The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-03-14
ABUNDANCE OF LIFE
SUBJECT OF DISCOURSE BY REV.
 E. E. CoBBs.
"T Am Come That They Night Have Life" is the Special Truth
 of Christianity.

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 An able sermon was delivered yestei- day morning to large congregation at St. Johns Church. by the pastor. Rev E. P. Cobbs the text of which was from St. John, x, 10: T am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly."
 There are two strong and beautiful words In this text. each seeming to nj out and give emphasis to the other. T am come that they might have Life Life is the highest word of activity that we can know. It gathers up, stands for the fullness and completion of our won- derful natures. It stands for the higii- est reach of physical power and activity. It stands for the richest and noblest as- tainments of the intellect. It stands for the holiest. most Godllke relations of the inner character of mans moral na- ture.
 "The word Life is indeed a wide. com prehensive and inclusive word. A word of activity and power, word of infinite possibilities. of unlimited suggestiveness. of unbounded range.
 "And yet to this word Life there IS joined that other word. which seems to open up q vast new region of existence and hope. abundantly. plentifully, over fiowingiy. richly.
 Do you not feel immediately how dif- ferent is this promise from all the prom ises of men that had gone before hinli Do you not, see the fundamental, dis tinctive characterizing of the Christian religion and hope from ali other reiig- ions and hopes of other ages? T am come that they might have Life and that they might have it more abundantly.
 "Take the great heather religions of today. or of any day, and you will looK in vain in their sacred writings and in the life of their people for any such conception as this.
 Take Buddhism as perhaps the high es, purest type of all ethical religions
 You find very much in the life of the founder to admire and to reverence. You find very deep ieonsecration and very high unselfishness. You find teaching which bears striking similarity to that of our Bible. But what is the Buddhist's conception of Life. and what is the rs- ward for those who live we'll? Is 1t Lite and Life more abundant? Far from that He cannot get away from the conviction and consciousness of immortality, so he win reduce Life to it's lowest terms, he will take from 1t all that is distinctive and personal. and the reward and zeal of those who follow the seven-fold path of which will be If not extinctiveness
 ''I am sure you must feel how infinitely much higher and truer the promise of Christ is from the lips of the Buddhist:
 ''I am come that they might have life and that they might have 1t more abun- dantly.'
 And again observe the common and widespread misconception even among Christian people of the promise of Christ.
 ''If asked What is the special truth of Christianity and what the special bless ing which Christ brought to men, you might receive the first part of our text as your answer from many people. I am come that they might have Iife.'
 The resurrection of the dead The fu- ture life Immortality. These are the gifts which Christ came to bring. the gift of an amending life.
 And yet surely this is only one-half of the truth and the half which makes many men and women disbelieve in the whole truth itself.
 The promise of an amending life Is not always a blessing: and the Christ who comes simply to give men the assurance of life eternal Is not always a welcome guest. There are human souls at thIs very hour, trying to believe not in lm- mortality. but in the darkness and flnal- ity of the grave.
 '"rhey do not want life eternal. if the other life Is t9 be simply e culmination of this life, with it's limitations and ill., firmities and sorrows. Is not this the general conception which people have of immortality? Simply a lengthening out into infinity of this life here. Simply a drawing out along the same straight line of existence begun here. And as the life goes ..round on 1t becomes more nar- row and more attenuated and more pre- scFibed.
 And yet how different Is the promise of Christ from this poor, starved conception. Not life drawn out along a straight line into inflnity, but life with all its bar r:ers and limitations broken down. and all its vast, splendid possibilities opened up and developed.
 Mot the long, struggling life of the river fretting between its narrow banks and its sharp rocks, but ahl the open wide, boundless life of the ocean; the life of power, the life of freedom. the life of abundance
 "so much of our doubt and unbc!lef comes from this; we stand by and watch a life as 1t passes out of the day of its limitations and sorrows and passes on into that more abundant life of power and activity. and We try to think of that life as simply moving on along for in same line upon it moved here on earth. And alas! we cannot bring 1t down to that, and then we question and doubt, because we are thinking of old warm life and have not entered Into the fulness of the meaning of life
 But our religion, for all practical pur poses would be a vain thing. and use less ornament, did It not bear upon our life here on earth.
 "And does the promise of Christ wait upon the hour of death. or are His words nnf frIiA alao nf.fhia Ilfa q r,n .,.,..an that