Los Angeles herald., 1908-08-24
IS
ABODE OF HOPE
BREATHES INSPIRATION TO
GREAT SOULS
UNiMPROVED PAST WORST OF
LIFE's ToRTUREs
Rev. Arthur S. Phelps Draws Lessons
from Ordinary Careers and Those
of Men Who Have EnIight-
ened the World

At the Temple auditorium yesterday
morning Rev. Arthur S. Phelps. pastor
of Central Baptist church, spoke on
the subject Tomorrow" Taking as
his text Joshua 3, 5, "Sanctify your
selves, for tomorrow the Lord will do
wonders among you,' he said:
Tomorrow What charms are in
that world Tomorrow The refuge OF
the indolent, the hope Of the despon-
dent, the inspiration of every great
soul We read in Genesis The even
ing and the morning were the trst
day and of every day since that first
day it may be said The evening and
the morning were another day, the
evening of despair, the morning OF
hope; the evening of failure; the
morning of fresh courage.
"What is more sad than past un-
improved? Keats, dying at the dawn
of life, cried: There is no fiercer nell
than the failure in a great object.
Charles Lamb, helpless in the grip of
intemperance, confesses: With body
mind and soul enfeebled feel myself
borne along toward a frightful preci-
pice, unable and unwilling to stay my
steps or words to that effect. An
American poet, whose name has gone
down to the oblivion of infamy, once
uttered these words: Surely there was
a time when l might have trod the
sunlit heights and from life's dis
sonance struck one clear chord to reach
the ears of God!' There was time!
"What is more glorious than to-
morrow? Not necessarily to a man
in middle life whose life may have
been failure, for there is no JOY to
him in gazing upon an empty slate,
but to the young there is no greater
inspiration. See the children at the
seashore building their houses of sand.
You say: Now it is all finished, and
they will enjoy playing with It, II you
say that you don't know children.
When it is done they are tired of 1t
and at once pull it down to build an
other and better. Said French athe-
ist to a peasant woman: we will pull
down your churches, burn up your
Bibles and abolish your religion To
which she answered with a smile: 'Ah,
but you will leave use the stars!'
Making Most of Opportunity
"This thought has all the glow of the
ideal. Here is a block Of marble by the
roadside. A passing farmer says: I
will take that block of marble and
ballast the road that leads across the
marsh by the pig sty to the barn. But
a Michelangelo, seeing 1t, says: l Will
carve a moses" out of that block OF
as the world stands. Here is a bit of
canvas. A cowboy says: I will lay 1t
on the floor of my shack for rainy
days. But a Raphael paints on that
stretch of canvas a Madonna which
makes motherhood a divine thing to
every soul that looks upon 1t through
the centuries.
"Here is a scrap of paper. A youth
rolls it up and lights his cigarette with
it and tosses in into the gutter. But
a Milton writes on that scrap OF paper
the opening verses of Paradise Lost
Here Is a frail human body. A hypo-
chondriac, tucking that frall body un-
der a down quilt, pours medicine into 1t
by the spoonful, fans 1t and wonders
why he gets worse. But another young
lad, lifting that frail body on horse
back, rides the western plains after
the bronchos, and one day. driving
the spurs into his horses steaming
hanks, speeding by the grave OF the
hypochondriac, he never stops until,
as, President Theodore Roosevelt he
sits in the White House.
"This thought rouses the lion in
man.. Give me a pou sto, place to
stand said Archimedes, and Will
move the round earth out of its place
Some one has said: IF a piece of iron
could speak it would say; i am cold.
am black, l am hard But put that
iron in the fire and what does it say?
my coldness is gone, my hardness Is
gone, my blackness is gone We cry
I am cold of purpose, am black with
corruption, am hardened in con-
science But put that life under the fire
of a great moral resolution and 1t VIII
cry: MY coldness, my hardness, my
blackness are gone foreverl