Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1904-11-18
Calnase
Sermon
By Rev.
Frank De Witt Tairnaee, d. ID.

try or their favorable environment in
stead OF getting right with Cod per-
sonally, this sermon will come Us an
arousing call. The text is Matthew
XIV, 8, give us OF your oil, for our
lamps are gone out"
All men may be broadly divided into
two classes. There are some on the
border line, belonging not altogether
10 the one class or the other. having
characteristics OF each, but the great
mass may be separated into two groups
the workers and the idlers. The one
class includes the toilers, the pullers,
the diggers, the grinders, the climbers.
They are striving to succeed in no.
ole, honest way. They do not mean
TO be social parasites. They want a
share of the good things of life but
they do not expect TO receive them as a
gift but to pay for them by honest
work. They hope for promotion, and
they strive to merit II by seeking to
make themselves worthy OF It. They
study and toll to develop themselves,
so that when the opportunity comes
they will be ready TO take advantage
of it Though they may be In obscure
positions they do their work WELL and
when the call comes to go higher they
are prepared by long years OF hard
work TO perform the duties of the high
or position.
"Why do you study so hardT Yale
classmate asked one day of John c.
Calhoun, the South Carolina student.
who was his roommate. You are now
the leading student in the college. No
man can successfully compete with
you in any study ''Oh," answered
the young man, "I am not working for
leadership in a college town. 1 am
working TO be n leader in the nation"
What, Calhoun-do you expect to be
great statesman in Washington 2"
IF l did not expect to go to congress
within six years." answered Calhoun,
Il would pack up my books at once
and leave Yale tomorrow. 1 feel so
sure OF going TO congress that 1 be-
grudge every wasted minute. 1 must
prepare myself by unceasing labor to
meet the nations leaders in the arena
of debate" John c. Calhoun wanted
to win success. He did more than that
He wanted to prepare himself by hard
work for the time when that success
should come, as come it did, and as ii
nearly always will come to those who
are conscientious in preparatory work
No short Road 10 Success.
The second class is comprised of men
who want to win success by n mini
mum of labor. They hate drudgery;
they hope to succeed by some lucky
scheme. These are the men who. go
Ing on foreign tour. expect to learn
French or German In five weeks: they
hope TO marry a rich wife and have an
easy time living on the savings of their
wife's father; they prepare to conduct
the business OF their fathers, not by
beginning, as he did, ne the lowest rung
or the ladder, but by taking n six
months course in n business college or
by becoming their fathers nominal
private secretaries. During their easy
apprenticeship they would spend three
days out OF every week playing golf
and Mt least five nights out OF every
seven I'm ballroom. at theater party or
In clubhouse designations. The little
time they play ut business is when
they are not working at play. These
people represent failure. For rs an old
writer once said, People who never
DO any more work than they are paid
for, never get paid for any more than
they do" These people always want
to succeed with n minimum of work.
Yes. the two kinds of people on earth I
mean
Are the people who lift and the people
who lean
whereveryou so you Will find the worlds
masses
Are always divided in Just these two
classes
And. oddly enough. you will find. too,
wcen,
There is only one litter TO twenty who
lean.
Drones there are In the busy bee
hives OF temporal life. Droncs there
are In the busy beehives of spiritual
life. We know them well. They have
existed In every age-men who hope
10 enter heaven, but are not willing to
deny themselves, nor to resist tempta-
ZION, nor TO strive to enter through the
straight gate. 1t was to warn people
OF the futility OF such lives that Christ
spoke the parable OF the ten virgins.
Five OF them, he said, were foolish.
self indulgent and needless of the OBJ
legations or the spiritual life. He is
not here denouncing criminals or vi
clous people. These virgins were NOM
inally Christians, not the murderers
and robbers who infested the lonely
roads OF Palestine, ready to waylay
the traveller; not the openly immoral.
like the Magdalene or the woman OF
Samaria, but the people who, as an old
commentator has said, make '.pro-
fession OF the gospel and act in such
manner as to give real Christians q
favorable impression of them and so
gain admittance into their midst" He
is abiding TO Christians in name only.
who outwardly appear all right and
yet have not the true inward consecra-
ton OF heart and who expect therefore
to go to heaven upon borrowed spir-
itual capital.
The Spiritual Mendfcants.
These spiritual mendicants OF nv
text are. in the first place, the men and
women indifferent TO the command
ments Of Jesus Christ, who expect to
ultimately reach heaven on account OF
the conservation of a Christian ances-
try They are not bad men as the
world looks upon bad men. They have
oeen rocked In Christian cradles. They
nave been reared in Christian nurs-
cries and Christian Sunday schools.
During their boyhocd days they have
kneit at Christian affairs and SAT I'm
Christian pews. But as far "a their
own lives have been concerned they
have no Christian experience and have
never openly confessed Jesus Christ as
their Saviour. They have never done
anything to show their devotion to
God as consecrated disciples of Christ.
And yet II you should ask these men
today II they expected to reach heaven
they would instantly answer: "Of
course. OF course, of course, The
home OF my youth was a Christian
home. am a child of the covenant
My father was good Christian man.
My mother prayed over me from the
time l was born until she died. Why
should not go where they areY'
Oh, yes, my friend, you would GER