The Montgomery advertiser. [volume] (Montgomery, Ala.) 1885-1982, 1904-07-25
SOUL ALONE WITH GOD
INTERESTING SERMON PREACHED
BY MIR. COBBS.
Rector of st. Johns Episcopal Church
Speaks of nm Important Period
In Life Of Every Person.

| IflOil.
Mr.. Cobbs spoke from Genesis xxxii
| "a, And Jacob was left alone and there
| wrestled man with him until the
breaking Of the day" He said:
so God ever speaks to the soul of
man, individually. secretly, silently,
| alone. So every man must answer
back.
ITO Samuel as a child, the voice came
| in the still hours of the night; to Eli
| jah, despairing and disappointed, the
voice came not in the shouts of ten
thousand on Mount Carmel, but in the
| sound of still silence when the prophet
stood before God alone on Mount Ho-
rab.
ITO Jacob on the first night away
from his fathers roof his testing came
And Jacob was left alone.
Every child of man must stand
sooner or later alone, and must answer
heart to- heart to the voice of God.
Alone he must go out and meet his
trial hour; alone he must wrestle; alona
he must fail or triumph.
Friends and loved ones and parents
must turn away and leave their dear
ones alone with God; strong, brave
words, tender last farewells must be
spoken, and then you must stand asid,
and pray as the veil of Gods sanctuary
hides your loved ones away and alone,
they stand to meet the wrestler.
"Oh! lonely, awful hour. when the
heart first meets its God. Oh! DESC
late, forsaken, bewildered moment,
when the child first hears the voice of
God calling him by name. Bewildered
as the waters that have flowed so hap
PLY, so sweetly, among the flowers and
grasses, that come now to the edge OF
tho yawning abyss, bewildered as they
leap out in faith. before they are gath
cred again to rush on to the great
ocean.
Indeed. 1t Is a solemn and searching
time, when the boy or the girl the man
or the woman, first looks out into that
larger and higher sphere of life.
Have you never known the child
and seen the change of that hour?
Have you never seen the boy, bright
and full of life and happiness. VITA n
heart and an enthusiasm for every
thing suddenly change: the brightness
leaves his eye: the old pleasures and
diversions hold him no longer; he be-
comes quiet and often gloomy and
melancholy and sad. Oh! yes. 1t is ever
a lonely and awful hour when the soul
of child first feels God, first hears
the voice Of conscience. first UNDER
stands the meaning of sin without the
possibility of sin within: first catches
a glimpse of Gods Holiness and Of
what this world might become In all
its richness.
How true the story is in everv par
ticular to the facts of life, And lac ID
was left alone
HE sent over his nearest, his SONS
and all that he had. and he was lett
alone. Alone on this first night way
from home, alone in the great wilder
ness, alone with nature and God, alone
as the solitary Elijah was alone ON
Mount Horab.
1T is that first night away from tho
parental roof. 1t is that first tempta-
ton when the arms of n father or
mother are no longer encircling The
loved ones. 1t is then, my brethren.
that the wrestler comes out from the
darkness. and grapples with sinewy
arms the tender form of many n young
life.
wrestIe, eevry life must. 1t is the
price of living. You may do what you
will. you may pray with all faith; but
God ordained that We each one, and
alone, must meet the unseen antagon-
list. and determine for ourselves what
the verdict OF life shall be.
THAT power in the darkness which
we guess not; that unseen, unknown
foe that stands across every pathway
in life; that dark figure that casts its
shadow across every approach to
higher sphere, that sits and waits by
every roadside, for you and for me and
for every child of man that would
pass by that way. He stands there
blocking the way that leads to knowl-
edge, and all who pass into its secrets
and charms must first wrestle with the
drudgery and dizziness.
1T seems a bright and beautiful
thing to become master in worlds
learning, to be a scholar, revered and
looked up to, student and doctor. But
oh, let the quiet dignity of one who
has known and suffered and triumphed
speak to the wild enthusiasm of the
boy at college. 1t would surely tell of
many a hard wrestle for life or for
death, of days of endless routine and
nights of hopeless despair and disap-
pointment, of a life time of watchful-
ness, of earnestness, Of perseverance
and of faith. So 1t is also life of
self-sacrifice and goodness. There
too, the wrestler shall challenge every
newcomer. 1t is all well enough and
foolish enough to talk in a feeble way
about people who are good as though
goodness required for its attainment no
strength of character. no power to do
battle Oh, how far is this from the
truth; how many men and women have
believed it. alas. to their destruction.
st. Paul wrote no Such words 10
Timothy, his well beloved, but he said.
Thou therefore, my SON. be strong in
the grace that is in Christ Jesus
Thou thefore, endure hardness as a
good soldier of Jesus Christ Fight
the good fight of faith; lay hold on
eternal life, whereunto thou art also
called and least professed' good pro-
fession before many witnesses. For
we wrestle, not against flesh and blood
but against principalities, against pow
ers, against the rules of the darkness
of the world, against spiritual weak
ness in high places.
1T is useless to dream OF goodness.
1t is useless to think how much charity
and kindness you would like to do.
Those things have nothing to do with
what you are. Self-sacrifice and good
ness are possessions to be attained not
BY wishing and thinking, but to be
bought with a price by the deadliest, |
the loneliest, hardest wrestling with
all the sins Of self, the world, the flesh
and the devil.
I'VE might wish it otherwise, we
may complain that we do not under |
stand. nor think It just. but as we
sneak the hand of that unseen wrestler |
Is fastening upon us.
And there must be much of COM |
fort and strength and hope for us all |
in the thought that our Master Him |
self was not exempt from this deadly |
struggle. but He made ii only the oc-
casion of a greater triumph, n more |
snIendid victory. Ever and anew from
the weary wrestlers with the troubled |
aea there rises up to Heaven this cry:
~re1I me oh tell me, l pray thee, thy |