Montour American. (Danville, Pa.) 1866-1920, 1909-10-14
THE PROBLEM
OF EXISTENCE"

The members of Montour Castle No.
1856, X g. E., Sunday morning at
tended divine service at the First Bap-
fist church, where sermon was
preached by the pastor, the Rev. n. j.
Trey. The members of the order march
ed from the lodge room on Mill street
to the church in body, there being
forty-one in line
Mr.. Irey's discourse was an APP
propriate one, conceived of with refer
ence to the circumstances and the
needs of the average man, such as is
apt to hold IA membership i'll secret
organizations. The text was taken
from John II Is. 1t had as its theme {:
Existence Problem: The Only Solu-
tion. The sermon follows in part.
Beginning the speaker said:
In making the declaration of our
text, II am the way, the Truth and
the Life" Jesus Christ is thinking of
His relation to humanity and of Him
self in the relation TO the outworking
of the problem of human existence.
Ito be or not to be- is not after all
the supreme question with men and
women, but rather this: Given this
personal endless existence of mine, how
may make the most of it; how work
it out to utmost advantage to myself
and others? That there is such IA pro-
blem is abundantly witnessed in the
inner experience of each individual, as
well as in the visible and pitIable
wreckage of human character. hopes,
ambitions, purposes and usefulness on
every side of us. To be is supreme
privilege, and yet some of us so woefuly
fail of the true course and end of eX
had we never been born. Other prob
lens we may shirk or leave to others;
here we all must acknowledge re-
sponsibility which we cannot avoid.
You, our guests we all. are blessed
" committed to working out this pro
blem; for your organization goes hand
in hand with religion in leading your
fellow beings to IA better land.
What is this problem of human eX
istence? \ four-fold answer is suggest
ed to us: First, the problem includes
in part II conscious release from the
condemnation of sin. Very early III
our conscious existence the facts of
personal responsibility for rightness
and of our failure to meet this re-
sponsibility are thrust upon us. We
stand condemned at the bar of con
science and before God
We must experience relief from this
condemnation. No one can be or do
his best while thus burdened. The
wrong must be righted through the
paying the penalty or through confes-
sion and forgiveness and most of all
with our God. The soul must have
the consciousness of present right
ness and peace with God. 'Tis more
this now than question of Heaven or
He'll in the end. How shall a man be
just before God: Il am the Way. -
saws the Christ and as we study the
question that Divine Human Being,
that sinlesS life, that death upon Cal
vary. that resurrection from the dead
all of it comes TO bear very vital rel
ations to our release from sins con-
demnation. We may not comprehend
the whole of the philosophy of it, but
we accept the gracious invitation of
Infinite Love to run to shelter there
and come to know ourselves justified
and in a state of peace with offended
| Deity.
This problem of existence includes
also a right handed attitude on our
part toward God, the good, the evil
toward all men, all life's duties and
responsibilities. Nothing can be more
| true than that as we are at the heart
of us, i'll the realm of our wills and of
our affections, so are We; that the is
sues of life, those passing and present
and those future and eternal, are prim-
arily out of the heart rather than orig
| mating in our ancestors or III the con-
ditions in which we are placed. Oh
| if the heart be wrong, nothing can be
| right-not even God for us.
Nor is right-heartedness nature
endowment nor disciplinary acquisi-
ton. "The natural heart is enmity
| against God and is not subject to the
law of God neither indeed, can be. ~
, And how, indeed can anyone work
out the problem of existence from "a
wrong heart? And how may a heart
which is wrong be transformed into a
right one?
Again the heavens above us which
might have been as brass become vocal
with the message of love and redemp-
tion. "Son, daughter, give me thy
heart.
But no existence is being truly solv-
ed in which the constant conflict with
evil in every life does not as rule is
sue in victory for righteousness. There
is the wolf in each one of us Every
one with whom we have to do is more
or less selfish There is the personal
| Devil, the source and nerfection of