Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1906-01-18
warp And WOOF
OUR REGULAR SUNDAY SERMON
An Elegant and Effective Discourse
by Rev. w. j. Thompson OH Life's
Various Obligations and Duties.

Brooklyn, N. Y.-Sunday Simpson NJ.
E. Church celebrated its sixty-first an
niyersary. The subject of Pastor w.
j. Thompson's morning sermon was
Faith and Love in the Warp, Pastors
and Members in the Woof." The text
was from 1. Thessalonians i:3, MI.
Thompson said:
The warp consists of the threads
running lengthwise through the entire
fabric. The woof consists of the
threads crOsswise, and prompted by
the weavers fancy, may vary with
each shot Of the shuttle.
The warp Of Simpson Church is that
which through these sixty-one years
has remained unchanged and is un-
changeable. The woof, comprising
pastors and members, by inexorable
necessity, and purposeful design
changes and evermore must change.
Faith is a prominent thread in the
warp. Conscious of our spiritual
growth we reach out after God if
happily we may find and be aided by
Him. God is not found out by search
ing. The futility of the quest adds
welcome to Jesus who reveals the
sought-for God as the Father. We
hold forth Jesus the authorita tive re-
vealer Of God and our relation to Him
as the light Of the world.
Absorbed in His talks and walks,
we are caught up in His life, and by
that life conformed to his likeness.
Thus Jesus saves men by His life.
Also by His death. The distractions
to the tunnel-boring under Manhattan
and the rivers, overcome by the engi-
neers' sacrifice, measure their devotion
to fIp pir idp91-raOi0 transit
Christ's sacrifice of His life revealed
His complete love for His ideal. the
salvation of man, and makes that sal
yation complete. We preach Christ
and Him crucifed as the all-suficient
saviour of men who receive Him.
Philosophers reason men into disciple
ship. Without violence to rea son, and
invoking it only so far as it is a part
OF conscience, we command men every
Where to repent and believe. Repent
by ceasing to do evil; believe by the
trustful appropriation of the Christ
life and death. Our forerunners in
this are John the Baptist, Peter and
flaming evangels on to Whitfield and
Moody. Our justification is the wit
ness Of sins forgiven, and lives bring
ING forth the fruits Of righteousness.
Fear is in the warp. It is ours by
generous hereditary legacy, and COM
passes things, beasts, men and devils.
When fear is uppermost it dwarfs
Neither moral nor religious giants are
the product of fear. What pygmies
Worriment, fear Of disaster, makes.
Hlumldation from eclipses ard comets
science shows to be baseless. The fear
OF beasts, which vanishes before the
pfoWess of the hunter. Fear Of physi-
cal nan departing with war. Fear to
speak ones convictions and advocating
measures he disbelieves, thus count
ing for less than nothing, and deserv-
ing expatriation from a democracy
'hese are all unwholesome fears. The
sooner banished the better
Moral fear. Wordsworth calls duty
the Stern Daughter Of the Voice of
Hod." She is task mistress over U.S..
our superior therefore we fear. Her
commands, like chry Sails, nletamOr-
pnoses into the pleasures of duty. Fear
OF the law drives the criminal to out
ward legal acts The best citizens are
moved without fear. William Lloyd
harrison, the great moral champion.
.he centennial Of whose birth this day
Is when dragged through the streets
OF Boston by mob, said 'his soul was
devoid of fear"
Fear is the beginning and not the
END of morality. Cody fear. Petro-
MUS argued fear made the gods. Some
tenglons have their devils. We have
ours who goeth about as deyouring
non. The Old and New Testaments
nave o18 references to fear.
1t may be needful for the be eginnings
ana salutary with certain tempera.
lhents, but fear is only the beginning
OF wisdom.
Inc almightiness of Jehovah makes
US tremble. But He draws near to us
~ ~ the flesh as we become one with
nin. His power is for us. Fear from