The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-03-08

Made Up-sNo 5IOral Blanks or Neutral charactersn-"aave No Fear for she Fu,ure.D Rev. Robert Bell of St. Paurs church occupied the pulpit at that church Sun day evening and he preached an elo- ouent and instructive sermon, his text being taken from the fourteenth chapter of St. Paurs epistle to the Romans, the 7th and Sth vesres. It was in part as follows:
 For none of US liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. For whether we live. we live unto the Lord and whether we die we die unto the Lord; whether we live therfore or die, we are the Lord's.'
 The text forms part. of the second lesson for this evening. After the enumeration of some things more or less indifferent the apostle states sim ole but exceedingly important truth in the words just quoted. That men live and die we know full well, any attempt to prove that would be certainly need- less if not foolish. Two great facts are ever with us. I am not so sure, however, that another fact, no less cer- tain, contained in this seventh verse, that no one ever lives or dies to him self is kept clearly in view Observe the emphasis put on single personality suggested by no one and no man. Each man is placed in the world as an individual, but as such, surrounded by multitudes of his fellows. His being there is not dependent on his own will or act A higher power has given to him the privilege to live, with his ability to think and to utter thought, to labor and to love, to have and to give, to pray and to serve, and these make up bestowal unspeakably great; and that this blessing may be rightly used in the interests of his moral devel- opnlent he must needs move in the so- ciety of others-to do differently would be contrary to his very nature. God- made adaptability fits him for, and an essential quality of his disposition de- mands, such an intercourse.
 Why will men persist in willful way wardness? Why, when good and evil are put before thenn-light and darkness liberty and bondage-Christ and Ba- rabbas-they so often make their choice in favor of evil and darkness and bond age and Barabbas. Let it not be for gotten that they do so to their own injury. The world has grown very much older since Belshazzar's days, and yet idol worship has not died out, and there are many, alas, still to be found who worship the work of their own hands. The broad and the narrow ways have long been, and it has not cecased to be true that many enter the wide gate. How often we hear it said, T would do better if could, but there are so rnanay things against me-my own proneness to err-so many obstacles to overcome-it is so much easier to drift than to resist-so much easier to sur render than to fight-and then the oft repeated, T am no worse than anybody else" there are so many others anyway I may not be so badly off after all, see- ing am only one in the crowd We cannot get behind any such excuse, for though all may go astray, it is, not withstanding, on the part of every one a turning to his own way, which may mean at the same time not a little in the force of it's example for other lives. Whatever may be the influence from without there is no such thing as evading ones own accountability. To say that the ruler should answer for himself and not the subject, the leader and not the rank and file, would be to take away from some the dignity which is the heritage of all-there can be no rulers without subjects-no lead CTS without followers.
 As someone has said, "There are no moral blanks; there are no neutral characters We are either the sower that sows and corrupts or the light that splendidly Eliminates, but being dead or alive every man speaks As life is not, neither is death, a matter that concerns ourselves alone, and al though the latter causes the severance of the vital relationship, yet it leaves the result of our influence to work or whilst we are removed from the pos sibility of controlling or altering it. We have dealt thus far with only portion of our text. For none of us liveth te himself and no man dieth to himself Let us in the few minutes left direct our thoughts to the other verse whicl describes the relationship of the Chris tian to his Lord, and shows the compre- hensiveness of the claim of Christ upor His servants. In life and death alike they are responsible to Him because through all changes they are His, re- deemed by price and that His owr precious blood. For, to use the words of another, "Ae He died to acquire, SC He rose to claim and exercise thai right of purchase and dominion over the redeemed which is not interrupted even by death itself'' His divine lord ship has been in the most real way es- tablished The Master truly lived anc suffered and died and rose again. Goo the Father has manifested Himself te the world in the life of His Son, anG the Son is the pattern and the power for all who would be His disciples Christ is or should be the supreme ob ject in the life of every one of His followers. If Christianity means any thing it means something of a very personal nature, and the true concep tion of religion is that which represents the close connection-yea more the liv ing union between the Lord and Hi. sssl8.s + < I sE .s.!