Arizona republican., 1908-09-21
THINGS WORTH WHILE
 10 BE ANXIOUS ABOUT
The Subject of the Sermon at the
 Presbyterian Church Yesterday.

The following is taken from the ser mon of the Rev Henry Martyr Camp bell. delivered at the First Presbyterian church. Sunday morning, September 2Oth Rev Mir. Campbell took as his text the first part of Matthew 6:33,
 Seek ye first the kingdom of God and
 His righteousness"
 In these days men are letting slip
 the greater and are clinging to the less. They are going mad with the
 desire to lay up for themselves treas
 ures upon earth and are forgetting to
 lay up treasures in heaven. The words
 of the text are given in opposition to
 that tendency. They are just as ap-
 propriate today as when Jesus uttered
 them during the course of the great
 est sermon that was ever delivered
 the matchIess sermon on the mount.
 These words seem to be the very text
 of that great sermon.
 What did the Lord Jesus Christ
 mean when he spoke these words? This
 is shown by the things which precede
 the words of our text. Christ had just
 said. "Ye cannot serve God and mann
 mon" Take no thought for the nor
 row" (Which of you by taking thought
 can add one cubit unto his stature?'
 Why take ye thought for raiment?"
 and over against the negative con
 tained in these words he brings out
 what We ought to do-"But seek ye
 first the kingdom of God" Our Lord
 here tells us not to be concerned about the things we can not help, but he sets forth something we can and should do.
 We should definitely and intelligently
 know our relation to the Kingdom of
 God before We have any right to con- cern ourselves about anything else in
 all the wide, wide world Chri.t. does not say We are not to be anxious, hUt we are to be anxious about the right thing. We are not to be so busy about the little, unimportant things of life that we neglect its great purposes or let slip it's great opportunities. Be anxious. but do not be anxious about the wrong thing. We look upon this passage af divmely inspired and by it we may determine what are the things worth while There are questions in our lives, and there always will be, which are hard to answer. The prob lens of the age are the problems of proportion and emphasis By the words of the text We may test the things that are worth while The things that belong to the Kingdom of God are worth while Things that are wrong; things that are unbecoming though perhaps not inherently wrong these are not worth while. Have done with them forever. Around us we see | .11 because the forces in those lives have | been turned in the wrong direction 1 What is your purpose today? Is it to ! glorify God? Then everything will | right itself It is to glorify self? Then | everything will go wrong.
 There never has been a time when | the words of the text could be more , spoken to all men than 1 today. We often hear the word | ''Americanitis," which We have come ! to know as that condition into which . d man comes who worries until he 1 makes himself the wrong kind of man, and all because he has turned his 1 toward things that are not . worth while. To us, then, the words of the text are timely. Mans nature is the same as it was when Jesus spoke | these words The tendency of man. when left to himself is downward and not upward. Our own experience teaches this; history proves it. Man needs alWa-s to be eXhOrted to seek first tine Kingdom of God. The words :. of our text are especially timely in 4 these days when the secular is crowd I ing out the spiritual. As the Lebanon Il Cedar crowds out all other forms of 4 sylvan life. so the secular today is out the spiritual form cur hearts and lives. It is not to be won dered at in this time of wonderful progress. We want this material pro- | gross to come, we are glad that it is Il coming; but all the things of this world are as nothing compared with the things that are to be. How are you governing your life? What are you planning for this winter? Are you going to put first things first? Are you going to be concerned about the things of the Kingdom of God, or are we going to give way to our own desire and ambitions?
 We are passing through a crisis. The church of the future is being largely made or marred by our actions at this critical time. There are crisis in the lives of individuals and there are crisis in the lives of nations. There are crisis in the history Of the ad- ,ancement of spiritual forces, and in his present crisis, in proportion as he church of the living God does her work well, the church of the future will be helped; but in the same meas Ire she fails today will she be hin- tered and held back tomorrow. May Ye enter the service to which God is ,alling us in the coming months with lll the earnestness that We would have | were We entering one of the most i'm Dortant crisis of our lives Seek We first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness"