The Caucasian. (Shreveport, La.) 1900-192?, 1905-05-16

tcI uocliot III utl. AL, yes. DFdlll pow
er and perseverance, alone do not built
the strong. high towers Of life. If We
DO not admire Satan We must at least
as speaker once said, grant that he
Is persevering.'
! This para BILE was spoken by Christ e
teach a spiritual lesson az we'll as q
temporal one If to make a great
earthly success we must cOnsecrate our
brains, our bodies and life to that par
, ticular work, how much more. then
/ must we cOHSecrate our minds and
! hearts to Jesus Christ to help in the
spiritual work Of upbuilding his king
dom? If we must have preparation
and perseverance and true moral worth
to build the walls Of a temporal tower
how much more must 2 have true
preparation and perseverance, and NOR
al character to build the walls Of our
spiritual structure? IF any man." says
! Christ In the verse preceding this par
| able, hate not his father and mother
and wife and children and brethren and
sisters yea, and his own life also-he
cannot be my disciple.' That means
If man Is not willing to give up all
| for Christ then Christ can be none Of
his Are you and ready to make this
| sacrifice, to build our spiritual watch
| towers today? Are we ready to make
the necessary preparations?
Perseverance In Building.
We opened this sermon behind the
l. choolroom desk of the teacher Are
you and l ready to go and sit at
Chrlst's feet and learn Of him? Are we
ready to accept his teachings and re-
celve him as our Saviour? Christ says
He that believeth and Is baptized
shall be saved, but he that believcth
not shall be damned" He says again.
Il am the way, the truth and the life;
40 man cometh unto the Father but by
me-" Are not Christ's words clear
enough upon this subject? Are we
ready to make the necessary prcpara-
tons for the building of our spiritual
watchtowers by becoming one with him
through the atonement Of the cross?
Having accepted Christ after we
have laid the foundations Of our watch
towers, are we going to persevere in
the building? We have read that
Thomas A. Edison becomes so absor,-
ed when working on great invention
that he will shut himself up In his lab
oratory and stay there for days and
weeks. He will not leave his office
even for his meals, but has them
brought to him. We have been told
that when George Westinghouse was
perfecting his famous car brake he
could talk about nothing else. When
ne walked along the Pittsburg streets
and would meet a friend out Of his
pocket ut once would come the patent
On the street he would talk and talk
to prove that his brake was feasible
We have read how the great workers,
the great inventors, the great artists,
those who have won the great success
es Of the world. have thought nothing
Of giving up ten, twenty, thirty, forty,
dfty years Of perseverance to the ac-
complishment Of their life's purpose
Shall we not be willing to give the same
perseverance to the service of Christ?
Lastly, we must offer to Jesus more
than proper preparation and persevcr-
ance. Can we bring to his service
true character or a spotless moral life?
All, think this last is the rub with
many Of us! The reason our spiritual
towers are only half completed is that
we are not willing to give up our pet
sins. The younger Pliny wrote
strange, weird account Of the tribe Of
Psylli. They were immune to the poi
son Of snake bites because oil their
lives they were accustomed to handle
these poisonous serpents rs pets. They
fondled them and put them to sleep
with their little children. When one of
their ambassadors, Hexagon by name,
came to Rome to prove to the consuls
that no poisonous serpent could kill
him, he allowed himself to be placed in
a bed surrounded by swarms Of wrig-
Cling, death dealing adders But though
Hexagon could sleep among poisonous
no true Christian can build a
spiritual watchtower with the poison
GUS serpent Of sin clasped around his
breast and heart. Are you ready, O
man, to give up that sin, that pet sin,
for Christ? Are you ready to offer to
Jesus Christ the tribute Of pure life!
This Is call from God to you. In
the far east the Mohammedan mosques
are fanked by minarets. or tall watch
towers. There at certain hours of the
day the priests come, and upon these
they cry aloud: Come t.
prayers! Come to prayers! All yc chill
dren, come to prayers" Then the Mo
no matter where they
may be, whether as Arabs in the de:,-
ert princes and princesses In their pal
aces, merchants in their streets or Ia
borers In the streets, kneel, bow their
heads to the ground and pray. Oh. my
friends, shall the call Of the MoIlam-
medan priests in the minarets Of the
far east have a more potent influence
over Mohammed's disciples than this
call Of service and conservation which
Christ makes to us? Will you offer to
Christ your heart? VIII you give to
him your unremltting service? Will
you come to him with clean hands and
q clean, moral life?
copyright 1905. by Louis Klopsch.]