Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1906-09-27
NIX ssSssSssSssSssSSSS
! Sunday Sermon
! A Scholarly Discourse By
Z DR.. F. w. Gunsaulus.

/
Mackay's pulpit in the Collegiate
| Church of St. Nicholas, and Sunday
morning, to very large congrega-
ton, he preached on THE Shut
Door" His text was Matthew VIA,
shut the Door" DR.. Gunsaulus
said:
| wish l could by some contrast
impossible for me and possible only
in the experience of your own hearts
| emphasize the difference between this
command as 1t comes to us loaded
| with infinite love, and the commands
that come out of recollections of our
childhood, that might give us some
idea of the different texture of life,
the life from which the heart is al
ways moving into the inflrite ranges
of Gods life, into which we are in
vited day by day. Shut the Door.
think the instant demand, espe-
/ cially upon American life, with Its
/ swollen veins and arteries, its various
,, confusions and starry look and Stun
! bling feet, is to get out of the whirl
and hear a voice speaking with deep,
fine authority, saying to us as we go
through life, with its cares. duties,
amusements and contradictions,
Shut the door" This is the voice
of Jesus He is telling us the secret
of prayer, in the closet-secrat pray
er in which the human soul comes
alone into the presence of God; pray
er in which man finds his true alti-
| tudo and attitude; prayer in which
alone man is able to look into mo-
+ tives, perceiving the values of life. in
u.hi ch hn Uoinc hio SnirifnaI hQrNhity
! and in which he assumes his sonshfp
unto God through Gods grace.
The one thing that Jesus seems
most intent about, that you and /
should enjoy the privilege of prayer
and receive its benefits, Is all ex-
planned and emphasized in these
words, Shut the door" We are liv.
ing at time when prayer is a fact
and a force. The world of the mate
rialist has passed: the world of the
idealist Is here. The scientists of to.
day are telling us, Let us pray" 1t
Is not strange that we should begin
to realize the unifying and exalted
influence of prayer upon mans men.
tai life. What, after all, is there to.
day in life. when life's issues are SC
profound and even tragic, that will
unity all ones powers-the powers
of the mind and of the affections-as
will prayer? When I pray in secret
l am unified as man. If man is to
be re-made, if he is to be made whole
so that his various parts shall be no
longer fragments, each afar from the
other. he must be divinely unified.
But, my brother, if that is to be your
nynprinnpn 81 Lot " Hnrn is
the Master coming Quietly from the
fields of Galilec into your heart and
| mine, urging upon us, as the old,
deep harmonies of the religions OF
all ages sweep into His soul, urging
us. not only that We should pray, but
pray alone. We see Him at Gethse.
name, at the very crisis of His life,
leaving Peter and James and John
behind, and going alone to pray.
think the most significant announce.
ment with regard to Saul, who was
to become Paul, and his experience
on the road to Damascus was made
unconsciously by the one who said
Behold, he prayeth." What an en-.
tire transformation. What pro-
phecy of his future!
Do you think that Christ is calling
you to an easy task when He says
"Shut the door," Do yompven know
the pathway back to the old closet of
! early days? The road is now all
overgrown. But since that day there
have grown up brambles over the
pathway. First of all, we must find
this path. il we are to find our man
hood and womanhQod. Is it not All
astounding fact how little secret
prayer there has been in our lives?
How this passion for publicity has
linked itself to our willingness to re-
main away from the secret place.
True, while ago, when we were in
trouble, we found our way back,
How sweet it was! But that was not
secret prayer, for We did not Shut
the door 1t was prayer with the
door wido open, through which we
werc looking back at the things from
which we were trying to escape. You
say, II can get back to that place"
Are you quite sure that you can?
II so, shut the door" How we like
to peek out and see what the majority
are thinking - how our neighbors
feel about things. How we want the
door just little way open in order
that wo may hear the sounds of the
claims of good causes, In which we
are Interested Surely, there is moth
ing wrong about that. Shut the
door" Let us take the words of
Jesus into our hearts to-day as sim
ply as We can and sincerely accept
them. Shut the door" Why,
! surely" You say, that is something
l can do with one hand, while
grasp other things with the other
hand" No, both hands must be in
side. There must be no effort to
grasp things without Well" You
Soy, what shall | shut the door
against, there are so many things
with which l must Keep in touch?"
| / don't know; He says, Shut the
| door." But" yon reply, there is
my church, my family, my relatives,
my dear friends" o, poor soul! It
seems such ordinary talk, does it not,
IN the presence of the great, sweet
Being, Who is saying, Shut the
loor?" | must be alone with God:
must feel again my personal rela-
ionship to my Father; l must realize
again that If there were only one
being in tho world, and l were that
being, while the moral universe sub
sisted. still there must be a cross,
still Christ, still :: Gethsemane, still
tho morning of the ascension, still
the open sepulcher. The only way to
be rid of our enemies is to shut the
door, The real truth is that, when
the real crises of life come, my only
enemy is myself. This is the one
need to conquer. Here are passions,
prejudices, hates, lusts. Oh, my
friend, whatever your gain or loss,
realize this, that never until you shut
the door will you go into the presence
of God; never until in secret prayer
YOU are alono with your enemies.
What can any man do to harm me,
I1nlf I harm rnySnlf2 IL aNar NnI1