The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1904-01-25
SORROW MAKES FOR
THE TRUE FRATERNAl|SM
1.-The Moral OF Pain" Discussed by
Rev. Joshua Stansheld, OF Me
Street Church.
RESULT OF SUFFERING

THE Moral of Pain was the subject Of
an interesting sermon delivered by the
Rev. Joshua Stansheld. OF the Meridian
street NJ. f. Church at the morning service
yesterday. DR.. Stansield said in part:
For the past two weeks we have con-
sdered the subject. Does God Send sur
fering? and have seen that. instead OF COD
being the author of suffering. as is too ire
quenty assumed or stated, He is rather
the God of all grace and comfort, and that
while suffering is the outcome OF sin, that
is the violation of natural law. which is
Gods law. yet that law is essentially moral
and benefcient. and it is not. therefore,
changed to meet the sad facts of human
sin. but rather the infinite Coo comes nearer
To His children and is with them to COM
fort TO strengthen, to purify, TO save, even
in and through the sad results Of violated
law, so that where sin has aoounded grace
did much more abound II is this great
truth of Scripture which shall be our text
this morning, and desire 10 use the words
not in a limited. narrow, sociological
sense. but in their widest and indeed, their,
most primary meaning, for IL is the glory
of the Christian revelation that human sin
has not distanced God from US, but rather
brought Him near us. for God sent not
His own in the world to condemn the world,
but that the world through Him might be
saved
''One OF the most thoughtful members of
this church said to me TWO Sundays ago,
when L preached the first of this series of
sermons: Doctor, | wish that you might
have preached another sermon before these
touching the why OF sin. the thought
of my brother being that if God is the ulti-
mate cause of life. then. at least. he may
potentially be considered the author of
sim as the capacity therefor was His own
gift to the race, and that in life, as we now
know 1T, sin and suffering have large and
important part in the development OF char
acter. Indeed. the culture of all the graces
of life seems to be conditioned upon the
presence or fact of sin. AS we now know
ourselves we cannot conceive of growth in
the g!aces of the spirit such as patience,
gentleness, mercy. forgiveness, etc, except
in and by the presence Of wrong In the
world. Now, this is becoming to be very
popular and supposedly scientific view of
the question. There are some who think
that this view alone COMFORTS with the evo-
lutonary theory of life. This is. neverthe-
less, stoutly denied by many. But however
that may be, the scriptural teaching does
seem to be that sin is force i'm life for
which man is personally and consciously re-
sponsibe. Ii is the result OF wrong choices,
and the power TO choose is not immoral,
but essentially moral and high. The power
| to do we'll is the glory of man. but the
| manner of his choosing and willing may be
his shame. So that sin is regarded i'm the
! Scriptures. and in the general moral sense
! of the race, as mans own act. new force
! i'm life. created my man, not by God. But
! further, and most important, the burden of
! the teaching of the Scripture is that not
! withstanding this new fact and force of
| sin and consequent suffering. God has not
| left the race to itself, but that where sin
/ abounded grace did much more abound, and
| in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ, the
/ divine life is as real i'm our race from re-
! demptive purposes through the second
/ Adam as are sin and guilt through the first
| God is. therefore. in this world of sin and
| suffering, not miraculously to avert the con-
! sequences of wrong, but rather TO take
| them and use them by the gracious infiu-
/ ence of His spirit in the lives of his chill
! dren TO highest and hottest ends. Hence,
! there is a moral aspect of the question
| which may be exceedingly suggestive and
| helpful
ESSENTIAL TO LIFE.
LAS we now know it, suffering and pain
are more than either accidental or incl
/ dental; they are essential to life: at least
! 10 the life that is worth living. 1t is COM
J paratively easy to trace along lines of
] heredity or to human carelessness most of
| the sufferings of life. A railroad employee
| is kept too long hours in his signal box:
weared and weak, he drops asleep while
/ on duty; and a child, not yet born, suffers
| for a lifetime. Indeed thousand varying
! Incidents might be cited: and in every one
| the feeling of Carlisle may shared by
one person or another. here and there, God
! seems TO do nothing But we must bring
ourselves to know that God is not prodigal
| of miracles TO avert catastrophes. He
rather sanctifes them. So that blindness
! in a Bunyan, Milton. a HaVergal, and Sor-
| row In a Beethoven and hundreds of 9TH
ers may give the finest OF poetry. of
music and of art. Pain in human life is
/
physical life there are only two periods
! where there is no pain-in perfect health
| and perfect sickness. In the absence of
health. not to have pain, suffering, weak
ness would mean swift death; in mo-tifca-
ton there is no pain, but the absence of it
is ominous. In the social realms pains in
! the body polite are not alone the evidence
/ of its life. but also of its hope. Pain is
Gods policeman to arrest the wrong of life.
In the moral realm also we all know its
worth. George Elliott speaks of an ad-
vanced culture which gives a keen sensi-
tiveness and susceptibility TO pain. 1t is
the good man VINO is most panied by the
sensed by the truly cultured; and pain is
! thus more a sign of lie than harbinger
of death. Pain is both a protest and ii
prophecy: a protest OF the wrong and a
prophecy of a higher life here and here
after. for it is noteworthy that in the
apocalypse vision of heaven we are told
pain.
Again. pain and suffering generate sym
patty with and thought for others. The
! limitations of perfect, or even excellent
/ health. are often more than think of.
/ Good health freedom from disease or loss,
seems to make men hard. Indifferent, self
| conferred. 1t suffering. pain. loss, trial,
which usually develop and display the finer
traits There is reason to think that with
out the sad reverses. surprises and sorrows
| of human experience this world would be
| the hardest coolest. dreariest of places
! intolera BILE indeed. Nearly all our benevo-
| lent institutions have been founded and
| lOSleTta ny Scu, SulitilHb, YET
sanctified souls. The finest windows we
have i'm this beautiful church the gift
of grief-touched lives. The moral aristoc-
racy OF the world from Jesus onward have
been men of sorrows and acquainted with
grief. A successful and wealthy business
man is waiting 20 welcome a beloved
daughter on her return from Europe, but
| she dies at sea. Instead OF ushering into
society q cultured maiden. polished and
| FURNISHED with the best that the wealth
of America and Europe could give, he
! finally pOurS tears of paternal sorrow over
the precious remains OF his dead. But
! those tears cleanse the lenses of life and
! with enriched vision and a wider horizon
| he sees the heart-breaking sorrows of
thousands of American girls who under
the crueties of lustful society are home
less, IL not lost; Immediately heartstrings
are opened; purse strings also are loOSened.
| and the Florence Chittendon homes of
America become fact and feature of
our Christian civilization. Suffering calls
! out the best that is I'm us A wealthy
lady buries her siX-year-old girl She hears
later OF neighbors washerwoman who
has just lost her little girl. All castles and
! other distinctions are forgotten. and she
hastens TO visit her friend. Sorrow and
I suffering make the truest fraternalism OF
/ life. Sympathy. usually born of sorrow
is the only bond which belts the world In
/ feTing have been the order. and the sym
boil of the greatest civiizing power the
world has yet known is cross.
! REF. COLLINS TELLS
or TRIP TO EUROPE