Arizona republican., 1909-05-10
CONSTRUCTIVE POWER
 OF A GREAT IDEA
The Sermon of Rev. R. H. Wilkinson of the First M. E. Church Yes terday.

The pulpit of the First Methodis
 church was occupied yesterday morn.
 ing by Rev. R. H. Wilkinson. whc
 preached from the text, As he think
 eth in his heart. so is he.''-Prov. 23. '
 God Is the greatest thinker in the
 universe. The universe itself is ir
 evidence. Who but God could have
 planned so infinitely and laid founda
 uons so everlasting! David exclaims
 o Lord, how great are thy works, And thy thoughts are very deep. God Himself says: My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways. For as the heavens are higher than the earth. so are my ways higher than vour ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts The greatness. the vast ness of Gods ideas is voiced in tbe heavens above and in the earth be- meath. God sits enthroned amid the Srandest thoughts. His kingdom is Kingdom of thought This is true not alone of the material universe. but also in the universe of intelligent beings. When God would create man His ideal was His own image; after His own likeness" And in the image of God created He him" He created him a being of intellect and of moral power, capable of thinking Gods thoughts and of possessing Gods purity.
 As one thinketh, so is he" God wishes us to see that a mans think ing has creative, constructive pow CT. As are your thoughts such will be your life, your character, your influence and your power among men Thoughts and ideas create and construct. They build the man. the state. the nation. Let us consider the constructive power of a great idea as seen in national life The one great thought of the Greek was beauty. You see it in everything his mind conceived, his hand touched or his voice uttered Grecian architec- ture was of the most marvellous fine ness The highly ornate Corinthian capital has never been surpassed. if equalled. In no hands has the chisel wrought such lines of rythmic grace and exquisite pose of form as in those of the Grecian sculptor. The Phidian Minervas and the Venus of Praxiteles with his Cupids and Apollo are marvels of beauty. Enter any great art gallery and it is the Grecian models that will detain you longest and charm you most In the literature and language of the Greek beauty is the uppermost. the controll- ing idea. It inspired the thought and then clothed it in the loveliest forms. Homer and Aeschylus and Sophocles stand unrivalled for their poetic charms. No language has ever equalled the Greek for it's fineness of finish, its delicacy of expression and it's richness of diction Beauty is not only to be seen in all the Greek thought and said and did; it finds its final expression in his fas- cinating mould of, features and fash ion of person. It looks out through his eyes and face, and grace of form and movement. Who does not know that the Grecian style of face and person contains the greatest fineness and beauty while the Roman com pines strength and endurance.
 The supreme idea of the Roman was law. To her immediate citizens Rome was everything. They yielded her the most subservient devotion. Her claims were transcendent Pri- Vate rights were as nothing com pared with public interest Such noble souls as Curtius and Decius. as Regulus and Cincinnatus, who voluntarily sacrificed all for the state, were legion. It was this blind devo- tion to public interest that made Rome the mightiest of empires. The reign of law was absolute Rigid organization was carried into every department of public life This idea found its chief expression in a vast military system that made Rome the greatest of military nations. She be- came one almighty engine of power for the subduing of the world. From the milestone of gold set up in the Forum of Augustus as the center piece of the universe, marvel ously constructed military roads ra- diated into all the provinces so that she could hurI her all-conquering le- giOns with all ease against the most distant foe. Rome looked upon the nations as in a state of anarchy and believed it her mission to bring all peoples and provinces under the do- minion of law. The physical outcome was a nation of athletes, men with muscles of iron and sinews of steel; men whose noble, powerful forms contrasted strangely, with the grace full mould of the esthetic Greek.
 Purity was the grandest idea of the Hebrew people. You find it express ed and impressed in tabernacle and temple; in the manifold sacrifices