The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-12-16
DIVINE REMEDY FOR WORLDS SINS Steele Takes Text from Gospel
 of St, John WONDERS OF THE BIBLE Church Must Not Stay at Home and Suppose God VIII Do All Work of Healing the Sln-slck
 World.
WONDERS OF THE BIBLE

World.
 The Rev. Dr. I. D. Steele preached at the First Cumberland Presbyterian church, U. s. A, yesterday morning at the Il o'clock service on the subject, ''Tha Divine Remedy for the Worlds Grlefs and Sins cs Steele look hs text from the fourteenth verse of the third chapter of St. John: ""As Moses lifted up the ser pent in the wilderness even so must the son of man be lifted up.'
 In his discourse on the subject Dr. Steele spoke in part as collows. A
 The Bible is the most wonderful book in the/world. Sir Walter Scott on his death bed pronounced it "the only com plete book, all other books being only fragments. leaves" It has a divine ele- ment in it distinct from all other books, and this divine element in it's compost ton and history cannot be eliminated. When we take away this supernatural element from it we destroy its great feat ures and are unable to account for the great truths set out in it's history.
 The hand of the supernatural Is seen in the lesson of today. of Moses in his sufferings of the people bitten by the serpent. Christ must have believed all this history of the brazen serpent in the Old Testament as he quoted it and ap- piled it to His own life. What we want to look at in this lesson is the human side of the work in Gods great plan to save the world from its woes.
 The church must not stay at home and suppose that God will do all the wori in healing a sin-sick world. We are to do what God directs. God did not lift dp the healing remedy, but he told Moses 60 do that. Moses had never seen such a rsin- edy tried, and he might have had great misgivings as to whether single man would be healed by it or not. What would the people think if this remedy failed? They would turn from him with a loss of confidence and loss of friendship.
 Whether God spoke to Moses in an au1- ible voice or by an impression we do not know. But one thing was cleAf to him, and that was that he knew Gods manded to do adl let God care for the re- suits. The people were suffering in great anguish and bitterness, and sometii.ay must be donc to felp them. Hum In hands lifted ul the serpent. So must human hands II up the remedy for the sins of the world.
 The world suffers today because .ae remedy is not applied Our great social order seems ,o be poisoned with selhsn- ness. The weak in the financial and 9o- cial world are a. t5e mercy of the strong. There is but little mercy shown to ,lle weak and helpless. Fordes which are gi- gantit in influence have treated the law with supreme contempt The press leems with cries against tie influence of m .na- mental extorton and fragrant injustice of the strong crushing-the weak
 But who cares for that cry? What impression does it make? We have no king. no great feudalism, but we have great and powerful individualism. This individualsm has centered in self ishness and self-greed for gold and power. It is not for the good of the social order nor the love of a political order, for 1t threatens political, social and financial death to those who rebuke it's sins. This has brought about bit terness and strife, and contention among the classes and the masses.
 The remedy for these evils must be continue without bringing destruction. Social mutiny under these conditions will find relief; if not by peaceful means, 1t will in violent changes. The remedy is not so much in the law as in the gospel held up by human hands. As Moses by his own hands held up the remedyito the eyes of physically sick people. even so must the hands of Christian people hold up the principles and life of Christ in the labor and business of their hands; not simply speaking it in words, but by social and business living. The human side is centered in self to the utter disregard of the rise or fall of others. Moses lifted up the standard of health. life and happiness for others.
 The life and teachings of Jesus must not only be held up on Sunday. but put into practice on the other six days in the week. It must be lived. The world has never found a remedy for it's gigantic public evils, nor for personal wickedness. Substituting one form of government for another does not change great evils. They only come up in another form. The world does not present a picture of greater cor ruption and rottenness than does the average American city government. If there is no hope in the gospel of,Christ then hope must go down in darkness Such darkness came upon the church in the past and the church went down with the night of darkness
 The remedy is the earnest preaching of righ hteousness and Godliness as set out in the Bible3 We are not to live self-centered, but world centered. Christ was centered on saving the world from it's griefs and sorrows, and He could do this only by saving it from it's sins. To do this the world must see Hhn, see His teaching. It must, in seeing Him, understandrhow He wants His doctrine srystalized in the lives of men and in deeds of hon. esty and justice
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