the Western plains 90 see a bill You
would be- surprised 10 see what they call a
hill out there. Why, an Irishman with a
wheelbarrow could build bigger mountain
in a day than some OF those mountainsl.
| looked over those mountains and remem-
bered an experience some years ago IN the
Adirondacks. We started out early one
morning 10 climb a mountain. The valley
was full Of light, and az we looked back
from the top Of one Of the foothills in the
valley at our feet the beautiful verdure
seemed 10 throw back the beauties Of the
sunlight. Then we entered a fog where
we could not see more than five or six feet
away. Where was the beauty gomez Our
attention became riveted upon our efforts
10 climb out of the fog. Presently we
emerged from it and were on the mountain
top. My, what = scenel There lay the
valley at our feet, like an extensive world;
towns. rivers and FailWays-the great Val.
lev of the Mohawk True IL was nearly
$50 miles away, but we were looking at IT,.
That was like the Christian experience
When you came to the seat that day you
were on the foothll. You forgot all be-
cause Jesus was everything and you saw
the little landscape You thought. The
Christian life is beautiful. / am full OF
joy" And a few weeks passed and you
said. "But to live ~ a 0shirtian is not so
easy; do not see the 10y. The little val
ley, where is it2 What q tremendous
thing it IS to be climbing up to God" And
the cloud settles and you get to be selfish.
But If you persevered and climbed up
ward YOU have come to the mountain peak.
Experience, and you feel that all your
powers and love ought to be settled on
one effort to climb still further and fur
Their in the vision of the Eternal. | won
der if some of us are not still in the cloud,
because we have lost the joy Of service.
Suffering Is only incident to service. /
ALI perfectly aware, when / ask you to en-
ter with greater zeal in the service Of God
that l am asking you to suffer. You will
not be killed, or asked to move out Of the
United States or prosecuted because you
are a Christian, but YOU will have to suf-
fer. and when you suffer you will begin to
enjoy. No man laughs so heartily as the
man who weeps most bitterly. No laugh
ter rings 20 in heaven as that which comes
through the tears down here. BY suffering
l mean you will be asked TO endure the
cross. Jesus endured the cross Now,
right here let me say that suffering is not
service. Some one says: See here, do you
mean to say that when l suffer for Jesus
Christ that is not servlceT" That is exact
ly what | mean to say. God has no pleas
ure IN your pain, but if your service for
Him demands it, and you bear it heroic
ally, He has pleasure in the attitude OF
your life. Jesus Christ endured the cross.
Why? because it was incident to the work
Of saving this race. Somebody will call
me hereto, but | am not / believe, and
YOU believe, that Jesus Christ came to this
world to save this race. believe and you
believe that without Christ there is no sal
walton. The key note of all my ministry
shall ever be that Jesus is the divine Son
preaching, sell our property and be inf
deh. IF Jesus is mere man let US ali quit
business. | may be an old fogy, but as
long us this tongue breaches the gospel
Jesus Christ will be the divine Christ in
my message. Do / mean that Jesus came
to His cross by accident? Not at all. He
saw the cross standing at the end of His
mission. and for the JOY that was set be-
| fore Him endured and came to save this
race, and that meant the bearing OF a cross
! and He bore it. But the real mission was
| the saving of the race, not the bearing of
! the cross. His mission was to save men.
God SO loved the world that He gave His
only begotter Son that whosoveT believeth
in Him might not perish, but have ever
lasting life" When the cross stood in the
! way of the perfection of salvation Jesus
endured it divinely, herocally and unflinch-
! ingy died upon it to save us. Suffering IS
incident to service, and when / call You to
serve God you will have your cross The
men yoa work with will say you are too
much of crank and fanatic. 1t will hurt
and pain and so deep, and you will finch.
| Sometimes you viii try to apologize for
being a crank and fanatic, and you will
thank God there is something you can en-
dure. 1t is part of service and behind the
suffering comes Joy, deep and profound,
when you are true. Yes, you will have
shame to bear, TOO. Two or three young
ladies where have been holding meetings
lately and baptizing some have said. II dc
not like to think Of getting up before all
those people and being baptized" ! won
der if we are going into the joy of fulfilling
Gods command. If we are we have got tC
endure some Of that shame He endured
Let me tell you if you had administered
baptism and you saw as a minister secs IT
the face Of the believer buried out of sigh
md raised to resurrection of newness O
life-if YOU saw what he sees just once yol
would drop your quibbiing now. Shame OF
us if we cannot bear in the twentieth cen
fury light of Christian truth all that fol