The daily Alaskan., 1909-01-05
THE CALL FROM
 PAST ID FUTURE
NEW YEARS SERMON PREACHED SUN. DAY AT PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
 BY REV. GOOD

saith unto him, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.
 "oa one of his Galilean tours, Jesu came to Capurnium and a great crow of people followed him. They were eager to hear the word of life"
 Jesus talked to the people on the shore. Matthew and Luke give us an account of this. He says, "as they went the way, certain man said unto him, I will follow thee whithersoeyer thou goest. And Jesus said unto him, The foxes have holes and the birds of the heaven have nests; but the Son of man hath no, where to lay his head. And he said unto another follow me. But he said, Lord. suffer me first to go and bury my father. But he said unto him; leave the dead to bury their own dead; but go thou and publish abroad the kingdom of God: And another also said, l will follow thee Lord; but first suffer me to bid farewell to them that are at my house; but Jesus said unto him, no man having put his hand to the blow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of Cod"
 Let the Past Bury the Past.
 Now 1 know, that it may seem hard to understand why Jesus did not grant the request of these aspiring disciples. One of them wanted to perform the most sacred of all duties. It does seem that Jesus would have granted such a request; but he did not. - Jesus knew that his ministry must necessarily be short. And if that man had gone back to bury his father. according to the Mosaic law and the Jewish custom he would have been defiled for many days. Out there before him was a larger life, and in order to possess that life the the things of the past must be left to the past
 And this thought is suggestive to us at the beginning of the year. At this season we all become retrospec- tive and prospective. But most of us can look farther into the past than into the future. This year should be the best year of our lives, If 1t proves SO we must obey the voice of our Master. We must let the past bury the past and follow the voice.
 "Of the religions now existing in the world, Buddhism is said to nun. Der fodr hundred million and Moham- mechanism one hundred and twenty million votaries yet were we to strike the person of saka Munr, the founder of Buddhism. and that of Mohamet the founder of Mohamme- danism out of these respective sys- tens, their religions would remain intact. The same is true of Brahm- inism, Confusianism and Zoroaster- ianlsm and every other religion of the past and present. But if We were to remove every reference to Christ in the New Testament, the brief re. mainder would at once become mas of shapeless ruins. What does this prove? It proves that Jesus Christ is fact with which we have to deal. He is the center and the soul and the heart of the Gospel. and he still lives
 But we want some other proof of Jesus Christ as living Christ, Com pare the civilization of the past with the civilization of the present. You will find that great progress has been made, and that Christianity in her efforts to abolish social evils has mitigated those evils. Very well, how are you going to account for the Christian that has overcome? How are you going to account for the changed lives? How are you going to account for the growth in charac- ter? How are you going to account for the approach to the heavenly life Many hearts of stone have been taker