Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1905-11-30

or the community. He contributes
nothing, but rather takes away. This
lame man in the story lay begging.
There are physical and moral beg
gars. but the worst pauperism is
moral pauperism. The man who lacks
sufficient force to pilot himself through
life and never creates optimism and
moral stamina out of his own life
would, if the world were to surrender
it's moral power, commit suicide. If
you notice, the chief contributors to
this mans slstenance were the people
on the way to the temple. They gave
to him suffident to keep him alive and
then passed on to worship. And 1
think they are still the chief contrib
utors to theIsustenance of the morally
lame man. This poor fellow may have
laughed in his sleeve at the religious
devotees as they passed on, and the
true, earnest men and women are the
people who are supporting morally
those who sometimes even sneer at
their moral earnestness. 1t is those
who are maintaining the rest of the
community. Man lives not by bread
alone, but, las he is sustained physi-
cally throu gh the industry of those
who produce bread and the necessities
of physical life, and without which
there would be physical famine, so we
live by moral bread and we are much
more dependent on that in the last
analysis of life than on the physical,
for a nation like this lives upon ideas
and love more than on any material
thing. Take these away and all our
boasted material progress falls like
house of cards, as did the glorious ma
terial wealth of Rome because there
was not behind it the manhood to sus-
tain it, Our world lives through the
industry of the truest men and women
in it in the moral sphere, and If there
is no love being generated by unseH
fish hearts and no faith by pure minds
and no moral inspiration by brave
souls. a nation is doomed. There are
those who not only do not contribute
moral strength, but there are those
who take away the moral bread baked
by the labor Of good men in the fiery
furnace Of trial, and throw it away
and sneer at every pure and divine
thing. They are the Infamous de-
stroyers Of that which is the pillar Of
power.
Our problem to-day is the lame man.
1t is a patriotic, economic and relig
iOus one, than which there is none
more practical. The problem before
the church is to set the lame man on
his feet SO that he can make his own
way in things Of the heart and become
a contributor to the moral health of
the world. Let us observe. how Peter
and John faced the problem. First.
they faced it squarely. They did not
dodge it. They We're not too anxious
about getting to the temple While
worship has its supreme place in the
religious life of every man, there is
something else. They did not criticise
the poor fellow; they helped him. And
our question is how they helped him? !?
They did not give him money. They
had none, and they did not feel the
pressure of the limitation either; they
felt they could solve the problem
without it. The silver and gold in the
moral sphere are not good and con-
genial surroundings, congenial work
and good advice and ideals. The Chris
tan Church does not stand merely for
phiiosophic help and the gospel of
good surroundings. Peter and John six
months before would not have been