Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1908-10-15
THE PULPIT.
A BRILLIANT SUNDAY SERMON BY
DR.. CHARLES EDWARD LOCKE.
Theme: Faiths Victories.

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
"Faith's Victories. The text was
John ga: 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 APP
preached 1t, confidently expecting to
enjoy the luscious fruit, for the season
of the ripening fruit had come, 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 pronounced
curse upon the unfruitful and use
less tree, and Immediately 1t withered
away. When the wondering disciples
saw the fig tree withered away they
marveled, but Jesus said: III We
have faith and doubt not, We shall not
only do this which is done to the fig
tree, but, also, II We shall say unto
this mountain, be thou removed and
be thou cast into the sea, 1t shall be
done; and all things whatsoever We
shall ask in prayer believing ye shall
receive"
John was the best loved Of all the
disciples of Jesus. Our Introduction
to him is when he Is young man,
when he and Andrew at the sugges-
ton of John the Baptist, Behold the
Lamb of God!" follow Jesus and In
uuire, where dwellest Thou?" and
He replies, "Come and see." Sixty
years have passed. he Is now an old
man standing on the mountain top OF
expectancy with the light Of immor-
tally aglow upon his face. Looking
forward into the future he cries. 1T
doth not yet appear what we shall
be-" 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 is the substance assurance
OF things hoped for, the evidence
(proving) of things not seem 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 grateful arch
which spans the chasm between man
the finite and God the Infinite. Faith
is gift. by grace we 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'
+ ton. Being justified by faith, we
have peace with God through our
I 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 l now live in the flesh
! live by the faith of the Son Of God.
Christ is life-He came to interpret
! and enlarge life for each OF us.
rdlLu, dlSO, 10 CLul dSlSi' oieA 80
Christ is the foundation of character
the inspiration of achievement. Char
acter Is what man is doing all the
! time. When the disciples asked Jesus
what they should do to work the
works of God, He replied, believe or
Him whom He hath sent" What we
believe will determine what we do
Great men are great ideas incarnated
1t was said of Abraham, "He believed
God, and it was accounted unto him
for righteousness.
Faith Is the substance Of things
hoped for" Faith realizes while 9th
err men dream and doubt and debate
Columbus first had vision of new
world, and then found it. Morse was
a man of faith and prayer, until II
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-
CINE, and Field with his cable. Wha
these heroic men worked out wa:
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 ant
Mothers, the founders of the Yves
/ William Taylor, William Butler an(
Judson. Pioneers of faith have dis
mally discovered that 1t Is more diff
cult to overcome the unbelief of mel
than to master the principles upoI
which their deductions and inventions
depended.
After all, the stronger argumen
for our Christian faith is not what W,
say, but what we do. 1t has beer
thoughtfully remarked that although
the unbeliever may not read the 81
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 argu
ment for Christianity.
Faith Is INSTRUMENTATION from
sin and self and sorrow and sickness
and adversely. There Is no ill of tn,
soul for which faith Is not a specific
and many ills of the body flee ava.
like the poisonous fogs before tn
sunlight
Dear Chaplain McCabe had a broth
er who, after forty years Of thralldon
to strong dring, was finally, through
the faith and love and perseverance
of his hopeful brother, redeemed iron
the sad slavery. The chaplain use'
to say: When l get to heaven I an
going to take my brother by the ham
and lead him up to my mother ant
say: Mother, here's George; hav
brought him home!'" and nothin
will save vast multitude of men un
less their fellows, in love and faith
help them to fight their battle
through to victory.
Abraham Lincoln was a man o
boundless faith in God. He once said
ut is not particular whether God 1
on our side, but 1t is all importan
whether We are on Gods side" o.
one occasion when his post -. dcsira
60 make call, the President fixed the
hour at o'clock in the morning. He
found Mr. Lincoln reading the Bible
Il