The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1907-06-07
Qua oEsT 10 HUMANITY.

/ pFaEl AlNA MAAAAAAAA FeAN -"~~~ 49,
preach from within. Il is written OF
Jesus For he taught them as one
having authority. and not as Their
scribes." The scribes heard or read
something and repeated il, their re
ligion was a religion Of a book. Jesus
taught that truth as 1t had been re-
vealed to His spirit by the Spirit OF
God. His was a religion Of the spirit.
He preached from within, speaking
with the authority Of consciosu truth.
Paul preached from within, he de-
clares. so as much as in me Is ! am
ready to preach the gospel to you also
that are in Rome"
The inward grasp upon the truth
can only be retained by an honest
! effort to obey the truth. Truth abides
/ only with the man who not only per
ceives it with his intellect. but who
has come to love it and whose will is
dominated and controlled by it, Elmer
son speaks OF the difference between
teaching that which is an aspiration
and that which is an honest effort.
A man breaches about living a life of
faith. Is il a desire only or is it an
honest effort with him? A Sunday
school teacher teaches a lesson CON
corning prayer. Is she striving to
live a life of prayer or is it an aspira-
ton only? A parent teaches his little
child about God. Is God a great reali-
Nv in the experience of the parent,
and is II his daily effort to know and
do the will of God, or does he only
desire to know and ito serve God?
But upon all who have really entered
in the heart possession of truth con-
corning God and duty there rests the
grave responsibility of teaching it to
others We are not to deal with truth,
as misers. with their gold, hoard it
and hide it. The fact that we possess
II makes us debtors to humanity to
give II to them. Truth is too much
needed by humanity for us to refrain
from proclaiming it because of the
effort it takes or because of the suffer
| ing or trials the proclaiming of it
brings to us.
The debt we owe men is that of a
child to the rest of the family. God
| is their Father and ours, men are our
brothers, women are our sisters, the
only way we can serve the Father is
by serving His children, the only
way to serve God is to serve
humanity. A life of self-torture in
solitude in the hope of pleasing God,
| is heather and not a Christian con-
ception. To sing and pray and talk
without regard to service to be rem
dered to men, is not Christian service.
The size of the debt we owe Is de-
termined by two things, the need OF
the world, the ability of the individ-
ual debtor. A mother with child
desperately i'll is not content to do
some little thing for the child. she
yearns to do all she can for the suffer-
ing one. When we see the sin, the
ignorance and the restitution in the
dark and sinful world, how can we
refuse to do all we can for men?
Again responsibility is measured by
ability. Find the greatest man in the
world and because of the fact of his
greatness ne is the greatest debtor
to the human race. No man is re-
leased by the greatness of his powers
from the responsibility of service.
But If a man have small powers he
does not become thereby exempt from
service. The man with one talent is
not to hide it but to use it. If man
owes debt to bank of an hundred
dollars, he is not to plead as an ex-
cuse for payment that another man
owes the bank thousand dollars.
How are we to pay this debt to
w nat COlh dlO w W ANs'
down on the counter of the world :?
Each man owes it to all other men to
live right. bad life is a dishonest
life. The man who leads it is re-
pudiator. The good man because OF
that fact is force for good. He is
the light of the world, the salt of the
earth. A bad man in the world spreads
decay like decayed apple in barrel.
Again we owe it to all men to lead
a life of service. The fact that man
because of his wealth does not have
to earn his daily bread with daily
toll. does not release him from the OBJ !
legation of service. How much do we
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