The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1908-11-23
GODS OPPORTUNITY
AND MANS" SUBJECT
OF Sermon by Rev. W. J. M. Beattie at
Church of the Good Shepherd Yes
terday Morning.

without exception it is through a great
reconciliation.
We pass from disapproval TO quiet ae-
ccptance through a profound insight, a
nobler wisdom, loftier experience, a
vaster and surer hope At the first the
order OF this world Is for honest and
serious persons supreme disappoint.
ment.
Without audaeity without hypocrisy,
in all sad sincerity, we declare that II
we had made this world we should have
made IL differently. II we had made
the world we should have put no winter
into our sky, no storms on our seas,
no volcanoes in our islands, no reign Of
death over our empire.
Ii we had made the human race we
should have put into II no physical de.
fects, no mental eccentricity, no bias Of
will towards evil. ii we had made this
world, we should not have wrapped il in
impenetrable and appalling mystery.
Our disappointment is deep and sad. IL
Is more. II takes the form of revolt.
We have seen child beautiful, on some
radiant morning looking out upon the
world In perfect admiration and Joy. We
have seen the change pass over the coun-
tenance OF that child as it comes TO
realize for the first time the cruelty, the
suffering, and the death that reign, in
that fair world; still more as il comes
10 know mans inhumanity TO man, the
child's JOY is turned 10 grief, It's admira.
ton is turned 10 horror. For the mo.
ment, sympathy with mankind and ma.
ture is changed into fierce hatred and
revolt.
At the beginning we are equally dis.
appointed with our Master Jesus Christ.
His program is not our program for our
selves He does not at first fulfill our
expectations. He does not keep His
promises as we understand them He
does not remove our diseases, nor heal
our sicknesses. Only fanatics believe
that and for men who value sure think.
ing, fanaticism is too great price to
pay for peace. He does not remove our
weaknesses all at once. He does not
lift the fixed BOUNDARIES Of existanee, or
change the order in which we live.
He does not transport us to the para
disc in which there is no forbidden tree
in which there is no serpent, no pos
sibility OF fatal deceit, and no fall from
honor This is no our Master method
with us. He leaves us where He found
US. in the world of toll misunderstood
ing. contradiction, sorrow, death. He
leaves us here and He works upon US
slowly. Slowly along the avenues of
thought along the paths of feeling, by
the power Of His spirit upon our spirit.
is sickness, loss is loss. What
does Christ do for those who love Him
It is clear He does not change their
world, or their fate; nor does he
change them at stroke.
Here comes in the great endeavor of
high minds to justify the ways OF God
10 man. There comes time when noble
and candid men are willing to confess
that perhaps God knew Better than they
Row to make the world There comes
time when serious disciples of Christ are
willing to admit that perhaps their Mas
ter knows His work better than they.
Paul had come to this mood. He had
been tormented with some strange ex-
perien6e. there was a thorn in his flesh,
L was cutting and tearing there every
That this thorn might be removed,
Paul threw his whole soul into prayer
( was his intense and passionate cry
10 God for relief from the terrible pain.
Il was a cry for a changed environment. |
It represents the great burden of the
worlds prayer in all ages. Ninety mine
,ut of every hundred prayers that have
been offered since the morning of time |
rave had reference TO environment. We
1ray to be delivered from pinching pow
,rty, from uncongenial tasks, from the |
presence OF people who are unsympa- |
hetic and unfriendly.
We pray that failure may be avert |
d, that sickness may not come near our
lwelling and that the shadow of death /
nav be turned back. We pray for |
environment, for lot of life |
with our dreams Of good, for
Paradise without a forbidden tree and |
without serpent These are the burden /
II the worlds prayers. Our first re-
Iections, there is something appalling in
he absolute negative which God returns +
o most of the prayers that are offered /
It Him by mortal man.
raul y prayer was nbh RiduNSNs uut
better than what he prayed
or. Thus the world as God made it
,ecame the best of all possible worlds
az This world as it stands, as God
made it, is mans supreme opportunity.
t is His opportunity for what? for
eroism, for the highest type of man
God. One thing is clear, absolutely
lear, that this world was not made for
owards. For them and for all their
an, IL is the worst possible world
{ calls for endurance, self-denial. devo
ion, magnanimity, brave service with
o stipulations about wages. 1t runs
ounter in its great tragic currents, to
he egoism of man. From the egoistic
osition it appears shocking world
IN the other hand, this world as it
lands is the best possible world for all
.ho wouM be dauntless, chivarous. of
ampcr fine and high The birds that
v in the storm and prevail, the ship
hat sails in the tempest and outlives it.
he hard pressed toiler who can make
9th ends meet, the business man con
lmed by anxiety who is yet able to
,ntrol his business and make it a. sue
,ss, the person who is up to the neck