The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1905-11-15
THE PULPIT.
AN ELOQUENT SUNDAY SERMON By
BISHOP LEONARD.
Subject Giving Freely.

Church the ri. Rev. William A. Leon.
ard, Bishop Of Ohio. preached Sunday
morning on the subject, "Giying Free.
IT," from the text Matthew ks;
Freely ye have received, freely give"
The preacher said:
Our blessed Lord had just endowed
His apostles with some of His power.
lie had granted them authority to
preach, to heal the sick, to baptize
converts and to hay the foundation OF
His church. AS all power in heaven
and OH earth had been conferred upon
Him. so now. He imparts the ire
mendous donation to them. This is
what is meant by the divine origin
of the ministry. But this power and
those gifts must be utilized; they can
not be retained or buried; they must
be dispersed abroad. They are given
only for service. Freely ye have re.
ceived. freely give In some measure
we must generously give to the world.
These words, however. may be ia
ken from their primary place, so that
they have a general reference and ap-
plication for every child of the king
dom, and thus we use them to-day for
our instruction and guidance. This
text, Freely ye have received, freely
give is classic in its clear expression
and in its worldwide application to
literature. science. music-in the art
of centuries: and many races find their
ideal in this fact, for Christ. the In
carnate, is Himself God. Christ is
here in onr human nature since the
period Of His incarnation. You can
not drive Him forth. for He has found
room fer residence in the very heart
of this old world. It is of this con-
scious Hberality Of God to us that l
want to speak. and. Of the sincere and
willing response which we ought to
make to Him for His gifts to US: Free
~ ye have received. freely give The
gospel Of our Father has this word
give written ali through. Its first
letter is the initial of His own name.
Its first introduction in the Garden Of
Eden and a picture of the Divine Pa
rent. whose hand is ever outStretched
with loving intention to U.S., and 1t is
His desire that we should realize this.
The Bible is replete with the story OF
His giving and our receiving. Read
your Bible this year with this thought
in your minds. Recall what God has
given to His children. and you will be
amazed at the sum-; it will be such a
great one that at least you will be
constrained to sing a benedicite. to
praise God for His goodness: you will
cordially begin to appreciate how free
~ ye have received Is it not well to
make some sort of a tally. to run up
our account with God? We who take
so much for granted and simply accept
the blessings He gives US without a
word of thanks. We think Of them
and use them as If they were ours
and are sometimes angry if we happen
to miss or lose them. We have re-
ceived so much and so freely from
Him that we have omitted Him and
His relationship from U calculations.
We have credited Him only with our
spiritual blessings-our religious priv
ileges. the church and sacraments. of
course. cur salvation. But what about
the ordinary things that He never for
gets. that He never neglects? He
keeps His work going on every day in
the year. while we, like the children
Of our modern time. are satiated with
luxury. We are aroused sometimes.
as at Christmas time, to realize how
good God is.
"'Freely ye have received. freely
give Thus He gave out Of His gen.
erous heart the very creation itself:
the world and all in it, at the very
hour Of it's conception. its power Of
production. teeming life. vegetable and
animal. We take possession Of it;
we bargain and barter its fields and
focks and herds; we call it ours; we
call the land after Jul own name. But
these things are not ours. They are
His. He controls. He directs and per-
mits; we are but the tenants Of His
will,
"Then consider in the next place His
providence. That is, the continuous
remembrance Of our needs-food. raj
ment. climate. and so On. The seasons
that God only swings round in their
course; the sunshine-think Of the sun
shine, that is Gods gift. Suppose He
covers over the sun for n day! Man
cannot. with all his genius. manufac-
ture another. Suppose it stops shining
for twenty-four hours. Such a chill of
ice would result that all life would
go out. Do you ever thank God for
the sunshine? No. We take 1t for
granted-it belongs to us-we consider
it our Inherent right.
"God gives us power as we'll as crea-
ton to utilize. So lavishly spread
that all man has to do is to pluck the
fruits of it. We dig mines, sail ships,
write books. paint pictures: 1t is only
the exercise of power which God
gives. Wealth. competency. wages. all
the capacity of power-God grants it
all. He gives the brains. the ingenu-
ity, the business. the opportunity for
every advancement and all you and l
have to do is to utilize all the power
He gives us. Some other men use
these and prosper: other men waste
them and are failures in life: but
those whe are opportunists in the best
sense gain rewards. Do you ever real
ize that God could becloud and OBJ.
scure your faculties of reason so that
you would become Insane in a mo-
LEent? He might be excused from so
doing because of your ~ingratitude.
your neglect of Him. for all these
things you call yours are His. / often
wonder how many successful men can
retain their self respect. car make
their treatment Of God agree with
their ethics. They never enter His
house to thank Him and yet He asks
, them to do so. They are getting on
without Him they believe. but they
a,e as helDIeSS and .1OwerleSs as the
weakest imaginable thing. They are
absolutely His dependents in whom
they have their being. How long suf-