Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1906-03-29

SHOWING THE way
OUR REGULAR SUNDAY SERMON
The Christian Religion Leads Us to
Active Living in Helping On Eel
len Man on the Way:
Brooklyn, n. Y.-At the Church OF
the Messiah. the Right Rev. Bishop
Seymour was the preacher Sunday
morning. He chose for his subject.
"My Shepherd" and his text was
Psalm 1:23: 'The Lord is my shepherd:
therefore can lack nothing" he said:
We pass from the brightness Of.
Christmas and Epiphany to, the sea.
son of Lent that closes with the dark
ness bf Good Friday: Ere we bid
Epiphany goodby let us consider What
it tells us, namely. that our Saviour
came to be the Saviour of all mankind.
Epiphany falls into two divisions: The
Christmas of the Jew and the Christ
mas of the Gentle. First, the Christ
mas of the Jew. when the shepherds
came as the representatives of the
shepherd nation: came called on by
an angel through whose dispensation
the law was given to the Jew;
came to the fnanger; came to worship.
And then the GENTLE Christmas, called
Epiphany. when the kings were led by
the star to worship the child. And
~, A. % To-
Gentle alike fell down and worshiped
the little child. baby, weaker than
the weakest, may say. of all the
young, and yet-Him By whom the
worlds were made. It is indeed a won
derfu! spectacle to see the Jew and
| the Gentle alike worshiping the babe.
We leave the angelic host that sang
over Bethlehem and e brightness of
| the star which brought the three kings
at all events the kings of the East
worshiped the little babe with appro-
| pirate gifts-for the transition period
of Lent.
Could I do better than ask you. with
| myself, to consider our personal re-
| sponsibility in the wc"ds Of the text:
"The Lord is my shepherd; therefore
can lack nothing?" Here is a 1ec-
we choose, for the possessive pronoun
is intensive-"my," as though it were
something that we loved, as jewels of
earth-''they are mine; own them"
So: "The Lord is my shepherd" and
based upon that declaration is the
fact; therefore can / lack nothing"
There is no word which more frequent
| ly falls from our lips than 81" 1t is
| the shOrte.t word in human speech
single letter-because it brings to
| the surface personality. Go whittier
! you will. on every side you will hear
Ioo,. women and child utteriag II"
''l' is to each one the centre of the
| universe; everything radiates from it
and everything comes into it.. And this
is right in its way, only sometimes it is
| exaggerated and we have what we
| call se.fishness. But I am not dis.
| posed to criticise tha.. iust now, only
to say that this p.onoun my" grows
out OF tit PERSONA pro1oul 81" be.
cause it denotes Ownership-"my.
| And We may say, the poorest Of US,
| first we own ourselves: II, r"yself;
belong to myself" aud It is on the
basis Of that claim tat we have the
wars for .rdepe 1dencc. for liberty OF
! personal right, and E1eu resist the idea
| Of being owned by the others, and pre-
| eminently in this land Of freedom
claim to be free-"I own myself"
| have not time to analyze the worth OF
the claim. for it is immense: Mine
| spirit, BODY this creature, Of God.
! like mould and summing workmanship
| how marvellously built up! A single
| profession, numbering SOME Of: the
greatest men, devotes days and weeks
to studying it and yet has not fathomed
| its secrets. The medical profession is
largely experimental to-day. 1t has
made wonderful discoveries in fifty
| years. and still it has not yet probed
this little mass Of matter, the body. tt
it's depths. And back of it is the mind
/ the intellect, the memory that holds
the past and hope that grasps the fu
ture; the mind that deals with prem
1ses and conclusions and reasons. Il
has no moral quality, it is pure inte,
lect. Deeper down than it is the spirit
/ the seat OF conscience, the moral sense
marvellous beyond expression. that EN-
! phasizes our nearness to God. Body
mind and spirit bound up together and
each of us claim to own that trinity
blended into unity. II. myself, owl
myself"
Let us pass on. "My time;;" that, is
s'my life. These hours and days an6
weeks are mine," and. hence. the wage
question, when men claim the right tt
sell their time for so much. So, yol
see, we claim the ownership OF time
OF course it is not really ours. "Oul
times are in His hand" Still. We
claim it. "My years are So many
Hence, we see another element o1
wealth-time, opportunity. Then
again, character, my character" EN-
pnasized by the name. A good name
is worth a good deal.> We pass still
further: my position in life, in SO
ciety, my parentage, my surroundings
my friends and reiatives-these belont
to me-" And they are worth a grea
deal sometimes. Then we come down
to that with which we are most IA
/