The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1903-12-25
A SERMON FOR SUNDAY
AN ELOQUENT DISCOURSE ENTITLED
"AFTERWARD."

tho Whole Enigma OF Life BE- Solved at
once When You Hold tho Keysgord.
BROOKLYN, n. Y.-The Rev. j. III. Lock.
wood. pastor OF the Naugatuck lConnl NJ.
j.. Church. preached Sunday morning in
Grace nj j.. Church in the absence of the
pastor, the Rev. Or. John j. Adams. Mr..
Lockwood is well and iavorab.y kuownJu
Brooklyn and on Long Island. where he
has held several pastorates. He was born
and educated iu Brooklyn and studied law
before he entered the ministry. He had
the distinction OF being last year the only
clerical member of the Connecticut Leg
islature. He took for the subject of his
sermon, "Afterward." His text was from
Hebrews, Xii:2: Now no Christening, but
the present seemeth TO be joyous, but
grevous; nevertheless, afterward it yield
eth the peaceabe fruit Of righteousness
unto them which are exercised thereby"
Mr.. Lockwood said:
Let us consider the single word after
ward as our text. If you grasp that word
and ITS rich content OF comfort you will
have caught the whole message of the SER
mon, and You win possess q most valuable
solvent for LIES perpexing, and often dis
tresslng problems.
Human life is a mysterious enir-sa that
has successfully bafied the efforts persist.
emily made by the profoundest thinkers Of
our race for its solution. what is lifeW
is the still puzzling question of questions.
AS the biologists and their fellow scientists
have not succeeded in TELLING us Just what
that elusive thing we call physical life is,
neither have poets, prophets, philosophers,
nor even philanthror is been able to tell
us adequately what real life is.
Here is this strange thing we call life,
with its many and varied phenomena, and
the more profoundly and ~prehensively
We study it the more confuse { leaves us.
There are experiences positively joyous and
experiences positively painful, and there
are experiences partially Joyous and par
TALLY painful, and we look at this great
mass Of LIES complex data and are quite
batfled to know the meaning of it all. Still,
with our hearts, as well as with our heads,
we ask again the irrepressible inteTroga-
tive, What is life?"
Are we, indeed, only a lot # animals
high class animals, to be SUI 5, but only ami
mails, nevertheless, sprung from the prime
val mud and risen to our present intellect
ual and moral eXaltaton and glorv by
painful step and slow, onl- to hc plowed
under shortly in the great cosmis agricul-
ture to serve as soil for some future crop,
a little finer grained than we? From mud
to mud-that Is the program of evolution
Or, on the other hand is it some splendid
sweeping plan which we are in, working
! out for us the immortal participants, a far
more exceeding and eternal weight Of glory
that shall thrill the soul forever? Have
we been but blind and STUPID workers at
/ the loom of time, weaving an imaginary
/ fabric that really had no existence, even as
zone that beateth the air" or are we act
ually engaged in some real work Of marvel
! GUS design, whose pattern we see not clear
| ~ and in all its comprehensive details, but
/ which our Master Workman knoweth we'll?
Let us look at the three prohered expla-
nations of life. First, there is the doleful
! and distressing answer of philosophic pes
simsm which assures us that things are
surely growing worse all the time, the
world is rolling down hill and there are no
brakes that can be applied. The world
now is better than it will ever be hereafter.
If you like that view, accept it. No, we
must not say it so. Not, do YOU like it,
! but IS it true? That is the way to p; it,;
for. pleasant or repugnant, we must accept
what is true. But this view cannot posi-
! bly, be true unless the proposition on which
it is based Is also true, the proposition of
the fool who said in his heart, "There is no
God"
And in the second place we have the an.
swer of philosophic optimism, which as
serts that things are steadily getting bet
ter; that, whereas life to-day is far better
than it was 1000 or 10000 years ago, it will
be far better 1000 or 10000 years hence.
But this prevalent theory is scarcely any
improvement on the other, except to the
superficial thinker, for it makes no provi-
sion for the perpetuaton of personality.
Where will you and | be when those far
off improvements of our race arrive? This
materialistic philosophy offers us of the
present no Immortality and hence no OPP
portunity for the adjustment of life's pres
ent garing iniustices. / am glad to believe
that the race that shall be resident here
1000 years from now will be better race.
But I would like to be in existence some
where, too. when the better day dawns.
Ard even if could rise to the superb I'M
selfshness like unto that which poets some
times sing when, temporarily, they happen
to be IN Just that mood, and could say
was content to live and die and cease to
exist here or anywhere else IL only, as a
result of my having lived a while, future
generations might be lifted little higher;
STILL one must feel that that pretty and.
after all, rather morbidly sentimental
scheme does not satisfy the imperative de-
mands of our souls that wrongs shall be
adequately righted, Tat innocent sufferers
shall be compensated and that outraged
helplessness shall he avenged.
Now comes Christianity, with its ample
answer. 1t admits all the facts, the APP
parent injusiices of the present, the pros
perty of the unrighteous, the triumnhing
of the wicket, and, on the other hand, the
suffering and the seeming defeats of Gods
heroes and saints in the fierce, hot contest
of life; and then it speaks one blessed
word, "Afterward" and we can be pa
tient.
After we have heard that divine word
we can see the wicked spread himself ike
a green bay tree, and still we rest ia the
Lord and wait patiently for Him, and we
refuse to fret ourselves because of him
man who bringeth wicked devices to pass.
The whole puzzling enigma of life is
solved at once when you hold the keyword
and that word is the single word of the
text, "Afterward"
That is to saw. Won can get no satisfae.