The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1911-09-01
A LAY SERMON
BY THE EDITOR
(Reprinted by request.)

| There was but one class of men
against whom Christs indignation
was thoroughly aroused and it was
against those long faced fellows who
carried on their countenances the
brand: Il am Holier Than Thou"
Those men whom he denounced as
hypocrites. who stood on the street
corners uttering long prayers and
who were afraid to mingle with the
world for fear of being contaminated
by it.
Those women who gather their
skirts closer about them as they pass
ed others along the streets no more
sinful than themselves.
We do not believe that it is Gods
method to give man eyes and punish
him for seeing; ears and punish him
for hearing.
He that hath ears to hear let him
hear" and "eyes to see let him see
That is the command.
Is it possible that in his very crea-
ton God has given man certain appe-
tites and shall punish him for crafty
ing them.
God cannot be unjust.
But this sight, this hearing, these
appetites. must be gratified and salts
| fed in reasonable, rational and in
telligent manner-not as dumb
brutes.
License is not liberty-abuse is not
qualification.
God fashioned man in his own
image and he must be like God, very
God.
In II. Peter, and in other chapters
of the sacred volume. we are told how
this is to be done.
We must obtain knowledge, for
knowledge is power
We must exercise virtue, temper
ance, patience, charity, love
Why?
Because these things make life
worth living.
If men had continued the practice
OF locking themselves up in cells and
cloisters. scourging their backs and
mutilating their bodies, under the
false notion that these things are
pleasing to God, what today would be
the condition and the outlook of the
world?
Does any one believe that it would
be fit for human habitation.
I The world is ours. It was created
i especially for us Man was given
dominion over it. Over the beasts
of the field. the fowls OF the air, and
the fishes of the sea. Over every
creeping thing.
The world was given to us for our
enjoyment. 1t is our duty to make it
more beautiful TO men and more
pleasing to God.
| Despite Phariseeism, Puritanism,
fanacticism. intolerance and persecu-
ton in every form, man has done that
and is doing it today
Think you that Copernicus, Bruno
and Calico, in attempting to explore
and explain the mysteries of life and
i creation, the harmony of the spheres.
! the spherical form of the earth, and
! the orderly movement of the heavenly
bodies, were not more pleasing to God
than were their intolerant ecclesiati-
cal inquisitors and accussers, who
! condemned them TO Imprisonment,
/ penance and death?
By following the example of these
men rather than their accusers how
beautiful the world has been made.
its mysteries and treasures revealed
and its pleasures expanded.
There is pleasure in the painless
woods,
There is rapture on the lonely shore.
There is society where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its
roar
| Why is it sinful with timbrel harp
or horn, with atlas or telescope. with
| fulcrum or printing press. with an
Choir or electric cable, with steel rails
or arc lights, with X-ray or wireless,
with photographic or motion pictures,
with love or labor. TO enlarge in all d.
rections the boundaries of knowledge
and crafty all the senses of pleasure?
The world is mans and as he was
given dominion over il; it is his
duty not to separate himself from it,
but to stand by it, be with it, of it,
and in it, and his highest purpose
should be to make it more pleasing,
beneficent and beautiful in the eyes
of his Creator