The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1908-11-13
THE PULPIT.
AN ELOQUENT SUNDAY SERMON BY
TIE REV. MERLE A. BREED.
Theme: Realizing the Pattern.

Iowa, occupied the pulpit of the FRS
Congregational Church of this cit,
Sunday morning. He spoke from He
brews SIS: See, saith he, that thol
make all things according to the pat
tern that was Showed thee in the
mount" taking the subject, 1.-The
Pattern in the Mount, the Building
on the Plain" MI Breed said in the
course Of his sermon:
Our text, which is quotation from
Exodus 25:40, sets before us a pic
ture as interesting as it is suggestive
The hosts Of Israel have been waiting
long before Mount Sinai. Their lead
er, Moses, is hidden in the cloud,
capped, fire-riven summit in com,
munion with Jehovah. While the
people are waiting in the plain, he
has gone forth to the mountains tow
ering peak to be with God, to hear
His will for them and for himself, and
to bring down a divine pattern of a
tabernacle for Gods worship and the
uplifting OF mems hearts and lives to
heavenly things. The people in gen.
eral had but earthly ambitions. While
Moses was hidden in the clouds and
darkness of the mount, they were
occupied with dancing and feasting
with eating and drinking, and max
ing golden calves to worship, Moses Is
benolding the pattern of that taber-
nacle about which the religious life
of the nation was to arise, and which
was to stamp its impress upon the
world. Moses is filling his soul with
the vision which he is to endeavor to
realize among the rude, ignorant, SUI
perstitious, half-wild Israelites in the
plain beneath him. To one man came
the vision Of heavenly things. The
rest were to receive it through him
His life work was to be that of bring
ing this within their reach and max
ing 1t real to them.
The vision splendid came to him on
the heights. The details, measure
| ments, gathering Of materials, labor
of construction, were all to be wrought
out on the levels of common life upon
the plain. We may easily imagine
that the children of Israel and the
rowing tribes about them greatly ad-
mired the completed tabernacle, with
its curtains of blue, purple and scar
let, with it's ark and altar, its candle
stick and cherubim, its pillars and
table, its canopies and courts, its holy
place and holy Of holes, its laver,
mercy-seat and mysterious separating
vail. But there was one who had
seen something better, who knew
that, beautiful and costly as it was,
the tent of meeting but dimly fore
Swallowed forth the glory Of that pat
tern shown him in the mount. The
people saw only the tabernacle in the
plain, but the eyes of Moses looked
beyond and through that and saw
the pattern he had beheld in the
mount with God. And that is our
thought together this morning, the
pattern in the mount, the building in
the plain, for life still has its Sinais,
where we behold ideals, and it has
its plain, where these are to be real
lied. Surely he is sorry builder
who has seen no pattern in the
mount
For the success of our building.
much will depend upon our choice of
q pattern.
The costliest building is manhood
and womanhood, that something We
call self, life, character. Yet there
is much haphazard building. With
the greatest variety of plans there is
little attention to standards, and all
infinite variety Of results, Because the
pattern is not selected with the care
an architect draws his designs upon
his trestle board.
What shall we build our lives
howell, or palace, or temple? 1t is an
exhilarating reflection that every act
or thought is building them into
something. What an infinite variety
Of patterns. We can not build after
them all-which shall we choose?
There. must be unity in the design.
The eclectic method, pure and simple,
will hardly avail for this. What one
age approved fails to win the appro-
baton of the next. There must be
permanence and real worth in the
pattern, if it is to satisfy ourselves or
others as the years pass. AS we read
history and the great names of past
eras move before US, we often feel
how transient they were. How like a
howell is Midas, the Phrygian king Of
legend and story. How like mold
ering trireme upon the shores of time
is Pompey the Great. How like a
dust covered ruin in. the Roman
forum is Caesar.
Now we may all be tabernacle
builders, like Moses, if we will.
For this method Moses followed is
not to be thought of by us as excep-
tional. 1t is type for us each in our
building. We, too, are building.
building every day, building for
eternity" and our Scripture lesson
told us that our building must stand
Gods test We have like opportuni.
ties with the great Jewish lawgiver.
If he had eyes to see God, and ears
to hear God, so have we. Will we
choose the tabernacle pattern for our
lives? Every human SOUL" wrote
Hartford's greatest divine, "has a
complete and perfect plan, cherished
for it in the heart of Coda divine
biography marked out, which it en-
tiers into life to live. This life, right
ly unfolded, will be a complete and
beautiful whole, an experience led
on by God, and unfolded by His Sc
cret nurture, great in its conception
great in the divine skill by which it
is shaped; above all, great in the mo,
mentous and glorious issues it pre-
pares." Life may be used for other
purposes, no doubt, but do they sat.
isfy? Is not life insipid, unsatisfying
lost, till it is all wrought out temple
dwelling place for God most high?
Here some will say, But my life is
CdSL Ou OIuGt levels. IL uSdlS Will
common things, with the doing OF
| momentous acts and routine service
What opportunity can there be fol
ne to achieve such large or worthy
results? If conditions were different
or my calling other than it is, all this
might be of interest to me. l long II
put just this into my living, but it il
all too remote from life as l have tC
live It," Here lies the value of the
scene before us. Through Moses tn
hUmblsst Of the people became part
| ners with him in building the taber-
! nacie Moses did not rear it Upon the
cloud-encircled mount, but i'll the
| plain, that you and l might be encour-
aged to realize the purpose of God
for US in the field of common daily re-
lations and amid what will otherwise
be the drudgery of daily living. He
leaves US the same task. Merchant
and teacher, sailor and soldier, farm
er and workman, author and editor,
housewife and clerk, mistress ard
maid, lawyer and preacher, however
humble and obscure our lives seem,
we are to be fellow wOrkmen with
COD IN, h,-ip in diyiJa inf n