The Birmingham age-herald., 1910-01-17
REV. WEST BREACHES AT CENTRAL PARK Emphasizes the Duties We Owe
 Each Other TO GIVE MONEY IS NOT ALL To Give Inspiration and Encourage nnent to Struggling FeIlow-men Is More Valuable Than Materi-
 al Contributions.
TO GIVE MONEY IS NOT ALL


 day morning and took his text from Philippians 2:5. Let this mind be in | you which was also in Christ Jesus.' He said;
 l This text presents Christ in His sinless humanity as He lived among men. It is 1 the type and model of all goodness pos l the mind that was in Christ? If we could not the command would not have been given. God does not trife with His people by requiring impossible things at their 1 hands. Mind, spoken of in the text, is not intellect, for intellectually He was superior to other men. Never man spoke like this Man" It is not the affections, for il may not be possible for us to love l as did He. The mind evidently means | our character, what we really are. We say of man that he is a man of good spirit. That is more nearly the sense in which mind is used in the text, that we are to be Christ-lilze in spirit and dispos- tion
 
 sire 1t and will strive for it. In order to do this there is one thing, and only one thing, necessary, and that is that we shall love Him. That will settle every other question. The wife who loves her husband and her home needs not to be told what she shall do and what she shall not do Her love settles every question
 
 ways, and to the utmost limit of her strength. If we love Him our response will be prompt and hearty to every claim of truth and call of duty. AS He went about doing good,' so shall we be seeking opportunities to do good to all men, to the bodies as well as the souls, of men.
 Most of the miracles of Jesus were wrought on the bodies of men. There is significance in this fact. He healed null titudes of sick people. He gave sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf and put strength into lame limbs and palsied arms. He cared for all the interests of men. His ministry was to the body as well as the soul. In this particular Pro- testant Christianity has not had the mind that was in Christ. The Roman Catholic church has led us beyond all comparison in establishing places for the helpless and dependent But we seem to be waking up to the importance of this work. If we have the spirit of our Lord we must care for the poor as the needs of their souls and bodies may require.
 There is another requirement in which we are sadly deficient, far below the ex- ample set and the commands given, and that is in our love and sympathy for one another. The command of our Lord is that we shall love one another as He loved us. His love for us was to the ut- most limit Greater love hath no man than thls, that man lay down his life for his friends" Do we not owe little larger debt of love and sympathy to those around us than we seem to acknowledge? Do we approximate the mind of our Lord in this particular?
 In the matter of donations on the part of few men and women to public and charitable institutions, the year just closed was the banner year in the worlds his- tory. A few men and women gave $l41,- 250,0oo Much else was given not included in the above amount. This was good and shows a sense of obligation on the part of those who possess large wealth to do good to those around them.
 But to give money is not all we owe to others There is great need for a mani fer tation of our love and sympathy by personal contact with men. There are thousands about us who do not need our money. but they do need to feel that we love them and that we are in sympa- thy with them. If we may give in- spiration and encouragement to them in their struggles we have made more val uable contribution than we could have made ir material things. There are thou sands of men in our midst who never enter church. It is probable that within the sound of the bell of almost every church in the land this is true. There are tDoee about us who are as much un- chui ched and personally as far from the Savior as can be found in the darkest spe of the darkest continent on the face of the earth. Some of these men may be wilfully wicked and will probably re- main SO. Some of them are in the con difion they are because they felt that they had reason to believe that no man cared for their souls. am persuaded that rrany of these men and their families could be reached and saved if the pro- fessed followers of Jesus Christ had the spirit of love and sympathy that prompt ed Him and that He requires in them. We need to realize that we are our broth CTS keeper
 We owe also a debt to the poor whom our Lord said we would always have with Us.
 In my judgment. in many instances we have not met this obligation in the wisest and best way. Instead of building mission chapels where the poor are oongregated together we need to bridge the chasm between the rich and the poor, bringing them together that the poor may get the uplift and inspiration that comes from this association. Every church that has the spirit of Christ welcomes the poor to it's pews and to its membership. Let us adopt this test as our motto and de- terrnine to exemplify in our lives the mind that was in Christ.
 "Sweetly may we all agree,
 Touched with softest sympathy; L Kindly for each other care. Every member feel its share" -----------s------