The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1908-10-23
THE PULPIT.
A BRILLIANT SUNDAY SERMON sY
DR.. CHARLES EDWARD LOCKE.
Theme: Faiths Victories.

Brooklyn, n. Y.-The Rev. Or.
Charles Edward Locke Sunday closed
his pastorate at the Hansen Place
Methodist Episcopal Church. He
leaves TO assume charge of the great
First Methodist Episcopal Church OF
Los Angeles, Cal. Large audiences
filled the church at both services. In
the morning DR.. Locke's subject was
Faiths Victories. The text was !
John "a: This is the victory that
overcometh the world, even our
faith" DR.. Locke said:
Early in the morning after refresh
ing sleep amid the fragrant bowers
OF Bethany, on the second day Of our
Lords sad and triumphant Passion
Week, Jesus with His disciples was
on His way around the graceful slopes
of Olivet to the great city. All being
hungry, and seeing fig tree, they ap-
preached IL, confidently expecting TO
enjoy the luscious fruit, for the season
of the ripening fruit had coma, but
the time for the gathering of the har-
vest was not yet. When they reached
the tree they found nothing but
leaves. Christ thereupon promo Danced
q curse upon the unfruitful and use
less tree, and Immediately IL withered
away. When the wondering disciples
saw the fig tree withered away they
marveled, but Jesus said: If ye
have faith and doubt not, ye shall not
only do this which is done to the fig
tree, but, also, IL We shall say unto
this mountain, be thou removed and
be thou cast into the sea. it shall be
done; and all things whatsoever ye
shall ask in prayer believing y0 shall
receive"
John was the best loved of AL the
disciples Of Jesus. Our introduction
to him Is when he is young man,
when he and Andrew at the sugges-
tion of John the Baptist, Behold the
quire, Where dwellest ThouS" and
He replies, "Come aud see." Sixty
years have passed. he Is now an old
man standing on the mountain top Of
expectancy with the light of immor-
tality aglow upon his face. Looking
forward into the future he cries, 1T
doth not yet appear what we shall
bel" and looking backward upon the
way he has travelled, and upon the
great world struggling for mastery,
he shouts triumphantly, This is the
victory that overcometh the world,
even our faith"
Faith 10 the substance (assuyance)
OF things hoped for, the evidence
(proving OF things not SEEN" 1t has
been truthfully said that faith is a
higher faculty than reason. Reason
builds laboriously and often fruitless-
" its towers Of Babel, but faith quick
ly scars into the very bosom OF the
Infinite. Faith is a grateful arch
which spans the chasm between man
the finite and God the Infinite. Faith
Is a gift. "By grace ye are saved
through faith-it is the gift OF God. :"
Faith is the subtle force by which
man adjusts himself to God.
Faith Is pardon, peace-regenera-
tion. "Being justified by faith. we
have peace with God through our
Lord Jesus Christ" We are saved
from sin, not by evolution, or by revo-
luton. or by works alone, but by
faith-"believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ and thou shalt be saved!"
Faith is life-"The just shall live
by faith" was Luther's discovery on
the staircase in the lateran. THE
life which i now live in the flesh
live by the faith of the Son Of God. :"
Christ is life-He came to interpret
aud enlarge life for each OF us.
Faith, also, is character. Faith In
Christ is the foundation Of character.
the inspiration of achievement. Char
acter is what a man is doing all the
time. When the disciples asked Jesus
what they should do to work the
works of God, He replied, Believe on
Him whom He hath sent" What we
believe will determine what we do.
Great men are great ideas incarnated.
Il was said OF Abraham, HE believed
God, and it was accounted unto him
for righteousness.
Faith 10 the substance OF things
hoped for" Faith realizes while 9TH
et men dream and doubt and debate.
Columbus first had vision of a new
world, and then found IL. Morse was
man OF faith and prayer, until In
1914 the first telegraph wire between
Washington and Baltimore carried
the message, What God hath
wrought" So of Eads with his Jet
ties, Stephenson with his steam en-
gine, and Field with his cable. What
these heroic men worked out was
substance" to them before their dis
coveries and inventions were actual
tiles. The same is true of the work
and faith OF our Pilgrim Fathers and
NlOiuGISs Nut lOuuutIo VI tue We~
leyan movement, Francis Xavier,
William Taylor, William Butler and
Judson. Pioneers of faith have dis
mally discovered that II is more DIM
cult to overcome the unbelief of mep
than to master the principles upoo
which their deductions and inventions
depended.
After all, the stronger argument
for our Christian faith is not what we
say, but what we do. IL has been
thoughtfully remarked that although
the unbeliever may not read the Bt-
BILE, he does read the life of Chris
tians to see how they live. A truth
incarnated In consistent Christian
life is the church's invincible argI-
ment for Christianity.
Faith is salvation--salvation from
sin and self and sorrow and sickness
and adversely. There is no ill OF the
soul for which faith is not a specific,
and many iile of tho bodv Ace aWav