The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1910-02-23
THE PULPIT.
A BRILLIANT SUNDAY SERMON BY
REV. DR.. JASON N. PIERCE.
Theme: Cooperative Success.

uiN DASNh -
preached before the faculty and stu.
dents of Amherst College. His sub,
ject was "Co-operative Success" He
said:
The theme of mysermon this morn.
ing is "Co-operative 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
succeed. All success is in a way CO.
operative. But I bring to your con-
sideration another side to this subject
success that rests upon c%o-operat-
ing not so much with men Of the pres
emit 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 jof
the race, the men who led it into po-
sition and power. Here are written
the names 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 I~srael'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 heroes
What grand men they were! Mel
"of whom the world was not worthy
says the writer of the epistle. If
there we're time I 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
was not their style. Rather they
were men who felt this was a grand
old world and a glorious life; they
had the f%ar-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 ones "of whom the world was not
worthy" and yet here come the sig
niicant 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 it in the light of the
whole chapter. These were men OF
faith. Over and over again we read
the expressive words "Byfaith." They
we're men who lived, toiled and
wrought by faith. Faith in what?
Reducing a large question to a con-
else answer I 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: Cd The greatest and most
able men of Israel were men of faith
who foresaw, toiled and hoped TO!
something that ~posterity could
achieve. (2) 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
and perfection that their faith de-
served. In order to bring out the
point Of the argument more clearly
let me state it again in somewhat diff.
ferent terms: CD There are men who
undertake a cause that Is larger than
life and give their strength in loyal
allegiance to it because they believe
it to be right and bound ultimately to
succeed. (2) 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 dc
we see a larger and a greater Wash
ington. For more than a century az
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
him praise. The great issues for
which he fought-individual liberty
religious federation, the enforcement
Of a just and equitable law on all
alike, whether it be on the common
people or on the licentious 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.
III short everything that promoted the
common good-these issues have now
captured the world, and in proportion
rs 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
be made perfect"
Let us now face certain considera-
lions that spring from this subject,
In the first place. there comes the re.
alizing n that no man liveth tc
himself, but that the life of every
man is inseparably associated with
tho 1ivoc of othcre yThotouo, ,rc