The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1907-08-28
THE PULPIT.
AN ELOQUENT SUNDAY SERMON BY
TIE REV. F. BOYD EDWARDS.
Subject: Personality.

Williamstown, Mass.-The Rev. F.
Boyd Edwards, assistant pastor OF
the South Congregational Church,
Brooklyn, who graduated from the
college here seven years ago, was the
college preacher Sunday. His sub
ject was: "Personality-Its Influ-
ence and Secret" The text was from
I Thessalonians, 1928: And the
very God of peace sanctify you
wholly; and I pray God your whole
spirit and soul and body be pre-
served blameless unto the coming of
our Lord Jesus Christ" Mr.. Ed
wards said:
Huxley declared that if some great
power would guarantee to enable him
always to speak what is true and do
what is right, on condition Of his be-
ing turned into a sort of clock and
wound up every morning. he would
instantly close with the offer. Would
you? I think not one man in a hun
dred would. Why not? Because we
have instructive aversion to doing
violence to the greatest thing in the
world. And what is that? Drum
mond said Love" Let us look at it
a little.
Consider Helen Kellar, born to i'm
prisonment in the dungeon of her
mere selfhood - deaf. blind,
mute. Miss Sullivan, by patient and
inspired service, released her from
that Imprisonment, led her slowly
out into the light and glory of life.
The something which made Miss Sui
1itron 40 on1 oh1a n rnnInr fhSc
beautiful service was love. But in
point of greatness even that high and
benefcent quality is absolutely in
comparable with Helen Kellar her
self. The greatest thing in the world
is personality. Love is but a part of
1t, supplementing and GROWING its
other parts, all beauty and majesty
of physique, all vigor and grit and
courage, all mental keenness, reach,
grasp and decision, all the subtle
graces of mind and heart, high spirit
ual vision and deep insight, all puri-
ty, dignity and serene poise of spirit.
These combine to make what we
name personality.
Look about you in a railway car
riage, a hotel lobby, a great college
grandstand. Your eye passes lightly
ver 100 men. The one hundred and
first holds it. You may not know
who he is, nor ever have seen him be-
fore, but straightway you say to
yourself, he is somebody. Something
about him distinguishes him, gives
him a manifest significance, like the
evident value of a gold coin. That
something Is personality and it is
self-revealing. Take Webster, for
instance. They said when he walked
in Beacon street the houses looked
smaller. Sidney Smith called him
the greatest living lie, because no
body could possibly be so great as he
looked. Edward Everett declared
that when he was earnestly speaking
sparks Of fire leaped in his eyes. A
bust of him, exhibited by a European
sculptor, was mistaken for a head of
Jove. Or note how Emerson says
that william Of Orange won a. sub
ject away from the King of France
every time he put off his hat" so no
BILE was his bearing. A Boston news
paper reported that on a certain day
Washington street was dark and
gloomy, until Phillips Brooks passed,
whereupon the brightness returned.
One might have proited almost as
much by a look into Emerson's face
as by reading his books. Just a
glimpse of Napoleon at the hour of
battle doubled the fighting force of
those who saw him. Often one can
tell by the authors likeness in the
frontispiece of a book whether it's
worth while to go any further. The
halo in art is far more than a me-
chanical contrivance to denote saint
hood. 1t witnesses to the fact that
true men carry ar atmosphere; they
are fairly luminous. The captain of
an athletic team, if we'll chosen, takes
rank not by virtue of superior play
ing or technical knowledge Of the
game, but because there is about him
a quality which makes his vim and
spirit contagious.
Church committees looking for a
new minister pass by a score of pos
sible eligibles and choose the twenty
first. The others were as good
preachers, as thorough scholars, as
faithful pastors, but the elect one
possesses this rare and compelling
something we call magnetism, which
ID UuI q tdSuC lClAl luuICdIlus pSl-
sonality. The speaker who possesses
it often influences his audience al
most as much, while he stands silent
before them for a moment, as during
the hour of his speaking. This is the
quality which accounts for the say
ing: you have to like Mr.. Roosevelt
after you have met him." Person
ality!-no other creation equals or
approaches it. Indeed, when Jeho-
yah accredited Moses as His ambas-
sador to the court Of Pharaoh, He
commanded as the chief authority:
"Tell him I Am sent you"
Now, then, since personality is the
greatest thing in the world, what is
the chief duty of man? I answer,
deliberately: To honor, develop, ex-
press and invest that personality.
This is not egotistic and selfish. God
gave man this personality as his tool.
the finest. noblest, chief implement
with which to make his mark on the
world, serve his kind and honor his
Maker. When the old bishop Of the
Methodist Church was examining a
group of candidates for the ministry,
he asked them: Are you willing to
be a nobody in Christ's service?"
And every last n of them piously
Gas he thought) answered yes.
Then you're a poor lott" exclaimed
the bishop. And SO they were. That
is a kind of humility which Is not
Christian, because it is not only I'M
productive, but contemptible. Christ's
man should be willing to take any
humble station, but wherever he may
be. always determined by Gods grace
so to live, to labor, to fight, and to
pray that as the servant Of the Most
High he shall weigh every ounce he