The Penn's Grove record., 1906-02-02
THE PULPIT.
AN ELOQUENT SUNDAY SERMoN 81
DR.. OHIO T. BARTHOLOW.
Subject; The Limitations of Life.

Brooklyn, n. Y.-Dr. Ohio f. Barth-
GLOW, paJtor of the James NJ. z. Church,
preached Sunday on "The Limitations
of Life" The text was chosen from
Colossians wis: REMEMBER my
bonds" DR.. Bartholow said:
1t is hard to conceive how the glow
ing and co~mprehensiv. 4tements of
the first three chapters of PauI's Epis-
tie % the Cor .ians could be rein
forced. Each sentence is so full of
divine truth, it fairly overfows with
its Chrisuy abr"dan !. Yet with the
words of our text Paul id most posi-
lively and b 'utif Ill. reinforce every
other sentence of this intensely spir-
itual epistle. He did it in that charm
ingly ~inferential way that added the
warmth of the heart to the purely
logical statements of the mind. In writ
ing to the Colossians of Christs divin-
ity and of the complete and joyous
loyalty every soul should render to
Him, Paul in the few words of our text
delicately refers to the example found
in his own experience. Remember
my bonds" This was an infusion of
experience to all the preceding pre-
cepts that developed al i~ncalculable
force in that unlimited element Of
sympathy which were at once opera
tive.
Paul had no intention of glorifying
himself or his sufferings, neither did
he sentimentally long for human com
fort. This very brief allusion to him.
self in our text was but to strengthen
and confirm that feeling which would
eXalt and glorify Christ Jesus the Lord.
What Nh cfiap IN CoI0cca could Iox,o
read or heard Paurs letter and not
have felt when he came to the words,
Remember my bonds" this man
writes out of life's experience and of
what he knows-not like so many of
the religionists and philosophers of
that time out of his imaginations and
dreams.
Yet another inference is contained in
out text. 1t is that which emphasizes
the fact of life's limitation. In writ
ing his advices and directions to the
Colossians Paul did the very best his
position would allow him to do. He
wished and prayed to do more. That
more was to be with them In person,
to give them all that he felt was in
personal effort for Christ and His
kingdom. Over against this wish,
this desire. this prayer, was his physi-
cal imprisonment-a limitation. PAU
was chained. The things he would do
he could not do.
The fact Of life's limitation, its rec
Ognition and resolution are suggestively
presented in these words of the heart.
The fact of limitation is apparent
everywhere, in everything and every
person. Go to the uttermOst bound
aries of space-tO the SUI and stars,
limitations are there, their boundaries
are fixed that they cannot pass. GRAY
i~tation, chemical affinity and other
agents OF law bind them with inyisi-
BILE chains to their limits. AS with
these mighty spheres, so with the tint
est atom; the plane of activity and x
preston is fixed. The reign of law
marks insuperable barriers.
In persons as well as in things the
fact of limitation is strikingly mani
fest. The body in which we live is
clearly confined in bonds. Each body
has an amount of nervous and muscu-
lar energy which limits all that may
be received or given. The bonds of
place and heredity bind each man to a
very narrow zone of physical and
mental activity. That a man is what
he eats and where he lives is a certain
degree manifestly true.
The spiritual in man is limited in
all its expression and life by the pres
ence of the carnal. Paul's pathetic
cry: 20, wretched man that l I'M;
who shall deliver Lie from the body of
this death?' is applicable to all the
children of Adams race. These dis
%i1a&SA~e o.a &IA ~aoa1-1 e - a,,1 !
limitation. the bonds that all men in
their Investigations and experience
must remember because they are of
themselves. Within the general limit
ations there are special and personal
limitations. Mental endowments, dis
position, health and grace are largely
determinative in establishing the indi-
vidual bonds that cannot be passed.
This fact is so around us, within
us and above us. it is indeed strange
that we should be called upon to re-
member it. Yet when we consider
losses and pains in other lives and in
our WI life. also the insists in posi-
tons and office because men will per.
sist in trying to do things to which
they are forbidden because of bonds
Qimitations). we are sure that we need
give to this injunction a careful and
continuous attention.
The nervou; p~r0strations, the brain
fag, the strokes of apoplexy, the creep
ing ,assitudes that seize so many of our
bright and ,nergetic people are in a
great maiorit- of instances but evil
dences of failure to know or remember
the physical and mental limitations
to which life is conditioned.
The cause of the failure of the reli-
gion of Christ in many lives may be
discovered here. The world is so much
with the people, all energies are so
completely exhausted by its business,
its society, its ambitions and its pleas
ures that the purely spiritual exercise
has but little to draw upon.
The spirit may be never so willing
and favOrably inclined, it matters not.
when the limitations are reached there
can be but little or no response to the
high calls and privileges of Christ.
The spirit is willing, but the flesh
is weak" was the loving explanation
of Christ for the sad future of the dis
ciples to watch with Him in that dark
hour of Gethsemane. But why was the
flesh weak? Was it not because all its
energies had been exhausted in other
channels than in the great one for
which they should have been con-
served?
Failure to record and recognize per-
sonal limitations and to be directed by
them causes not only lapse and disas-
ter in Jul service to Christ, but oft
times the essential breaking of the
moral law. Our fathers were accus
toned to keep the commandments, to
worship God and reverence His day
by preparing hours in advance for that
most solemn and imperative duty.
Saturday preparation of body and spir-
it was, in the thought of our Puritan
ancestors. essential to the real keep
ing of those commandments that en-
force our duty to God. They had a
fine recognition of the limitations in
herent in the body. Their preparation
for the Lords day was a remembrance
of bonds" 1t is only the fashion in
these progressive days to ridicule the
religious practices of these fathers of
oxr country. With all of which ridi-
Guile we have no sympathy, continuing