The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1904-01-04
AMERICAN WORLD IS
FAST CROPPING w
Rev. ]. c. Christie Says Our In
terests Now Carry Us Much
Further Than Formerly.

The Rev. J. c. Christie, pastor of the West
Washington-street Presbyterian Church,
preached on Looking Forward yesterday
morning. He took for his text Joshua ga.
"' Forward comes the call to us at the be-
ginning and this call comes to us in many
voices He said in part: This opening of
q new year calls us: the onwardness of the
city, especially at the present time, calls us;
the new conditions in which we Americans
find ourselves call us to go on.
within a short time the American world
has become much larger and our interests
carry us much further than hitherto. We
see many great and brave things TO do, and
to hold our place in the surrounding on
wardness there is q call on us 10 be larger
men and women than ever our fathers and
mothers needed to be. We are TO leave the
alphabets of experience and knowledge as
already mastered and go On to higher at
tainments, taking strong hold on the more
difficult problems of life and reaching its
higher levels.
are, as individuals, really going ON and ex-
panding as truly as the political life around
us and the civic conditions. Are we grow
Ing in our beings as fully as God IS reach
ing out fullness Of discovery and revela-
tions2 The highest voice calling us to go on
is Gods. Gods gifts come to us progress
HtlN. Ill the ODtlllS CIldplcIS VI lllc
there was the darkness of chaos; in the clos
ing days the light is too bright for human
eyes. Between that opening and this clos
ing there is the tramp, tramp of human
life, sometimes down in the valley of bat
tie and smoke and sin and death, and again
climbing heights with faces towards glory.
As mankind goes on in years and the world
grows grayer, ii grows younger and brighter
In vision. The mighty personality which is
scarcely concealed throughout the Old Tes-
lament grows larger and occupies more
fully the foreground. The gospel age is
reached and He steps out of the shadow and
stands forth. Men rally around him in in
tensity of devotion and go forth from Him
with His message 10 all the world. 1t was
so with the lives described in the Book of
Acts, and IL is so to-day. The great world
ready for missionary activity lies before us
and men are called to go on into ii. God
gives to US as we grow to what He gives.
Only as We so on do we get the increased
revelation and hear the high voices calling
US TO go yet farther on. Those churches that
call continually for more money 10 advance
various new causes, therein give proof that
they are thoroughly alive and progressive,
and see more needs and more opportunities
than do those churches which are content
with simply enough money to hold what is
already attained. The organization that is
alert hears voices that are not heard at all
by those who are sleeping.
Progress involves leaving some things as
we'll as reaching unto others. If we are in
sin repentance Is progress. Which direction
is il from where you are walking, to Christ,
forward or Have you yet started
at all on the way? Ii you have. have you
seen His face openly? The mighty person.
ality which was I'm the shadow in our older
life stands before us. We hear His message
of the longing love of the Father TO save.
1t comes TO our conscience and heart. New
ambitions are born in US; new possibilities
appear. The door of life swings outward
and the path broadens and brightens and
stretches away enchantingly.