Los Angeles herald., 1906-03-19
"N0THlNG TOO HIGH CAN
BE SAID OF IDEAL HOME"
so DECLARED REV. C. C. PIERCE
IN SUNDAYS SERMON

Beauty and FrivoIity, but No Christ
and Consequently No Foundation"
Extract from Pastors Discourse
At the Memorial Baptist church yes
terday morning, the pastor, Rev. G. G.
Pierce, preached on the power of the
gospel, taking for his text the words
II am not ashamed Of the gospel of
Jesus Christ. for it Is the power of God
unto salvation" He said in part:
Salvation is not merely getting into
heaven by and by, by some sort of
scheme by which we are able to cheat
the devil out of his due. This getting
into that ideal state by and by, of
which the world has dreamed SO long,
is only one of the considerations. The
salvation must begin here in the char
acter of the one saved. You cannot
save man by putting him into heaven.
any more than you can change a lob
ster into n locomotive by putting 1t on
a railroad track. Anything is saved
when it is filling that place in this uni
verse for which it was created. Man
was created for a purpose. When he
Is not realizing that purpose he is lost.
When he is achieving that for which
he was created, when he is filling his
heaven appointed mission. he is saved.
I'VE get two views of man. One
shows us to what depths q human be-
ing can go. If he is making progress
along the downward career, he is lost.
One view shows us to what sublime
heights human soul may rise. He who
is making progress along the line of
his highest possibilities is saved. Christ
gave to this world it's highest concep-
ton of what true life is and Jne pointed
out the one sure way by which this
ideal might be realized. To receive him,
his life, his TRUTH to walk in this way,
this is salvation. There is no other.
He is the one clear-eyed guide and
leader of all the ages. He has never
been detected in mistake, when it
comes to the most ideal development
and life of man.
His truth, his gospel, is the saliva
ton of the home. Where he guides
there is peace and happiness. Where
his truth is ignored. there is sorrow all
misery. Nothing too high can be said
of the ideal home, nothing too critical
of the home where the light of truth
does not shine. How many homes haze
fashion and beauty and frivolity and
honored guests, but no Christ and so
no real foundation?
Is Salvation of Society
",The gospel is the salvation of So
ciety. Why is it that so many people
are afraid of the application of the
truth of Christ to the needs and
wrongs and sins Of society Is it not
be pure on the street as that it shall
be good in our own parlors? The
simple fact is, the more we demand
that the truth as taught to this world
by Christ shall be applied to the con-
duct of society, the better it will be
for all concerned. There is a separa-
tion of church and state which we all
believe in and which has been demon
strated to be a sound national policy,
but there is separation of religion and
the public conscience which is the
weakest and most cowardly thing on
earth. That brand of religion which
has not strength and decency enough
to stay by a man all the way from
the home up to the affairs of his colln-
try is a sham and fraud and is not
worth the paper on which his musty
old creed is written. We pray for the
heather six thousand miles away, and
then on election day cast our votes
with the gang which seeks to rob and
ruin our own city.
THE saloons and the monopolies con-
troll the politics, the trusts control the
finances, the manufacturers control the
market, the workinglnen control labor,
but we Christian people VINO mold the
balance of power have been so very
busy reading our Bibles and gazing
into the starry heavens that we have
lost control of about everything and
are rated by the crowd which rounds
up the material for an election as an
absolute nonentity. And yet the gospel
of Christ was intended to be the power
of God for the salvation of every
thing which has to do with the true
progress of humanity.
1.-The simple fact is that what the
living gospel can do for the individual,
it can and ought to do for society and
for the nation. There Is a national right
eousness as well as an individual right
eouness. II it is not right for an
individual to rob and kill, so it is not
right for a nation to do so. In that
light which is surely streaming over
the world the clear shining of the sun
of Righteousness is more and more
clearly seen. More and more are men
coming to see that the power of the
gospel is making a heaven here in
this world and that salvation in any
department of life is found only as the
truth of Christ takes possession and
controls"