The Penn's Grove record., 1903-10-23
. SERMON FOR SUNDAY
A DISCOURSE ENTITLED "LlFE'S YIELD
TO THE MORAL coNQUERoR."
The Rev. T. r. williams Urges Us to Spend
Our Few Brief Years Fighting Sin and
S~erying.AIan Until We Pass to the Great
Raxond-An unlifffnu Discourse.

Our Few Brief Years Fighting Sin and
serying.Man Until We Pass to the Great
Beyond-An Uplifting Discourse.
BROOKLYN, N. Y.-The Rev. T. Rhond-
da Williams, pastor of the Greenfield Con-
gregational Church, Bradford, England,
preachod - Plymouth Church Sunday
morniIf There was a large audience.
The Rev. pr. 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 a 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
sum-
There is here a twofold aspect Of life
which every morally earnest man is ac-
quainted with. He knows that it's condi-
lions 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 togtheIr 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, WHILST does not encourage cheap
and lightssry optimism, does inscribe in
the heart oIsIxIIlSckest duty the shining
word Of the cSo02ff 2eitime. God has SO made
US that enfoldA 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-
comethn 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 a fact
for it is no use preaching theories away
from the facts of ife-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 I can
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-
rience, but also a certain Interpretation
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.
life, but the depletion may bear personal
or national colors, which must fade; per-
sonal and national elements which must
be eliminated. John was a Christian, but
he was also a Jew. Like every man, he
had a 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
ture OF ourselves in j. which is not in Him.
(eometk and keepeth
Ny word0Hill I give power over the ma
tions, and he shall rule them with a rod of
iron, as the vessels of a potter shall be
broken to shivens, even as l 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
find In Jesus any promise of authority
over nations to rule them with a rod OF
iron, as the vessels of a 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 haa 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 ] win give thee the ma
tions for thine inheritance and the utter
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 a 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
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. 81 am meek OF
heart, lowly." BLESSED are the meek
etc. "Other cheek" etc. The general
character and teaching of Jesus was the
very opposite of the Psalm ii conception Of
Messiah. Yet the jew who believed thai
Jesus was the Messiah carried oyer with
him a 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
was representing Jesus. This is not very
surprising when you remember that Chris
tians even yet 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. It is high time tc
protest, as Cheyne does, against the habit
of Finding Christ in passages unrelated
to Christ and His religion" IT fear,'
gated adoption of the Psalter as it stands
one-half of Christianity" The fear is toe
well founded. What did the great st
Bernard say long ago regarding the wars
of the Crusades upon the Mohammedans.
These are his words: sThey are ministers
of God to infict His vengeance. For them
to give or receive death is not a sin, but a
most glorious deed; the Son of God de
lights to receive the blood of His enemies
He is g~loriied in the death of the pagans.'
It is most astounding that Jesus could
have been conceived as the incarnation oil
GsdSredeeming purpose and love and vel
as OnG5who 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
pain, suffering, r~etribution are here; there
was a severity in .Jesns because ,Tesus was