The Brandon news. (Brandon, Miss.) 1892-1961, 1903-10-29
A SERMON FOR SUNDAY
A DISC CURSE ENTITLED "LIFE's YIELD
TO The MORAL cONQUEROR."

The Rev. T. r. Williams Urges Us to Spent
Our Few Brief Years Fighting Sin ant
Serving.Man Until We Pass to the Grea
Beyond-An Uplifting Discourse.
BROOKLYN, N. Y.-The Rev. L. Rhond
gregational Church, Bradford, England
preached in Plymouth Church Sunday
morning. There was a large audience
The Rev. DIR. 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
Each one Of the messages to the churches
OF Asia closes with promise. They con-
tam threats and warnings and command
ments, but at the close stands the promise
like 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
1.-The topping crags of duty scaled
Are close upon the shining tablelands,
10 which our Cod Himself is moon and
sun"
There IS here twofold aspect of life
which every morally earnest man is ac-
quainted with. He knows that it's 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 is
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 ;;
hdellty, while it does not encourage cheap
and lightsome optimism, does inscribe in
the heart of the blacklist duty the shining
word OF the coming time. God has so made
us tina. 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 | take to be indicated in
the word overcoming or "conquering."
Every promise is made to him who over
cometh, or who "conqucrs" 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
Tor 1t is no use preaching theories away
from the facts of life-that the promises
made to those Asian churches 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-
fence of men. Indeed, the messages given
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-
rlence. but also a certain Interpretation
given by more than one bias, such as the
personal bias or the rational 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 co,ors. which must fade; PEI
sonal and national clements 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, cur very
best understanding OF Him has some mix
sure of ourselves in it, which is not in Him.
TO him that overcometh and keepeth
My word will l give power over the ma
tons, and he shall rule them with rod of
IRON, as the vessels Of potter shall be
broken to shlvens. even as [ received Of
My Father" Here are words attributed
to Jesus which none of us would like to
think of Him as speaking We could not
and IL Jesus any promise of authority
over nations to rule them with a rod of
iron. as the vessels of potter are broken
claiming to have received such from His
Father. That is not aour way of thinking
Of Christ TO-DAY. Then how did John
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 hao 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 [ will give thee the ma
most parts of the earth for thy posses
sion. Thou shalt break them with a 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
Jew came to believe that Jesus was the
Messiah you would think that he would
at least throw off that old notion. Jesus
had said. Come unto Me all we that labor
and are heavy laden etc. 'T am meek of
etc. "other cheek etc . The general genera
character and teaching of Jesus was the
very opposite of the Psalm ii conception of
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. It was not Jesus
speaking, but his own nationalism that
was representing Jesus. This is not very
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 H. 1t is high time to
protest. as Cheyne does, against the habit
of finding Christ In passages unrelated
to Christ and His religion" II fear"
says Canon Cheyne, s'that our unmiti-
gated adoption of the Psalter as it stands
may counteract 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 or receive death is not sin, but a
most glorious deed; the Son of God de-
lights to receive the blood of His enemies
He is glorifed 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 I'M
dernine the value of the revelation of God
in Christ. In Christian magazine OF
some time ago one article is entitled The
Tenderness of Jesus" and the next is "The