The Penn's Grove record., 1904-08-19
SERMON FOR SUNDAY
AN ELOQUENT DISCOURSE ENTITLED.
REWARDS or RIGHTEOUSNESS"
The Rev. DIR. n. Melee Waters Says That
You Would Attain Earthly Prosperity
Christ Must lie Your Tescher-Ths
True Prescription For All schola rship.

You would Attain Earthly Prosperity
Christ Must lie Your Teseher-The
True Prescription For All scholarship
BROOKLYN, n. Y.-Dr. N. Metiee Wa.
tiers, pastor of the Tompkins Avenue Con.
gregational Church, took as his subject
Sunday morning, Rewards Of Righteous.
ness" His text was from Matthew vi:
3D.: Seek We first the kingdom of God
and His Righteousness, and all these things
shall be added unto you" DIR. Waters
said in the course of his excellent sermon:
From the beginning until now mans
search has been for the golden age. Some.
sometimes Holy Grail. Plato prophesied
it in a republic yet to be. Bunyan, after
. weary pilgrimage, found it beyond the
Detachable Mountains. Bacon saw it in
Atlantis, rising out of the midst of an un-
sailed sea. 1t is always afar off and in the
future. Like the pot of gold at the foot
OF the rainbow, it is always over the next
hill.
Jesus also ~prophesied a golden age
called it "the Kingdom Of God" and found
it in the present time. For a long time
men went hu- CRY, and lol there was al
ways plenty in the g~round-when they
Scratched the earth 18th a hoe it laughed
with a harle lest" They priced diamonds.
and 10! they were always in the river beds
tor the finding. They shivered for warmth,
and 10! coal was stored under the hills.
They longed for some pack horse, and 10!
giants were chained IN very flowing riv-
er: They were always looking for the
golden age. Jesus said: Look within
the Kingdom OF God is within you"
Men are always expecting the Kingdom
OF God to conn through some device of
their making. They cry, Let us have a
hotter U0Unrnnanf and q loftar y ~
we will have the Kingdom of God; let us
toll and hoard a mountain of gold, and
when our barns are filled we will have the
Kingdom of God. Let us search after
knowledge, nd when we are wise we will
have the Kingdom of God. Lst us trade
our strength for popularity and reputation
when with the laurel we have bound our
brow we shall be blessed"
Jesus says Just the opposite: "Seek the
Kingdom of God and you will have no la
Dor problem, for you will have N increased
wage; seek the Kingdom of God, and you
Will lind wealth; seek the Kingdom of
God, and you will be enrolled among the
children of Immortality" Men say. LET
US get rich and we will be CONTEXT" Je-
sus says, "Be content, and you will be
rich" Nc say, Let us get wisdom. and
we will be happy" Jesus saws, BE han
Ply and you will be wise. Men say, IF we
can gain all these things, like houses and
lands, we will be the children Of the King
dom OF God" Jesus says, Enter into the
Kingdom of God, and you will have all
these things"
When will we believe the teachings of
Jesus? He was ahead of Fis time. We
are growing up to Him, to understand Him
better than early generations. Ever saw
ing OF His we find true as law and fact.
Take that saying of His, "The meek shall
inherit the earth" 1t was too hard for
his age. But time, the great tester, pro-
nounces it pure gold. The wise man every
where sees the exceeding reward of meek
ness. They get who forget.
Jesus said to His disciples. cit is ex-
pedlent for you that | go away" They
could not believe that then. But when a
long time hath passed we know that really
death IS a benefit, and that great men are
never so valuable to their disciples AS after
they have gone away from the earth. The
text, Seek first the Kingdom of Cod
ETC., IS one of those sayings that we have
to grow up to. Generally men have read
1t IN some mystical way. They have re-
garded 1T as true only in some peculiar re-
llglous sense. But it is a literal fact: it is
truth; it is law of the universe. Virtue
is the road to fame. Goodness is profit
able in this world.
And all these things shall be added"
What things? Christ has Just named
them-food and clothes and the material
prizes for which men strive. Men are
swayed by motives as trees are by the
winds. Tell me what you most love and
viii tell you what you will be. You love
knowledge with a p~assion-the Greek did
and he became a scholar; you love pow
er-the Roman did and Rome is vet law
glver for the nations; you love beauty
John Keats did and he became a poet.
Among the motives that sway mems daily
lives, we may put first these three-the
pursuit of wealth, the gaining of knowl,
edge and the winning of fame. How can
these things best be Won? According to
Jesus, by a deep hearted search after the
Kingdom of God.
Wealth-the laws Of wealth are the laws
OF righteousness. Knowledge-the king
dom of knowledge is the Kingdom of God.
Fame-"the Lord knoweth the way of the
righteous, but the ways of the wicked
shall rot"
Let us look at the world of wealth. The
savage has no prosperity; it Is only the
civilized man who grows rich. What is
wealth? Emerson tells us 1t begins with
p tight roof that keeps out the rain and a
good pump that yields sweet waters. and
horses, or a locomotive to cross the land
and a boat to cross the sea-" But whence
come the roof and the pump and the ship
and the locomotive? Man did not invent
them; he only discovered them. They are
the laws of Cod dressed up in clothes of
wood and steel and stone. The laws of
wealth are the laws of righteousness. Men
go toward prosperity as they find the laws
Of God.
Again, how do VIC get wealth? There
are three possible ways. a man nav beg
It, he may steal it, or a n may earn it.
but neither pauper nor beggar increases
the wealth of the community. Only by
the laws of indus and vision can We in
crease wealth. But the laws of labor and
vision are the laws cf the Kingdom of Cod.
Barbarism has been, with its poverty, de-
fined as Society without the command
ments.~ Contrariwise, then, civilization.
with all its houses and lands and stocks
and bonds, Is society with the command
rlcnts. Violation of the laws of Cod in
every age means bankruptcy. Obedience
to the laws of Cod in every age makes for
prosperity. History writes down the tale
OF empires. When she writes down "Py-
ramids" and "Parthenon" and Hanging
Gardens she expresses their decolation
by saying over their ruins, "These people
forgot Cod, and hence their waste places
She writes down London" Chamber of
Commerce." "Shipyards," Temple" I'll
brary," and expresses their glory BY saw
ing, These have remembered God-hence
their prosperity"
The Bible pronounces "Anathema"
against those who make haste to get
rich"-that is, they who, despising the laws
of God, take a short cut to prosperity.
Their wealth l. poverty; their gain is loss.
The mistress who holds back the Just
wage from the maid; the borrower who re-
fuses to return to the lender; the govern
llent that debases its people with debased
coin, may temporarily gain; but such
wealth destroys the possessor and is like
the wrecker's handful of coin, cleaned from
the beach to which he has beguiled an
argoSy; is like the camp followers bun
die of rags stolen from the breast Of men
slain IN battle; it like the coin of Judas
only blood money paid to buy a potter's
field wherein liberty and justice and pros
perity shall at last be buried N the grave
of dishonor. Way back in the Old Tesla
ment we have Moses saying: ''Thou shalt
not have diverse measures in thy sane
The words call up for us a scene
that far off time. There are booths
with baskets of figs and grapes and golden
wheat and bottles of oil and silks and
and the merchant has two sets of
scales-one scale, with a large pan, in
which he buys the grapes from the hus-
handman and ono4har x-,kl -. -