The Penn's Grove record., 1910-01-28
THE PULPIT.
A BRILLIANT SUNDAY SERMON BY
REV. DR.. JASON N. PIERCE.
Theme: Cooperative Success.

Amherst, Mass.-The Rev. oueor
Noble Pierce, pastor of the Puritan
Congregational Church, Brooklyn,
preached before the faculty and stu
dents of Amherst College. His sub
ject was cooperative Success" He
said:
The theme of mysermon this morn
ing is cooperative Success" In one
sense, of course. all success is coop
erative. We can not have success
without society. 1t takes travellers to
run a railroad, customers to support
a store, and men in all professions
must have their patrons in order to
operative. But 1 bring to your con-
sideration another side to this subject
success that rests upon co-operat-
Ing not so much with men of the pres
ent as with men of the past and of
the future. Let us begin with an his
toric case. You will find my text in
the last verse of the eleventh chapter
of the Epistle to the Hebrews: That
apart from us they should not be
made perfect"
Who should not be made perfect?
Read the chapter which is the setting
of our text. 1t is a glorious record of
the greatest men in Israel. Here are
recorded the names of the fathers of
the race, the men who led it into po-
sition and power. Here are written
the anne of Joseph, the great ruler;
of Moses, the lawgiver, whose influ-
ence outlives the centuries; of Gideon
and Barak, generals, whose very
names inspired terror within the
hearts of the enemy; of David, the
King of Israel's golden age, and of
Isaiah, the immortal prophet. These
are the men at whom the finger of
the race points and the voice of the
people cries Behold our heroesi"
What grand men they werei Men
'of whom the world was not worthy"
says the writer of the epistle. If
there were time 1 could preach you a
sermon on that text alone, "Men of
whom the world was not worthy"
Not the kind of men who thought the
world was unworthy of them, who set
themselves up as little tin gods on
wheels, who had the heart of a pessi-
mist and the lip of a scorner-that
vas not their style. Rather they
were men who felt this was a grand
old world and a glorious life; they
had the far-seeing eye and the warm
beating heart; they assailed the stout
est enemy, performed the hardest
tasks, courted danger and difficulty,
and left the world better and richer
for their having lived in it. They are
the mes "of whom the world was not
worthy" and yet here come the sig
nificant words of our text, THAT apart
from us they should not be made per-
feet"
The meaning of the passage is clear
when we study 1t in the light Of the
whole chapter. These were men of
faith. Over and over again we read
the expressive words "By faith" They
were men who lived, toiled and
wrought by faith. Faith in what?
Reducing a large question to a con-
else answer l would say this was their
faith-that by the grace of God Israel
was to furnish leadership to the
world. And generations afterward
that faith was realized when Israel
gave to the world the master charac-
ter of all time.
Here, then, is the argument of the
writer: % The greatest and most
able men of Israel were men of faith
who foresaw, toiled and hoped for
something that p~osterity could
achieve. CD When the dream of the
years came true, then were they JUS
titled in their faith and their lives re-
ceived the full-rounded completion
ond nnrfaofian that tha;r faith 10
served. In order to bring out the
point of the argument more clearly,
let me state it again in somewhat diff
ferent terms: % There are men who
undertake a cause that is larger than
life and give their strength in loyal
allegiance to 1t because they believe
it to be right and bound ultimately to
succeed. CD These men of faith
grow or shrink, succeed or fail, are
perfected or undone, proportionately
as the object of their faith is finally
realized. The fame of Washington
would never have been what it is to-
day if we had lost the Revolution, or
If the Union had been broken at the
time of the Civil War! Washington
had faith not only in the success of
the Revolution, but in a glorious and
brilliant future for this republic, and
the more we see that this faith was
justified, just so much the more do
we see a larger and a greater Wash
ington. For more than a century af-
ter Oliver Cromwell died his charac-
ter was torn to shreds and scattered
to the four winds of heaven, but to-
day men vie with each other in doing
hsrn nrofoo Thu nr0of fao,3a1 f4r.
which he fought-individua1 liberty,
religious federation, the enforcement
of a just and equitable law on all
alike. whether it be on the common
people or on the 1icentious mobiles of
England, the protection of his coun-
trymen in foreign lands, the extension
of commerce and the sweeping of the
Mediterranean pirates from the seas.
In short everything that promoted the
common good-these issues have now
captured the world, and in proportion
as they have been victorious has the
character of Cromwell gained in maj
esty until to-day he is regarded as the
greatest individual of a mighty peo-
pie. History is replete with illustra-
ton of the truth of our text that great
men become greater as that for which
they lived and died achieves the vic
tory. This is cooperative success
This is the demonstration of our text:
"That apart from us they should not
bemade perfect"
Let us now face certain considera-
lions that spring from this subject.
In the first place, there comes the re-
alizing sense that no man liveth to
himself, but that the life of every
man is inseparably associated with
the lives of others. Whatever we
do affects others, and the more Sc
rious the action the more important
the result. Have you ever seen a
careless or incompetent physician?
Such a mar is a menace to society,
for before all people can be warned
against him he has caused irreparable
harm. Have you ever e al I'M
scrupulous lawyer II politician, a
man who cares not how he win out if
only he can win? Such a man may
soon stiie his conscience and forget
disquieting memories, but the harm
he causes affects society and it's IN
happy influence may live long after
him. 1t makes a vast difference what
we stand for and what we do. What