The Penn's Grove record., 1906-02-23
II PULPIT.
AN ELOQUENT SUNDAY sERMoN 81
Or. DONALD SAGE MAcKAY.
Subject: How to Grow a Soul.

the Collegiate Church, the Rev. DR..
Donald Sage Mackay preached on
"How to Grow a Soul" The text was
from II Peter iii:1S: "Grow in era ce
and in the knowledge of our Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ" DIR. Mackay
said:
In the course of my reading the other
evening 1 came across this striking and
suggestive sentence, 1--WE can each
grow a soul if we are willing to pay
the price" These words set me think
ing. What a tremendous possibility
God has placed in the grasp of each
one of us. We have in our power the
opportunity of growing an immortal
soul. That opportunity is this life-the
question is, Are we willing to pay the
price?
Do we realize what the growth of a
soul within us means? Do we realize
what life is without a soul? We hear
it sometimes said of one that he is a
"soulless man." Usually we under
stand by that description a man de-
void of the ordinary feelings of our
common humanity. lacking in kindli-
ness and sympathy. and incapahle of
generous action. True enough. but a
soulless man in the real import of the
words. means a great deal more than
that. To be soulless is to be dead at
the vital centre of life. 1t is to be cor
fupt and degenerate at that point in
character from which the divine and
immortal springs into power. Soul
1essness is spiritual degeneracv. It
is what Paul calls Dead in trespasses
md sims ~ry.rIAY4 hA-A a-5 --s4Ho,,4
God in the world"
Is it worth while, then. paying any
price if We can start within ourselves
this growth of an immortal soul? "We
can each grow a SOUL" said the writer,
"if we are willing to pay the price.
Assuredly it is worth it. for this Is
the one and the only victorious life"
More than that-this is the heart of
all true religion. If our religion is not
developing spiritual life within us our
religion is vain. That is the great
thought of Christ's teaching, and in
that He has emphasized the deepest
thought of all the great teachers of
the world. You may remember, for in
stance, the words of Socrates in his
Defense, addressed to his accusers,
when in describing the greatest work a
man could do he said, For 1 do moth
ing but go about amongst you. persuad-
ing you all alike, young and old. not to
take thought of your persons or your
properties, but to care about the great
est improvement of your SOUL" Than
that statement of the great Greek
teacher the Gospel of Christ can add
no stronger emphasis to the tremen-
dOus significance which belongs to the
growth of a soul.
And vet it is just at this point that.
for most of us. the real tragedy of
sniritual experience unveils itself.
What is it that most troubles you in
your religious life, if at any moment
your give yourself to honest self-exam-
ination? What is the real discourage
ment that haunts us even in our keen
est prayers and most ferveht supplica-
tons? Is it not just this-our utter
poverty in soul growth. the dreadful
lack Of any real evidence of progress in
spiritual things? Judged by the Or
binary standards of life our souls do
not grow. At the very best they sim
ply stand still, so that spiritually, even
the best OF us, are pretty much as we
were fifteen or twenty years ago, with
the same tendencies dominant. the
sa me temptations present. With others
of US it is worse than that. In spite
of our prayers and aspirations we are
conscious. when we are brave enough
to face the fact. that spiritually We
grow more stunted and dwarfed as the
years pass on. Our faith becomes less
fervid, the spirit of prayer dwindles,
the sense of God evaporates in the
sitting atmosphere of selfishness and
wordliness that wraps itself like a sea
fog around us. That, 1 repeat, is the
spiritual tragedy that plays itself out
in the secret places of our lives; spir-
itually We do not grow as we ought;
our souls lack that touch of life which
reveals itself in ever deepening
strength and power.
Well. now having faced this two-fold
fact-on the one hand that each of US
can grow a soul if he is willing to pay
the price. and on the other hand that
this s~oul-growtli is not being realized
within us as it ought-let us see this
morning what are some of the cond1-
tons in obedience to which soui-growth
may become a glorious reality for each
one of us.
i. Let us III lhG hSt pioNN
what the soul is, what it represents.
BY the soul. We mean something deep
er than 'the machine which ticks in
the brain, that calculates and memor
ICES, that learns the tricks of trade,
and practices them in the world" That
is not your soul, although l dare say
it is the only apology for a soul some
of us have. The soul is that in you
and me which has kinship with God.
It is the chamber in which the divine
and immortal within us dwells. The
soul is the holy of holies in a mans
life. 1t is as Paul says, 1.-THE Temple
of the Holy Ghost" When, for in
stance, you feel at times, as surely at
times we all do, an almost overpower-
ing yearning after God. to know Him,
to be like Him. it is your soul that is
speaking. 1t is the immortal within
you. crying out for its kinship with
God. The vitality of your soul. there
fore, is the pledge of your immortality.
Destroy the soul, and you destroy that
within you without which eternity is
unthinkable. That is why Christ put
such emphasis on the awful possibility
of losing the soul. "What shall it profit
a man." He said, "if he gain the whole
world and lose his W soul:' Moth
ing can compensate that loss. Christ
does not say that gaining the world
necessarily means loss of the soul;
what He says is, that a prize even so
great as the attainment of the whole
world would not Offset the loss of a
single individual soul. Do we realize
that?
The first condition, therefore, in soul
gwwth, is to realize the issue at stake,
to recognize the infinite value of your
soul as your one and only asset when
death. with ruthless fingers, strips
you of all else. "Think of living"
said Carlyle, for vert thou the pitt
fullest of all the sons of earth thy life
is no idle dream. 1t is thine own. 1t is
all that thou hast to face eternity
WITH True, but living without a soul
is to make eternity a voidless blank.
1t is your soul within you, claiming its
kinship with God, that is the only
thing worth living for. That is the
first point. When you recognize that,
you have taken the first step in soul
growth.
ubo naoon5 condition Sc n raon0.