The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-03-01
'MR, COBB'S SERMON
ELoaUENr REMARKS OF HECTOR
 or ST. JOHNS.
Interesting and Instructive Discourse on Significance and Observance by the Church of the
 Lenten Season.

Lenten Season.
 At St. Johns Episcopal Church yes
 terday morning the rector, Rev. Ed- and instructive sermon on the observ- arce of Lent.
 He chose his text from Philippians iv, 8: T can do all things through Christ who strengtheneth me" Mir. Cobbs spoke as follows;
 There Is something peculiarly inspir- ing and hopeful in the thought that on this day and at this hour, the world over, hundreds of thousands of men and women and children elsewhere are gathered for the same purpose that brings us together here this morning. And that purpose is one far removed | from the ordinary motives that move mem it is essentially not of this mate rial world. and deals with forces above the natural. This purpose is spiritual one, and the work before us Is pro- test against the growing tendency in ourselves and in the world, to degener- ate into the material. to become merely | thinking animals.
 Think. then. of the power contained | in the associations of this hour; think of what stimulus and hope in the truth that from every part of this earth, ! earnest souls are turning today to same serious thoughts and high re- solves that have brought us together In the great churches of our cities throngs press on for admittance. In the lonely mission station in the Arc tic Ocean, the brave missionary gath CTS few faithful ones, and tells them of the meaning and work Of Lent. In theheart of the freat Chinese Empire, in the midst of vastest population of any country of our earth, surrounded by ignorance, superstition, prejudice, the church today is holding out the Beacon Light of Truth, and leading those unknown millions to the truth of Life. and to the God of all truth. Wherever we look, 1t is the same vision that we see, the same purpose drawing men together.
 We think how different are the lives that we have brought with us, the one from the other; how unlike are the
 homes from which we have stepped out this morning. Each heart caring with
 its own needs and failures and sorrows, each home so entirely distinct, with its
 own peculiar problems and perplexities. Then enlarge your vision and see not only this congregation, but see all the congregations in the world out of every nation and kindred and tribe; from all conditions of men--how how united this throng becomes when we see one motive and purpose-working in every heart. Sure ly it Is an inspiring and hopeful thought, and fact that ought to regis ter an uplift every year for the good of the cause of the kingdom of God. And yet there Is note of sadness and touch of despair connected with this picture. For this is not the first year, nor the first time that such a power has been launched upon the world. Ii is but the repetition of what has been going on since the early days of Chris tianity. There have been an innumerable
 number of Lents, and still the duty of repentance seems as far-reachfng as
 ever, and the reign of goodness and virtue as far remote as it was two thousand years ago.
 Take our own individual lives and see how little real value our past Lents | have been to us. See what 1t would mean now if he had made each Lent | tell, and we could number the victories over self and sin by the mile posts set | up at the close of each Lent.
 The Jews awoke and looked for the
 last time into the dead faces of their | old Egyptian enemy. and then, with | strength and faith they pressed on Into l new countries, to overcome new enc mics.
 | If we could but look back and say l here 1 overcame the sin of intemper-
 
 ! gled with the enemy of untruthfulness and prevailed. How real, how living, | our Lents would be-. And has not the difficulty with most | of us been that our ideas of the mean | ing of Lent have not been clear and definite; 1t has ever been to us 8 period associated with an increased number of services at the church, d certain amount of unpleasant fasting and ab- stinence from social gayeties. And | these things done. because for some vague reason the church has required | it of us, and people generally in our ! sphere of life are in the habit of doing. | these things. Exactly what the good 1 of this means, we are not clear, and when another and another Lent Is over.
 we return to our normal conditions of | life, to take up things just where we had laid them down, and to resume the | trend of our lives unchanged, and to go on once moro. doing the same things and in the same way as we have done l them for years.
 And. again. there are people who do
 have definite Ideas of the meaning of Lent, and who set before themselves certain tasks to perform, certain faults to rectify, certain services of kindness and of love to extend to the lowly and the sufferingi, and all during the days of Lent they faithfully and earnestly FOLLOW the LHIuBS hiNS haNp SNN
 before themselves. And yet how ut terly inadequate and how pitifully small is their conception of what the church teaches by the season of Lent.
 Lent is not a section of the year partioned by Ash Wednesday and Easter, cut away from the other days of life, for man to practice certain virtues and to do special things, just in that time, and when 1t is over, to re- turn to the normal condition of living. But yet, how many of us think that; and how all of us act that in some de- gree! How we breathe again when Easter comes, and feel that the time of restriction Is ended for another year and we are free to return to our former selves. How like children most of us are! Can you not remember the Lent perhaps many, when as a child you | decided to keep Lent" by doing with out candy, and how hard 1t was as the | days went by to be true to that VOW, | and how you looked to Easter day be- | cause then you could eat just as much l candy as you wanted; and how, per haps, when you went to bed on the | night before Easter. you put a large | piece of choice candy under your pillow so that the very first thing when you l awoke on Easter morning you might
 eat that candy? oh, sweet and beau tiful in a child; but, my brethren, when
 we come to be men and women, we
 must put way childish things. 1t l.
 | this conception of Lent that has called
 down upon 1t the reproach of being
 formal and dead. and the mere ecclesi-
 astical custom of a religious sect. It is