Los Angeles herald., 1908-07-13
LIFE LESSON TAUGHT
BY PILGRIM FATHERS
NEVER HESITATED TO FACE
THE UNKNOWN
Their Progressive Spirit Walks the
Streets of Los Angeles Today,
Making fer Full and
Free Life

Rev. William Horace Day. pastor
Of the First Congregational church,
preached on 1.-THE Pilgrim Spirit" yes
terday morning. He said in part:
This spirit sent the A[ayflower to
Plymouth, but it is as old as Abraham
and as new as Los Angeles. In Abra-
ham, the pilgrim, we find these charac-
| teristics: Obedience progress, faith.
"'By faith Abraham, when he was
called, obeyed, not knowing whittier
he went Centuries ago another pill
grim spirit was praying in the temple
at Jerusalem when he saw his Lord in
q vision and heard the command: De-
part for I will send thee forth far
| hence to the Gentiles.' That was just
what Paul did not want to do. HIS
IsraePs capital and preaching to his fell
| low countrymen, but, with the spirit
of the pilgrim, he obeyed.
NEARLY sixteen centuries later little
company of English religious exiles had
gathered in Leyden. Their national
| church had forgotten the pilgrim spirit
| and they had been expatriated. They
proposed to settle in America A bano
of merchants proposed to finance the
expedition. These merchants were
grub stalking g. hazardous enterprise
and they exacted hard conditions. In
the face of mountains of difficulty that
little Congregational church, trans
planted from Scrooby, resolved to move
again and accept the conditions. In
the midst of a people speaking a strange
| tongue they had heard the call of God
| and they obeyed, going out to land
they knew not of. Has your faith been
darkened or life been weakened? The
first step into the full free life of the
pilgrim spirit must always lead through
! the gate of obedience.
"'Tie went out, not knowing whittier
he went The pilgrim spirit leads a
man to be willing to go out into the
unknown. When he arrives at the emf
of the next stage of the journey he
realizes that it is not the end. To the
progressible pilgrim spirit the faith
once delivered to the fathers is not the
whole of faith. With John Robinson
he has formed the habit of expecting
new light to break from the written
word
Though our spiritual forefathers
came out of the sternness of English
puritanism they were genuine pilgrims
In their progressive temper To the
man of this spirit there must ever be
a new theology though everything
called new theology will not be prog
ress, nor will he be moved by every
wind of doctrine. He will strive for the
utmost true liberty, knowing that Jesus
|
new and old from the treasure house
of the scripture.
Pilgrim Spirit One Of Faith
"This spirit is loyal to the highest
ideal. 1t sees and never forgets the
vision. For he looked for the city
which hath the foundations, whose
builder and maker Is Cod Abraham
was not a wild nomad. He was city
bred, coming from the heart of the
highest civilization of his day. After
living In two parts of the Euphrates
valley he obeyed to go out to the herd
ships Of the pioneer life. But while he
wandered, sojourning in tents. he was
never separated from the ideal of the
city of God.
"The pilgrim spirit is always one of
superb faith. During that sad first
winter at Plymouth forty-four of the
102 were buried, one after another, on
that lonely hill. What kept them there
when spring came? Why was it that
| none but the sailors set sail for home
April 8, when the Mayflower returned?
Because the pilgrim spirit is the spirit
of faith. They struggled on during
| those long discouraging years with
Governor Bradford at the head, be-
cause they looked for the city of the
| foundations
after seven years this is the way
they went to church. The drum called
| them together. Three ABREAST, with
their firelocks, they marched, followed
by the governor in his gown, with Elder
Brewster on one side and Capt. Miles
Standish on the other, each bearing
arms. Up they went into the square
church of logs, with it's six cannon
mounted on It's fiat roof. They had
learned to endure the days Of blood and
iron because they had faith that saw
beyond the rough plank cabins, the re-
luctant forests yielding to the clearing
of the fields and the wind-swept grave
yard, for though they were pilgrims
on the earth they greeted the promises
from afar and had faith in the city
whose maker and builder was God.
THE pilgrim spirit walks the streets
of Los Angeles. 1t is progressive. 1t is
the spirit that takes the family into
the new subdivision. While they walk
through mud and dust and carry water
and wait for gas and electricity the
members of that family have the faith
that sees the we'll made street, walk,
trees and neighboring homes. with a
new life, full and free. The pilgrim
spirit has built our city"
| -.