Arizona republican., 1907-05-20


 burst into flame and heat kindled by
 the energy of the spirit and the result
 We see in the noble figures of the mar II tyr-president and the heroic chief
 tain of our army.
 H From secular life, I might pass to ] the religious life of nations and illus trate this same truth in another direc- | tion. Less than nineteen hundred | years ago in Jerusalem there lived a \ few untrained and uneducated fisher men, but they were touched by the fin ger of God, the Holy Spirit descended upon them and they stood forth as transformed and transfigured men, able to turn the world upside down by the Gospel which they preached. Into | the soul of the narrow and prejudiced Saul of Tarsus there struck the arrow of Gods special revelation. The latent | unsuspected powers of this conven- | tional and prosecuting Pharisee were brought forth into the light, and we | behold the result in the greatest spirit ual genius that the world has seen since His Master and our Master re- turned to the right hand of God. Long centuries after, when the 1 church had grown cold and indifferent and corrupt in its life, there came this great opportunity into the life of a German monk. this great crisis in his | nations and the worlds history. and the walls of the monastery-cell extend ed until they included all Europe. and the monk became a prohphet and a statesman, a great national hero as we'll as the reformer of Germany. The human voice that broke upon his ears with the comforting words that spread light into his darkened cell and stiiI darker soul, T believe in the forgive ness of sin," was the means that first opened his soul to the breathings of the spirit of God, who brought to him the Illuminating light that revealed to him his own power and genius which would enable him to do Gods great work in his day and generation; work which has lasted until our time. For Luther gave not only reli- gious liberty, but national liberty also to the whole world, and 1t is signifi- cant that the great national ode of Germany is the great religious hymn of Luther.
 But I should fail of my meaning if I have made you to understand that am thinking only of the great oppor- tunities, and those which come to a few in the worlds great crises of his tory. If for the illustration of the text which I am maintaining I have sought examples like these. it is to i'm press upon you the importance of so accepting the guidance of the Holy Spirit and so developing our characters in the finest and noblest fundamental truths that when the opportunities come. which come to us all. We may be ready to grasp them. It is this l knowledge and this readiness which | makes the success or the failure of | every mans or every woman's life | Not the opportunities themselves, for ! they are no concern. but the prepara- tion and the ability to make the best 1 use of them when they come. Unless | We have been taught by the spirit of | God. unless in the education of life We | have cultivated the highest qualities | of manhood and womanhood. courage. ! self-forgetfulness. the spirit of love | and service. then when the oppor- l tunities come we shall find them l sweeping over our heads. unheeded and l by us. and leaving also no |
 
 failed to realize their responsibility to | the world and to our own selves. We | shall be like the foolish virgins in the parable with unlighted and untrim- med lamps. who hear amid the dreams | of our slumbering life the voice of the | heavenly bridegroom through unpre- paredness and unwatchfulness 10 en- ter with him into the marriage feast.
 Nor am I sure that We do our whole duty in simply waiting for the. oppor- tunity to come to us. We are Gods servants. His work is here and now. Ii may be our duty to 20 forth to seek for the opportunity until we find it and then exercise the gifts which God has given us. The Host opportunities of life" may refer to those who do not search for them as we'll as to those who do not grasp them when they cross their pathway and meet them face to face.
 Go forth to meet the various oppor- tunities of your lives. be they great or small. with hearts full of courage and hope. Do not believe the heresy of the age. which teaches that the world is not Gods world, but the devils. and that the spirit of Christ's civilization Is not marching on in its triumphant course to its noble fulflment. It is not necessary to shut your eyes to the evils and perplexities of our modern life. but you can keep them wide open and yet hold your faith in God and strong and serene. Standing on the boundary line of this new twen- tieth century. remember that 1t is de- stined to be the noblest age that has yet dawned upon the sons of men. and that God gave to each of you an op- to share in the mighty work of accomplishing this end. Be glad that you live. Be not afraid to do and to dare. and if need be. to die. for God.
 THE TWO COVENANTS.
 Rev. Henry Martyr Campbell chal