The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1905-05-21
To Command and 10 Serve.
ny PASTOR WAGNER.
Copyright, 1905, by Mcclure, Phillips & Coz

their lifetime, but even after their death,
BY a curious revival OF their memory.
one Is Obliged to think that mankind
sometimes behaves like the poor woman
who worshps the husband who Ill treats
her Brutality Is looked upon as n sign
OF strength; the contempt OF others Is
held 10 be superiority and almost q proof
OF the right TO domincer
BY one avcnging word Christ destroys
the Fictitious and ridiculous greatness OF
vanity; brands the sanguinary crimes
OF domination by the strength Of the
sword. the blasphemy of spiritual .domi-
nation over mems souls and with one
gesture that shows II part OF the Al.
mighty Power of Eternal Truth He says:
"But We shall not be so''tha. is to say,
II you are men: If you feel what n won
derful being you are; If sometimes when
brushing away the superficial dust you
see the sign of God shining on the metal
OF your soul; If you know Of what gold
you are made; II you know what tslvine
pride should exist within a man and
what a sentiment of dccp-seated dig
nifty should be buried in tho roots OF his
life if.y you are my dsciples;. IL you have
n little goodness as we'll as little pride,
then Eye shall not be So 1t could
not be, for you know what Is true great
ness That greatness Is not In outward
and superficial signs, In titles, in tho
| hicrarchical inslgnias. 1t does not bow
down before a label, but before the very
esrercc itself of things.
No spirit has penetrated so deeply to
the bottom Of life as has the spirit Of
the gospels. 1t is a formidable spirit Of
superficial vanties and pretenslons. be-
hind which there Is emptiness. 1t is
spirit that is essentially hostile to the
broad and boastful frontages behind
which there is no building: 1t is the
shirt OF high equality (for there Is an
equality and a leveling in abjection), butt.
is the spirit of high equality Of soul be-
fore God. And IN that spirit which 1t Is
so difficult to spread abroad, because of
, the baseness, the blindness and the in-
credulity OF men, there is all the power
OF the future. s
Nothing is so great as simplicity that
recognizes only that which Is solid; that
behind every word-wha tever may be its
| ndornment--looks for It's true meaning.
| scrutinizes the sincerity OF the SOUL
| that under the garments In which con-
ventionalty or caste, worldly position Or
| even great position have clothed a man
seeks for the heart and pierces through
| toaits very marrow.
! Before that spirit there Is no respect
OF persons. Shorn OF all superficial
L
| pure humanity. Just as we are. to sohe
weighed IN the true scales. oh, l admit
! that IL Is a destroying and terrible spirit
| to supericiality and those who have raa-4
son to fear It hold It in adherence: but
| 1T is a salutary. good. a tonifyng and
nourishing spirit that forms disciples
| who can stand upright; 1t Is fortifying
Esprit that makes a convinced and deter
| mined man become an irreducible post
against which the world is shattered be-.
| cause that man has become a conscience
| He has a3hgh mandate that has come
to him from beyond the sun and the
| stars, the mandate Of truth itself. Of di-
| vine justice. !sf3sf " 1890 ~ iF
My brethren thistis asrdoctrine that.
induces US to bring a3hgh' soulsinto OUR
| apparently small task whentiwe2 serve,
4 and to bring an humble soul into our
/ apparently great TIA SIX, when Give COM
l mand. That is a doctrine that Christ
has impregnated atsseach step Of His:
/ life and which is the clearest sign of His
disciples That doctrine has been well
expressed, for instance by the great
i Luther, when he preached his magnn-s
cent gospel to the natons, and resumed
| it in these words: "a Christian is n free
lord dlsposing of all Sthings-a Christian
is a servant, submissive in all things"
That spirit is the antipodes OF the
| old barbarous autocracy.
That is the spirit, not servlle or obse-
| quious, but enamored of free obedience,
| OF voluntary servitude. that we should
endeavor to acquire. The summit Of real
greatness is reached when we serve our
! neighbor with love and with the deep
consciousness Of collaborating with the
/ divine action itself.
1 The office of n servant Is the very work
Of God.
4 Those who study nature in its sound
mt op1 TO ta,o,
a spirit to which nothing is worthy OF
| neglect that dcspiscs nothing an actlv-t
i ity that serves with gladness and with
intelligence in all the smallest circum-
stances that arise in the economy of uni
I. versal life In the Joy and the Intelli-
| gence of that service there is no place
4 for the feeling that an inferior office is
being filled; nothing that Is real and
| necessary can be kuse.
Christ has said: 40 ye therefore.
| children Of God, who makes rain to fall
on the just and the unjust who makes
1 the sun rise on the good and the wicked"
Be We, therefore. he might also say, thou
| who thinkest thyself too great and who
| believe that some tasks hre not worthy
| OF thee; be therefore the disciple OF that
| God who Is 30 humble that the rays OF
| His sunshine upon the most wretched
! and the darkest corners and beam upon
| the flowers at tho bottom of the Valleys
I, Be We therefore servant Of that God
to whom nothing Is small. Help us to
destroy in mankind those evil feelings Of
contempt or envy, those wrong feelings
that arise from our mistaken and wicked
conception of human dignity. and par
| tlcuarly of labor.
All! OF all heresies, whatever they
may be, whatever may be the object,
to which they belong. Of all heresies tho
most fatal Is that which despises man
for his work. when that work Is useful
but humble.
There is no greater, no more harmful,
no more destructive social error, there IS
no more radical Infection of human mem
tally and of public spirit than that
| which arises from that poisoned spring
whereof we sometimes noursh our chill
dren, when we tell them that there Is
| some kind of work that is not only, hu-
initiating. but also dishonoring
/ my, ,e 1,,hxy hCfOra the great