The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1908-11-11
THE PULPIT.
A BRILLIANT SUNDAY SERMON BY
DR.. CHARLES EDWARD LOCKE.
Theme: Faiths Victories.

Methodist Episcopal Church. He
| 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
Faiths Victories" The text was l
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 a fig tree, they ap-
preached it, confidently expecting to
enjoy the luscious fruit, forthe 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
a curse upon the unfruitful and USE
less tree, and Immediately it withered
away. When the wondering disciples
saw the fig tree withered away they
marveled, but Jesus said: IF We
have faith and doubt not, We shall not
only do this which is done to the fig
tree, but, also, If We shall say unto
this mountain, be thou removed and
be thou cast into the sea, it shall be
done; and all things whatsoever we
shall ask in prayer believing We shall
receive"
John was the best loved Of all the
disciples of Jesus. Our introduction
to him is when he is a young man,
when he and Andrew at the sugges-
ticn of John the Baptist, Behold the
Lamb of Cod" follow Jesus and in
quire, 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-
tality aglo- upon his face. Looking
forward in 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 SEEN" 1t has
been truthfully said that faith Is a
higher faculty than reason. Reason
builds laboriously and often fruitless-
ly it's towers of Babel, but faith quick
ly scars into the very bosom Of the
Infinite. Faith is a grateful arch
which spans the chasm between man
the finite and God the Infinite. Faith
is a 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
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'st discovery on
the staircase in the lateran. THE
life which I now live in the flesh I
live by the faith ofythe Son Of God"
Christ is life-He@ came to interpret
and enlarge life for each of us.
Faith, also, is character. Faith In
Christ IS the foundation Of character,
the inspiration of achievement. Char
acter is what a man is doing all the
time. When the disciples asked Jesus
what they should do to work the
works Of God, He replied, believe on
Him whom He hath sent" What we
believe will determine what we do.
Great men are great ideas i~ncarnated.
It " a 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
er men dream and doubt and debate.
Columbus first had a vision Of a new
world, and then found it. Morse was
a man of faith and prayer, until in
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. What
these heroic men worked out was
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 and
Mothers, the founders of the Wes-
leyan movement, Francis Xavier,
William Taylor, William Butler and
Judson. Pioneers of faith have dis
mally discovered that it is more diff
cult to overcome the unbelief of men
than to master the principles upon
which their deductions and inventions
depended.
After all, the stronger argument
for our Christian faith is not what We
say, but what we do. II has been
thoughtfully remarked that although
the unbeliever may not read the BIZ
BILE, he does read the life Of Chris
tians to see how they live. A truth
incarnated in a consistent Christian
life is the church's invincible argu-
ment for Christianity.
Faith is Standardization from
sin and self and sorrow and sickness
and adversely. There is no i'll of the
soul for which faith is not a specific,
and many ills of the body flee away
like the poisonous fogs before the
sunlight .
Dear Chaplain McCabe had a broth
er who, after forty years of thralldom
to strong dring. was finally, through
the faith and love and perseverance
of his hopeful brother, redeemed from
the sad slavery. The chaplain used
to say: when I get to heaven l am
going to take my brother by the hand
and lead him up to my mother and
say: Mother, here's George; l have
brought him home!'" and nothing
will save a vast multitude of men un-
less their fellows, in love and faith,
help them to fight their battles