Los Angeles herald., 1910-02-21
HONESTY MOST
FREQUENT TEST
PASTOR SAYS CHRISTIANS DO
NOT ALL PAY DEBTS
MANS AMBITION SUBJECT OF a
TEMPLE CHURCH SERMON
Rev. j. Whiteomb 5rousher in Adj
dress to Auditorium Congregation
DweIIs on Question of Much
Importance to All

Probably there is test that the world
puts upon Christianity more frequently than
the test of honesty. Men expect Christians
| TO pay their debts. Nevertheless 1t is true
that it is no guarantee that a man will pay
| his debts because he is known to be a
| Christian."-Rev ]. Whitcomb Brougher
| d. D.
"a Mans Ambition" was the subject
of Rev. J. Whitcomb Brougher, pastor
of the Temple Baptist church, yester-
day morning. He said, in part:
rs it right for a Christian to be
ambitious? This is the question a
noted preachers son asked him en- one
occasion. 1 want to repeat the ques-
tion this morning. Is it right for a
Christian man to be ambitious? Let us
remember the word ambitious means
the love of honor and praise Is it
proper, therefore, for man to live for
the sake of honor and praise from his
fellowmen? 1 believe it is when the
proper motives and purpose control the
man. You will not find the word am
bition' in the authorized version of the
Bible, nor in the revised version, but
you will find it three times in the mar
gin of the American revised version. On
| these three occasions it is given as the
exact translation of the Greek.
In Romans, 1920, Paul says: L
make it my ambition to preach the
| gospel where Christ is not already
known, that l might not build upon
another mans foundation In his first
letter to the Thessalonians, the fourth
chapter and the eleventh verse, he says,
We exhort you, brethren, to be ambi-
tiOus to mind your own business and
work with your own hand, that ye may
walk honestly toward them that are
1,-ith Of h
ing This would seem to be strange
ambition, and yet it is certainly a
worthy one, for someone has said, "A
man who minds his own business will
succeed, for he won't have any com
petition
Word Again Used
an his second epistle to the Corin-
thians Paul again uses the word ambi-
ton in the fifth chapter and the ninth
verse, saying, we make it our ambi-
ton, whether at home OF absent, to be
well pleasing unto him
Someone has said that missions is a
mans job. 1t is more than that; it Is
mans job, it is a woman's job, it is
Gods job. The evangelization of the
world is the greatest undertaking that
God or man has on hand today. For a
few moments, therefore, wish to no.
tice this threefold ambition of Paul's.
Il
gospel where Christ is not known.
alexander the Great conquered the
world for his own selfish glory and
was known for his great ambition.
What undertaking in this world can
equal in Importance the undertaking
to win the world for Christ? When
Jesus Christ gave his command, Go, ye,
and make disciples of all the nations,
it was a preposterous undertaking in
the eyes of the world for the young man
of Palestine to proclaim. But it was
the ambition of Jesus Christ to save
the world. and it should be the over
weening ambition of a Christian man
today, to make his life touch the ends
of the earth in it's influence and power
to win the world for Christ.
when DIR. A. j. Gordon of Boston
graduated from the Theological semi
nary he said: L want to make the
most of my life, and he decided to
build on the old foundation where there
had been years Of culture and spiritual
training rather than go to new field
Adoniram Judson, years before, had de-
clined to become pastor of Park Street
church, Boston, and went to the foreign
field. DR. Gordon, before his death,
called attention to the fact that when
Judson died Park Street church had
only 800 members, While 10000 had be-
come Christians from Judson's labors
in Burma. The hardest and most self
denying work is that Of laying founda.
tions, but it is the most needful, the
most unostentatious and the most he
roic. If men and women want an am
bition that calls for all the powers that
God has given them, let them set before
them the evangelization of the whole
world No greater, no nobler no more