The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1906-06-04

| master it? If you can, they are yours
from my bounty. If you cannot, 1
must put them to some better use. A
few years later and the boy is at his
| desk in the school room. Some things
have come easily to him, almost with
out effort But arithmetic he finds I'M
pleasantly hard Straightway though
the boy does not realize it, another
challenge is flung down to him. All
the powers of mathematics are saying
to him, We will weigh the earth and
| solve your problems and plot the
| courses of the stars for you if you can
master us: and the boy either sets
| rider upon the steed which Is proffered
him or the Pegasus Of the astronomer
is taken away. Would he become a
musician? Instantly rows Of keys and
forests of pipes and the strings of a
Stradivarius are ready with their chaI-
lenge. A manufacturer? A chorus of
whirring wheels and changing FORCES
and roaring machinery thunders it's
raucus call.
In history God chooses a people for
special service and says, Here is a land
| flowing with milk and honey; I'll help
| you win 1t, but you must fight for it.
He selects an apostle for the Gentle
world and then shows him Rome,
| Greece, Macedonia, which challenge
Paul to leaven them with the knowl-
edge and love of God. He confronts
life with forces, men with tasks, ma
tions with opportunities, and cries, All
this will l give thee if thou art able to
receive it. Two thousand horses for
him who can set riders upon them. No
riders, no horses; no mastery, no pos
session for the soul.
Now, it is such a challenge that some
of us have long heard as we have toiled
in the active ministry. Tonight it's
gauntlet lies at your feet. Out in the
world into which yousare going is one
of the most magnificent opportunities
ever granted to Gods prophet. But the
opportunity comes to you in the form
of Challenged challenge to bring it's
| brain, its heart and it's hand under the
| sway of Jesus Christ Look out with
me over your field, your times for a
moment. and strive to envisage the
heroic labors which the world invites,
nay, dares, you to perform. With kind
| ly or with hostile spirit it doubts the
| power of the Christian teaching perma-
nently to hold and to control the faith
! of men. Every man has a faith-a faith
which varies as widely as men vary.
Can it be brought by the persuasive
| power of the truth itself into harmony
with the faith of the gospel? Can
| Christianity set riders upon the powers
fthe intellect and bring its thoughts,
those lawless steeds coursing with loose
rein over the windy prairies, into sub
lection to Jesus Christ?
The first challenge which you are
likely to hear is the one which you
know so well already-that of the Rab-
shaken The form of the challenge diff
fers widely. Sometimes it is that of
the materialistic wording. "Of what
use is this faith of yours?" it calls to
you. eve are dealing with money, ma
! chimes, political forces-in brief, the
good things and the practical realities
of life Why trouble us with your
creeds? They sound to us like the
dreams of the Yogis, AS for your
mysticism, that is too much like read
ing Bernard and Eckhart and a Kempis
and Fenelon. To use it is about as sat
isfactory as dining upon air." Some
times it is the heart broken cry of a
Micah, who, seeing the idols and eccle-
I siastical paraphernalia of his faith car
ried off by science and radical criti-
cisn, cries, "They have taken away my
gods, and now what have l left? You
teacher, can you give me my faith
again? challenge you to bring the
peace and the joy and the assurance
which I knew before" Sometimes it is
the silent challenge which looks up to
us out of the face of little children.
"Can you show US the Father" they
say to us. Can you teach us the Cos
J pei of Jesus so simply and so truly that