The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1905-12-08
A Lay
Sermon
By
The Editor.

toxlcation in the parents, infants are
not aHected before birth, but come
INTO the world healthy and strong.
IL Is after their birth that the unfav-
oraoie influences begin to teli---im-
proper food, partial starvation and
iack OF care in infancy--the same bad
conditions. along with impure air,
want OF exercise and Fairgrounds,
EVIL compaDiORshipi in the cutters dur
ing Misunderstanding, drinking,
gambling, idleness.
There is a physical standard which
Is the inheritance of the people as a
whole, and although the baby's
father and mother may have be-
come puny and weak from poverty
and unwhOlesome surroundings, the
baby when born reverts to the racial
type. and if properly cared for after
birth may possibly rival in strength
and physique the far-away Viking
ancestors.
SO, after all, and through all, pow
erty is the great curse of the world.
1t is a bar to mental, physical and
spiritual blessings. 1t is written in
infamy on every age aud in every
land. Educated, sensible, tolerant
men do not make war on individuals,
nor on wealth, nor would they in any
way limit the ambitions of men, but
they make war only on conditions
that produce inequalities, and per-
tn lap
than their share of the earth and the
fulness thereof---God's bounty---and
the great, bulk of mankind to own
largely less than their share.
The proposition is not denied that
the man who labors is entitled to the
fruit of his toll. But this is not the
case. He is largely deprived of the
fruit of his labor, and this is done,
not by the command and authority of
God, but by the mandates of men.
God has made no mistake in the
purposes of his creation. He has
made no distinction in his creatures.
True, He has made different types
and races, but every type is true to
its kind, and numerous as the types
and races of men are, teeming as the
population of the earth is, slowed
away in the womb of nature is an
abundance for all
But history proves that now, and in
all the countless ages of the past, the
toiler does not get his share.
There is poem that tells the story.
1t is entitled the Ninety and Nine''
mot Sankey's hymn of that name,
but an ode to the hosts of labor.
The following is one of the verses:
Their labor has made the wilderness bloom,
The forest before them falls,
Their skill has fashioned stately homes
And cities with marble halls,
But the one OWLS cities. and homes and lands
While the ninety and nine have empty hands,
If there be such a thing as the
'fatherhood of God and the brother
hood of man." why is this not a
church question? Why is it not the
mission and the business of the
churches to see that the gifts of God
material as well as spiritual---are
possessed by every human:creature---
they are all Gods children.
Why not make this world '.as it is
heaven"
Is the prayer ''Thy kingdomIcome,"
also chimera of the brain, a: mere
Pigment of the imagination?
With poverty obl1terated, this world
of ours would be habitation fit for
the angels.
Why turn our backs upon it and
give it over to Satan7
As God made it, it was so beautiful
that it received His blessing and bene-
diction. He pronounced it livery
good"
Shall Gods arm be shriveled? His
cornucopias of blessings turned only
into a few favored laps, while the
great bulk of his children cry of hun
ger in the wilderness,::in the sight of
plenty?
New life of zeal, activity, fearless
ness and fervor should be breathed
Into the churches, its ministers sent
out into the world of men as social
and economic missionaries and re-
formers, imbued with the high pur-