The Penn's Grove record., 1907-08-09
THE PULPIT.
AN ELOQUENT SUNDAY SERMON BY
THE REV. F. BOYD EDWARDS.
Subject: Personality.

~ NoS dCCloIoII pdSLDI VI
the South Congregational Church.
Brooklyn, who graduated from the
college here W. years ago, was the
college preacher Sunday. His sub
ject was: "Personality-Its Infu-
ence and Secret" The text was from
L Thessalonians, 5:23: AMI the
very God of peace sanctify you
wholly; and l 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? think not one man in a hun
bred 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 If
4 little.
Consider Helen Kellar, born to i'm
pr1sonment in the dungeon of her
own 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 Sul-
Ivan eager and able to render this
beautiful service was love. But in
point of greatness even that high and
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 browning its
other parts, all beauty and majesty
OF physique, all vigor and grit and
courage, all mental keenness, reach.
grasp n decision, all the subtle
graces OF mind and heart, high spirit
uaI vision n deep insight, all puri-
ty, dignity and seren 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
over 100 men. The one hundred and
first holds it. You may not know
who he is, nor ever have seen him be-
lore, 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
Eelf-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
Eody 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
pust of him, exhibited by a European
sculptor, was mistaken for a head of
Jove. Or note how Emerson says
hat William of Orange won a sub
Iect 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 profted 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 an 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
is but a vague term indicating per-
~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 OF
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 l Am sent you"
Now, then, since personality is the
greatest thing in the world, what is
the chief duty of man? l answer
deliberately: To honor, develop, ex-
press and invest that personality.
This is not egotistic and selfish. Goo
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 &
group of candidates for the ministry
he asked them: Are you willing tt
be a nobody in Christ's service?'
And every last one of them piously
(as he thought answered yes
Then you're a poor lott" exclaimed
the bishop. And so they were. Thar
is a kind of humility which is no
Christian, because it is not only IN
productive, butcontemptible. Christ
man should be willing to take an.
humble station, but wherever he may
be, always determined by Gods grace
so to live, to labor, to fight, and t.
pray that as the servant of the Mos
High he shall weigh every ounce ht
can, strike blows that hit hard, anC
mean to his time all that he can pos
sibly signify.
Being a Christian man is being al
a man can be. Holiness is near XII
to haleness, which means health, anC
h~aleness close kin to wholeness
which means integrity, soundness
completeness. Christian life is no
giving up, but growing up; not lop
ping off. but looming up. Its tru'
note is not a~scetic, but athletic, ant
when Christ announced that He cam
that men might have life more abun
dainty, He did not mean longer life
but life OVERLOOKING, rich in conten
and extent, with far horizons ant
wide outlook. Just this Browning
emphasizes when he says:
God gives each man one life, like : lamp