The daily banner. (Cambridge, Md.) 1897-2008, 1908-05-11
SERVICES At CHRIST CHURCH.
Abstract of Sermon Preached SUNDAY Morning
By Archdeacon VIM. JefferiS.


81 wish to leave one thought with the
congregation this morning. Power which
il not used ceases to be power. | have
experieDced it myself. ! see it every
single day. used TO be an expert type
writer and stenographer 25 years ago.
The other day in Charlotte, n. c., | sat
down at the minister's typewriter and at
tempted to do the business but could not
do It. Nothing had happened to take the
power away. I had simply lost the
bower. And so it is with the soul.
People are unable to pray because they
have ceased to pray. They DO not sing
because they have ceased to sing. They
lose the power to do it. 1 will give you
q text to carry away with you. Judges
Is 81. "Sampson awoke out of his sleep
and aaid I will 60 out as at other times
and shake myself, and he visit not the
Lord had departed from him." But he
did not 20 because his power had depart
ed from him. He had ceased to use his
power and had been compelled to lose it.
He was powerful because of 2 reasons:
His birth, blessed by God and his strength.
God made him leader of the people of
Israel for twenty years. With his right
arm he could smite thousand men alone.
Then he thought like many Christians
that he would let himself ago. He be-
came backslider to men, Why not No
one could meet his strength. What is the
use Of praying and singing2 Have you
gotten the power which will stay. Sam
son thought his would stay but it did not.
After he ceased to use it for the glory of
God, God took it away from him. If a
man ceases to use the powers which God
has given him, he will lose them. One
night he will awake up, 60 forth and
shake himself, as he did at other times,
but his right arm will fall paralyzed and
pewerless at his side. II he ceases to use
his power he shall be compelled to lose it.
The victor will become the galley slave,
like Samson. And now they beat him and
lead him away.
Iwant you to carry away with you
this morning just three little words, and
ill three of them commence with P. The
first is personal, the next is Progressive,
and the next is Permanent. Everything
that belongs absolutely to myself is per
sonal. 1t belongs to us. 1t does not
come from God We sin, not because we
have listened to God, but because we have
listened to the voice of the tempter and
decided to 20 with him and then we learn
that the Wages of sin is death" 1t is
our own fault that we become wicked.
It was not the fault of my mother that I
have sinned nor the fault of my Master.
It is my own fault, it is my most grievous
fault. Oh Lord my strength and my Re.
deemer | He gave, me my strong right
arm that might save my soul. To keep
myself from wine and women. Samson
kept himself from neither As long as he
remembered God was the most high God,
he went forth conQuering and to conquer.
And then he said l will let go. And then
the women came up and the weak threw
down the strong. 1t was his own person.
al five fa1f IN SIN ~ rs NOT oeCause
God wants us to fall 1t is my own fault,
it u my own most grievous fault Oh
Lord, wash me that may be whittier than
snow, cleanse me that may be pure.
Whenever visit the heather in their
churches, come back with q wonderful
admiration of them do not want to be
q heather, but would like to be as ear
nest in my religion as they are in theirs.
When Samson went away with wo
man whom he vowed to God to never
see again, God put It into her hands to
take away his power. His hair was his
strength, and getting from him this secret,
abe cut it all away, and the man fell, fell
like Lucifer into the unfathomable depths
of darkness and despair.
A little neglect of early services and
others, q little easements, q little this and
that and the other.-Oh, they grow, these
things, and soon you will find you will be
unable to break away from them. We
are caught and held in their grip as in
bands Of beaten steel. The man who
never begins to gamble, never dies bank
rupt from it, the man who never drinks
never dies drunkard. There are single
acts, single words, behind which lies every
i'll.
Sin is progressive, and the sad thing
about it is that is is quickly becoming
permanent. First, personal, then pro-
gressive, and finally permanent. | think
that one of the saddest things in Sam
sons life was that when the man was
down, he did not know he was down. He
aw0ke and said he would do the things
that he did at other times, but he visit
not the Lord was departed from him. and
they led him away blind and friendless in
the presence of his enemies.
What il the matter with us3 We have
ceased to pray and have lost the power of
prayer. We have ceased to sing and
have lost the power to sing. We have
ceased to think of God and have lost the
vision of the Almighty. l want you to re-
member this morning that Christ, my
Master, is not a church, he is not book,
he Is not q sacrament, he is like my moth
er, he ID a person, to whom can 60 and