The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1911-12-21

to the children of Israel that they go
forward"
In the Christian life there is little
promised that is easy. Men are con-
tinually being put to the test. Often
men are placed in hard places, where
the burden is found to be heavy.
Moses was now carrying a heavy bur
den. He had led the children of Israel
from bondage to freedom. Now it
looked as though they would be taken
back to bondage again. The thought
of this was weighing heavily on
Moses, and he cried unto God. The
answer was: Speak thou unto the
children of Israel that they go for
ward" Because of the passing years
the words have not lost their mean
ing. But in a larger sense they are
being applied today.
The message of God to men is For
ward" 1t would be shame for the
present generation to be in the same
degree of enlightenment as the gener-
alton that has just passed We today
have the accumulated thought which
has led to the degree of enlighten-
ment. As we have found so much
the responsibility is laid upon US to
move forward so that we by our lives
will not retard the march of civiliza-
ton. The Christian should ever have
his or her face forward ready to
march at any and all times.
We are placed into such a beautiful
world one would think it would be
hard for the children of men not to
think of Cod But we are forced to
believe that there are many people
who think very little of him who has
given so much for us to enjoy. The
great, broad fields bearing their preci-
GUS fruits, the precious stones found
in the bowels of the earth, the great
forests furnishing the timbers for our
great buildings and ships, the great
mountain peaks
All these things should remind us
of God and his goodness and cause US
to think much of him The beauty of
the sunrise and the glory of the set
ting thereof, the beauty of the stars,
the songs of the birds, the lightning
/ fash. all reveal to US the greatness of
/ God. How strange that men can pass
on with so little thought of God. who
has been so kind and good.
The question we hear often is, How
much will you give?" By that ques-
ton we mean how much will l get.
! We are very anxious about how much
we will get. Ought it not be how
much can l give? In this way see
how much we can help the world on
ward. Suppose that the Apostle Paul
| had asked how much he was to have
| received for each journey he under
| took. Would We have the privilege of
| reading of the church at Phillippi,
| Corinth and many other places? II
/ Martin Luther had asked how much
! he was to receive for the work he
was doing would we be honoring him
| today? The fact is this, that the men
/ and women who accomplished most
| for the world have been most unset
| fish. They have put themselves into
| the great work and their influence has
lived
Too many people are not familiar
with the Bible. This will apply to
both those who belong to our
churches and those who have not yet
identified themselves with the church
There is a great lack in our knowl-
edge of the Bible If the Bible is our
guide through this life, surely we
ought to become familiar with that
which we depend upon. Mr. Moody
used to say, look out in nature and
see the hand of Good. Look into the
Bible and see God face to face" Some
time ought to be given each day to
reading the Bible, not that we ought
to see how much we can cover at a
glance, but how much we can under
stand of its contents
We are reminded every day how i'm
portant it is to live pure. If the pure
life was the ideal, how much wrong
doing would be corrected. If the cou.
pie standing at the marriage altar
would have the pure life as their ideal
would it not lessen the number of di-
vorces? Would we not have better
homes? Would there not be fewer
cHiIuIeH ~ care loI III tHe homes OF
charity? If the pure life was the
ideal would we not have better So
ciety? How our churches would be
filled with devoted men and women
who are anxious to worship God
men and women who would be anx-
ious to take class in tie Sunday
School and faithfully esch Sunday
stand before their classes teaching
the things of purity and God! Realiz-
ing that the greatest of all things are
the things which can be given for the
sake of those who are here by our
and the field is wide