The Penn's Grove record., 1905-08-04

AN ELOQUENT SUNDAY SERMON BY
THE REV. CHARLES C. AMES,
Subject: The Glory of Simple Rectitude

sermon was delivered Sunday by the
Rev. Charles G. Ames. 1t is entitled
THE Glory of Simple Rectitude." and
was preached from the text, BLESSED
are they that hunger and thirst after
righteousness, for they shall be filed"
Matt. V. 6.
Blessed are they that hunger and
thirst after righteousness, for they
shall be filed" The man who saw
that has a claim on the reverent and
grateful attention of all mankind. He
gives voice to the universal reason
and conscience; he inspires the highest
and hottest hope. Heaven and earth
may pass away, but the words that
give life are themselves immortal.
Like the u~tterances of the sibyl they
are simple, unadOrned, unperfumed,
and reaching through the ages, because
of God"
Here is n sign of truth. It affects
us like a part Of the permanent order
OF things: it is all of one stuff with
the word and with our w proper
nature. 1t has the ring of reality.
Like sunlight it carries its W evil
dence; and to the sane mind it rec
ommends itself as sunlight does to the
healthy eye; but it is concealed from
our grossness by its own simplicity
and transparency. Who realizes this
splendid miracle of the common day?
In b same way we have become too
familiar with some of the most OBJ
vious and important aspects of spirit
ual truth. These Beatitudes of .Jesus
may seem to be worn smooth. We have
heard them from our intimacy: their
force and beauty appeal to unrespond-
ing hearts.
If we could have stood, one day long
ago, among the Syrian peasants, on the
slope of a hill in Galilee, and listened
to these sayings as they fell fresh and
clear cut as newly minted gold from
the living lips of the new prophet.
perhaps we, too, should have been
"astonished at the doctrine" we should
have wondered at the gracious words
that proceeded out of His MOUTH
Did it not seem as if Nature herself
had at last found a voice, and as if
that voice were speaking straight to
her children, saying clearly and cheer
lily, yet soberly and solemnly. what all
men vaguely think or feel, but "a
rarely put into words?
Yet these Beatitudes are remarkable
for what they do not say. The SEN
fences of Jesus seldom run in the
grooves of old commonplace. He does
not sit there, like the scribe of the
synagogue, c%omplacently reciting. in
tones that make men sleepy, the vir-
tues and piety of a dead ancestry,
as if it were enough to have Abraham
for a father and Moses for a law
glver. He pronOunces no blessing on
religious responsibility. decorous con-
formity, dOctrinal sOundness. loyalty to
the standard, fidelity to the traditions,
or even diligence to the routine of OBJ
seryance and devotion. Any priest in
the audience must have felt that a
slight was put upon his great office, as
if the speaker had forgotten to do it
honor. The temple, the altar, and the
sacred books are all mentioned with
respect, yet they somehow fall into
the background. Humanity is brought
directly fronting Divinity. as if the
pure heart might see God and the i'm
pure might know the cause of their
blindness.
Many a man in that company must
have hung his head as the rebuke
came home to him. Complacent world
lings, men proud of their estates or
their learning doubtless stood there.
expecting that He would confirm the
worlds vulgar Judgment which says.
Blessed are the prosperous, the popu-
lar, the cultivated and the comfort
able" But 40. The lips that opened
in blessing made them shrink as if He
had uttered a curse. Every world fell
like a blow on their idols. The vir-
tues which had strutted so proudly
before God and man began to unmask
as ugly vices as He went on to say:
Blessed are the men of humble mind.
the men of good will, the merciful. the
pure in heart. Yea, blessed are they
who hunger and thirst for righteous
ness, so that for the sake of being
right they dare and bear all losses
and pains, and willingly let their
names be cast out as evil"
No comfort here for the. s~elf-right-
eous, the self-satisfed, the self-willed.
the self-seeking. But scattered through
the company We're men and women
who felt their emptiness and poverty,
who took no credit for their ancestry.
their accomplishments or their social
standing, who hardly dared so much as
to lift up their eyes to heaven. Yet, as
they listened. all the world above.
around, within, seemed to change.
The awful Jehovah, whom they had
thought of rs throned afar in threat
ening majesty, seemed a smiling
Father who wished His children to be
near Him and to be as perfect as Him.
self. They drew in deeper draughts
of the country air; their very emptiness
seemed to make so much more room
for God and goodness. Their cry of
inward need changed into childlike
trust.
Here was indeed a messenger of
good tidings. Here was q doctrine
as worthy of man as it was worthy of
God. And does not all the best
thought of our own time still travel
this way? Has the weary search of
mankind through the ages found any
thing better than a righteousness
which is rooted in sonship to the
highest, and which blossoms into SER
vice to the lowest? Has not our clear
est conception of the divine ever been
an expansion and idealization of the
best qualities of the human? The n
fact which we most certainly know
is Our own existence; and that fact, if
we look deep enough and honestly
enough. we shall find the revelation
and witness of God. For. when a man
has rightly reyerenced the DEGREES of
conscience, he has heard the Voice;
when he has really made acquaintance
with his own nature, he has seen the
Face.
There are times when l feel entirely
satisfied with this inward proof of
realities. There are high moments
when there is need of no other evil
dence of God than the fact that 1 am
alive. And there are times when the
sight of a good man. or something seen
in the face of a child, or some stir in
Nature that affects me like a footstep
carries with it conviction and assur-
ance. Along with this feeling comes
always the perception that goodness is
what 1 am made for. Not even a voice
out of the sky could tell me more
plainly that the Holy Being wills that
], too, should be holy. Along with
the reproof comes the encouragement,
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