The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1910-05-12
THE PULPIT.
A BRILLIANT SUNDAY SERMON BY
THE REV. e. F. SANDERSON.
T:s~".c; Gods Redemptive Power.

:. Sanderson, pastor of the Church of
he Pilgrims. preached Sunday morn
ng on The Redemptive Power of
God" He took his text from Nehe.
niah 9:27: "In the time of their
trouble, when they cried unto Thee,
Tbou heardest from heaven, and ac.
cording to Thy manifold mercies
Thou gavest them saviours" Mr..
Sanderson said:
The Jews have returned l.om cap.
tivity: they have drained the bitter
sup Of national degradation; their
pride Of race has been brutally and
shamelessly trampled upon; they
have seen all that they held most
holy desecrated and despoiled; but
an unconquerable faith still flames
within them-the faith that God will
give saviours to His people. Shorn
Of all its narrowness and its partial.
isms, 1t is the simple faith of mar.
kind in the relemptiye power OF
Sod
When we speak of that power we
are dealing with the mightiegt prln.
ciple In the universe. If we had but
eyes to see it, it is evidenced on every
side-a power repairing, rebuilding,
redeeming. 1t is manifested in
lower form when you strike your AK
into the trunk of a tree and God
sends saviors - those redemptive
forces in the tree itself which set up
The work of healing-and redeem the
Tree. You see it when the germs of
disease enter the human system and
God sends as saviors the lencocytes
those redemptive workers in the
blood who marshal their forces like
the knights of the Crusades, to drive
out the despoilers of the human body,
and redeem it from disease. There
are redemptive forces in every living
creature, reclaiming the life from de-
5truction and decay.
can believe that when this planet
was all aiame in fervent heat, in
those days when the morning stars
6rst sang together, that even then
there was a picture in the divine
mind of wfat this round globe should
some day be, a garden of supernal
beauty, with fair cities and peonled
with a joyous multitude. l believe
that that ideal will yet be realized
and | believe that Gods redemDtive
power is at work in myriad ways
combating the forces which retard the
coming of that ideal.
When hordes of rapacious insects
would lay a continent waste and bar
rem, God sends saviors. some form of
life which preys upon the pest and
redeems the vegetation. The process
OF redeeming this world from the
forces of destruction Is a reverend
ing process. In fact, but for the
sayiors in nature. the earth to-day
would be one vast temple of desola-
tion. Scientists understand this.
They are analyzing these redemptive
forces and bringing them to bear
upon afflicted districts. Thus scien-
fists become laborers together with
God for the redemption of the earth.
Through man God is reclaiming the
waste places OF the earth. Through
great irrigation systems and the
drainage of vast areas of swamp land,
the wilderness Is being redeemed
God sends saviors. God Is at work
in the men in every land who are
fighting famine ard plague and pow
erty and disease, fighting every form
of physical wretchedness and suffer
ing. That redemptive force Is in
creasing with every passing year.
Everywhere men are betting their
lives on 20 the redemptive energy of
God to redeem humanity from the
curse OF an upfayorable environment
and harsh and oppressive conditions
Never in the history of the world has
there heen such q stupendious mani
fes.ation Of Gods purpose to redeem
the physical lot OF man from every
thing which debase5 and retards and
stultifies. The earth as the garden
OF Cod where man can grow healthy
bodies and know something of the
Joy of living. is a dream; yes, but a
dream that is coming true.
When we leave the plane of the
physical realm and enter that of the
moral and spiritual, we find the same
great principle at work. Here the
sphere of its operation is enlarge ed
for we are dealing with souls and
eternity. Here, too, we strive TO
catch Gods purpose for the race, for
only then can we understand the play
of His redemptivs forces. We be-
lieye that Gods purpose--the goal
Of the uniyerse-is an empire of life,
In which the Father is King and men
are brothers united in the eternal
quest of the true. the good and the
beautiful. Hold that ideal and II will
shine like a FURNISHED lamp in your
soul. Belief in that is the North
Star OF the Christian faith. We set
the compass OF human purpose by
that conception of divine purpose II
gives unerrlng direction to our lives
and coTrects all our wayward plans.
I believe that the omnipotence of God
Is moving the race of men toward
that ideal. / believe that everything
In our civilization which antagonizes
tbat ideal must go.
/ believe that the empire of selfish.
ness must crumble and the empire OF
love supplant II. The man who lives
for himself has the inyincible purpose
OF the universe against him. / be.
lieve that since the days OF primordial
chaos God has been giving Himself
for the attainment of this ideal. All
the knowledge OF the world has been
the fortbglvlng of the mind of God,
divinely perceived at first. mlsinter-
preted, distorted, but seen with In
creasing clearness as the ages have
paszed. The moral attachments OF
the race reflect In the same imperfect
way the eternal Righteousness given
out OF the great heart OF God. The
spiritual life OF men Is just the fol
lowing the CLEAN" of the soul at the
centre OF the universe.
God Is ever giving Himself to the
world for the achievement OF His
idoal. but more than that, He Is the
uncompromising antagonist of every
agency which would divert the race
from the goal which He has chosen,