The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1905-06-14
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SUNDAY SERMON

A Scholarly Discourse By
DIR. NJ. w. Stryker.


President of Hamilton College, Clinton,
N. Y, occupied the pulpit Of the Han
son Place M. Il. Church in the absence
of DIR. Locke, the pastor. He preached
the following sermon on "Service:'
My text Is that verse in the twelfth
chapter Of the epistle to the Romans In
which the apostle says that there are
some things hard to be understood
which the unlearned and the unstable
wrest to their own destruction. 1t Is
true that Satan often hides In .he dark
passages of Gods word. 1t is also true
that the hardest things to understand
are not those that the intellect has to
unravel and explain, but the things
that concern the deeds. For my part,
whoever else may have found 1t hard,
1 have not found the ninth chapter of
Romans as hard as the twelfth. Even
IL did not do 1t very well 1t was easier
to think straight than 1t is to be good.
Ii Is q wonderful thing that, after all
these mighty, reverberating words, that
search the very heights and depths of
the plan of God that make this letter
SO compact up to this point, 1t all broad.
ems out in the most natural fashion
into administrative matters. / notice
that the thing about the twelfth chap
ter is that it does not say anything
about what we must not do. 1t Is
always true that IL you get light In
darkness will go out. The way to keep
our hearts empty of evil is to fill them
up to the brlm with good. We do not
get the darkness out of this room with
a broom, but with a match or n spark.
DIR. Thomas Chalmers used to speak
about the "expulslve power of the new
affection" To many man who never
amounted to anything the honest, pure
love OF true woman has been an In
centive to him to make something of
himself for her sake; and whenever the
love of God comes into the human
heart 1t drives out evil and seeks to
clothe itself with living and loyal ac-S
tion; and IL there is any one who thinks
the deed is easy and the doctrine hard,
that Is not my experience.
l want to speak tonight upon this
special admonition to service which
Paul says is reasonable. God does
not ask anything that is not rational.
Christianity and Christian living can
give account of themselves. There is
nothing so silly as to be a sinner. 1t
makes angels weep and devils laugh
to see man trying to serve God and
himself. That man is walking north
and south; 1t is straddle. Now Paul
says it is a reasonable service. He
said, try 1t, put it to the proof, and he
was an expert who had tried 1t for
thirty years. / am going to take one
special line of analogy. You have
often heard it said Of man of intense
activity that he was perfect steam
engine" and that would be said more
often If there were mtre men who
were what they ought to be, "a perfect
steam engine" | think there Is a SER
mon in that, and am going to try
to get at it. You will help. You will
think a great many things which ]
won't and preach a sermon to you:
selves about being perfect steam en-
gines. For our present purposes we
will talk about that particular style of
steam engine, the railway locomotive.
America is doing a great business in
making these, and wherever they are
sent-Africa or South America or Asia,
every one of them Is kind of mission
ary force, a living testimony of that
force and skill which are resident in
free mankind. The call now is loud
and clear for Americans who shall be
more committed to teach the world
and sinew and muscle are called into
the service of God. This is no time for
limping or lettering.
Look out upon this world and see
how God is compressing and packing
it together. If we won't take our
Gospel in the missionary ship, it shall
go in the warship. Somehow men are
going to be brought together. We are
a conceited lot, we Americans, but we
do not like to be told so. We have
good thing, and like to keep it. We
say of the Chinese, "shut them out;
put them aside" And perhaps of some
others, also, Don't let those good-for-
nothing Russians, Poles and Italians
come" Bless your heart! Your great
grandfather or grandmother was moth.
ing but an emigrant-mine was
Dutchman, at that. We are all the
children of immigrants; we are all in
truders on this continent. The only
Americans are not now citizens, out
live on pensions. We have stolen ev-
erything they had that was in sight.
You had better not talk about that.
Gods plan Is to keep the races of this
world marching and moving. Yet,
somehow, some cannot get it through
thcil tutlT
heads, their noodles, hard with cruel
ambitions and paltry PRIDE that when
the Scripture says, He made of one
blood all nations" it means what ii
says. If you won't learn 1t by peace
you will learn it by war; If you won't
learn 1t in Bibles. you will learn 1t by
bullets; If you won't learn 1t in packed
Europe and Asia and go there, God will
bring those people here. Let them
come. / laugh at all this talk about
checking immigration. King Canute
might just as well have tried to throw
back the waves with his mandate. In
a certain sense it is proper to say that
God Is a mighty utilitarian. 1t is a
great time for service; we need to wake
up, it was nearly daylight, 1t is dawn,
great things are coming. Therefore. |
think that our churches, colleges,
schools and homes ought to engage in
the manufacture of locomotives.
That wonderful, intricate engine
who made it? Did baby locomotive
grow up into that great machine? You
say it is evolution. Evolution de-
scribes the way thing Is made, but
never made anything. The process of
making is evolution. II you ask me
If l believe God made this world by
process, say yes. That is the way He
makes everything. When He makes
anything that can grow He gives 1t
chance to grow. His plans are made
and don't care where He began! l
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