The Caucasian. (Shreveport, La.) 1900-192?, 1907-04-09
C;aln,a9e
Sermon
By Rev.
Frank De Witt Talmase, D. ID.

| VI sell GENIAL ana tne importance OF
restraining ourselves from indulgences
which, whether harmful or not in
themselves. might make our example q
stumbling block to others. The text is
l Corinthians viii, 49, IF meat make
my brother to offend, l will eat no
flesh while the world standeth"
Eorinth, beautiful Cornth; Corinth
with thy legends of ancient times;
Corinth the great business gangIa, or
the nerve center Of two continents for
there the merchantmen of Europe and
Asia exchanged their goods Cornth
with its Acro-Corinthus rising 1900
feet high. crowned with a frowning
fortress aptly called "the Gibraltar of
! the east" Corinth with its great am
phitheaters, where men fought with
men and where the gladiators' blood
mingled with the blood of the savage
! beasts slain In demoniac struggles:
Eornth with its Posidonium, where the
| famous isthmian games took place
from which arena Paul feathered
many of his gospel arrows to drive
home his divine message: Corinth with
its most famous temple of the old
world looming above many heather
shrines-oh, Eorinth, beautiful Corinth,
opulent Corinth. aesthetic Corinth, no
wonder Paul wanted to go and see
thee and preach Jesus Christ within
thy gates!
The shrines and the IDOLS must have
been everywhere when Paul first went
to COrinth. They must have been as
multitudinouS as are the Idols today
In Benares where temples line the
sacred Gauges for miles. These Cor
inthian idols must have been on every
hilltop and in every valley. They must
have been in every street and in every
home and by every fireside Idols
idols, idols, everywhere. Idols must
have been crOwdfng each other in old
Corinth for elbow room.s even as they
did in Athens. Truly Corinth was the
home of commerce and literature and
art, but it was more than that 1t was
one of the great ancient Meccas of idol
worshipers
Now, there was very strange CORN
THAN custom of idol worship which
any man who has travelled In the far
east can readily grasp. because there
you have seen food placed upon the al
tars as sacrifice to idols The CORN
THAN priests at stated times Of the
week would kill cattle and sheep and
lay certain parts of the dead bodies of
these animals upon the affairs Of their
idols. There they We're allowed to stay
for some four or five hours. OF course
that was not long enough time for the
meat to spoil. Then this meat was
taken off the affairs and sold to the
people. Because this meat was placed |
upon the shrines Of the idols it was
looked upon with prejudice by many |
people and had to be sold in the COrin |
THAN markets at very reduced rate |
Now, Paul was man of great I'M
common common sense. He said prac-
tically this: Here | have to support |
myself by tentmaking. If l buy my |
meat cheaper, l can live cheaper, be-
cause it will take me less time to earn
a living, and | will be able to have
more time to preach Jesus Christ"
Then Paul again said: "Why should |
not eat this meat which once lay upon
the heather affairs? 1t lis not tainted
meat / can buy it for half the price
of other meat. Yes, while l stay here
In the Corinthian capital l will buy
this meat and eat this meat, because
1t is good and wholesome and the
cheapest Of all meats
Narrow Minded Christians.
But in that Corinthian capital there
were a lot of very narrow minded
Christians. Their minds were so mar
row and their souls were so bigoted
that they were always ready to place
the magnifying glass to their eye and
focus it upon a nonessential atom and
make it loom up before them as huge
of error These narrow
minded bigots had a genius for split
ting hairs. They could argue for days
and weeks upon simple trivial ques-
ton, and they rose up In protest
against Paul buying and eating the
meat from off the heather altars.
why" l can hear them say, Paul.
IL you eat that meat you are practical
ly an idol worshiper You are the same
as one who bows in worship at the
shrine of the licentious Venus. You
are just as bad as any of these idOla-
trous priests" "All right" says Paul;
''if you look at 1t in that way, l will
stop eating the sacrificial meat. / am
not going to stop because it Is wrong
for me to eat it, but am going to stop
because some Of you Christians believe
1t to be wrong. l will not be spirit
nal stumbling block to any man."
Then Paul writes these words Of my
text: Wherefore If meat make my
brother to offend l will eat no flesh
while the world standeth, lest l make
my brother to Offend" Oh, did you
EVER know a man to take wiser stand
for Christ than did Paul in that SEN
Lence? Can we not be just as true and
rs faithful In yielding in nonessentiais