The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1911-05-19
ELOQUENT DISCOURSE
ST. PETERS CHURCH
BY REV. H.J. MICHAEL
aACCALAUREAT SERMON TO
COLUMBIA INSTITUTE BY
NASHVILLE DIVINE.
LIFE UBJl CT OF NOTABLE EFFORT

Owing to Sudden illness of His Wife,
Rev. William Barr, of New Orleans,
Was Unable to Fill His Appoint
nnent at the Church.
To a large audience on Sunday
morning Rev. H. J. Michael, rector of
Christ's church of Nashville, preached
at st. Peters Episcopal church the
baccalaureate sermon for the Column
bia Institute. The subject of the dis
course was Life and the effort was
notable one.
Mr.. Michael preached in place of
Rev. William Barr, of New Orleans,
who had been expected to preach, but
at the last moment his wife was TAX
en- critically i'll and he was unable to
come.
Mr.. Michael took his text from
Luke and spoke in part as follows:
"Whosoever will save his life shall
lose it; and whosoever will lose his
life shall save it"
Il have come to speak to those to-
day who are beginning new epoch
of life and wish to speak Of that life,
and the use which we should make OF
1t.
Life is a fine and splendid thing.
God gave it to man and when He
breathed into man a particle of the d.
vine being He had himself, when He
made man living soul, He saw that
life was good Jesus Christ too saw
that life was good and he came to en-
large and enoble and purify it and
said, II have come that they might
have life and that they might have
1t more abundantly.'
There is nothing religious in belit-
was going through the Inferno saw a
group of souls who were suffering,
and whose fault had been that they
had deprecated human life. They
had been gloomy, gloomy in the glad
air frightened by the sun.
Such souls are still with us; those
who depreciate life, who think it not
worth living
Sin or cynicism has carried such
people off their feet, they are demon
allied. God rebuked Ezekiel for this.
When he threw himself on the ground
before God He said, Son of man stand
on thy feet and I will speak to thee.
Man is to communicate with God
standing on the feet of self-respect
I'VE must honor our bodies and so
womanhood; we must honor our life
and so we shall cooperate with God;
we must be thankful for our human
life.
What is the object of this life?
A child is born and bears in itself ev-
cry possibility for good and evil. The
child goes through periods of training
and education to fit himself for the
struggle of life, then there are years
Of toll at some of the occupations of
life, then there is the loss of facul-
ties which man has built up with
care and patience, then there is the
end of life and the question asks It.
self, Why was life given What was
it meant to accomplish?
1T is no new question, it has come
to the toiler, the sage, the prophet,
the son and daughter of foolishness,
and some have tried to answer it, and
some have gone lightly on content to
think that man In the hands of God
Are but as helpless pieces in the
game he plays,
Upon this checker board of nights
and days
Hitler and thither checks and moves
and Stays
And one by one back in the closet
lays
The three peoples who have left
their impress upon the world have
each tried to answer this question Of
life.
THE Hebrews said that life must
be Tired according to the fxed rules
of conduct and this answer gave to
the world the greatest set of moral
laws the world has ever known. This
answer produced many high and holy
lives, but it was narrow and exclu-
sive was for the Jews alone, and cut
out from its privileges all other peo-
pie. 1t gave life which stood in the
temple and said, I thank God ] am
not as other men are The true an
swer must be the answer too for the
unjust and the sinner as we'll as the
Pharisee.
The Greeks gave their answer to
the question. They said that life