Norwich bulletin. [volume] (Norwich, Conn.) 1895-2011, 1911-07-17
Rev. c. n. Ricketts, breaches on The
Call to LiGht-Cther Local Items.

Rev. c. II. Ricketts, preached at the
GreenevilIe Congregational church
Sunday morning on The Call to Light,
taking for his text Eph- 3, IA: where
fore he saith, Awake, thou that sleep
est. arise from the dead, and Christ
shall give the light
He said in part: This chapter makes
distinction between darkness and
light as seen in the lives of men; those
who live according to the bent of their
unregenerate nature are in darkness,
and those who live under the impulsion
of the Christ spirit of love are chill
den of the light. The line of damar-
cation is drawn right through the heart
of humanity. No class is exempt from
darkness and none excluded from the
light
Paul is here appealing to the uni
versal Christian experience when he
SAYS: ''Ye were sometimes darkness,
but now are We light in the Lord.
Walk as children of the light. We are
very apt to forget at the present time
that sin is blackness and that no
amount of veneering can make it white.
1t is only the light that will stamp out
the blackness of sin We need this
sort of teaching today because the
sense of sin seems to be lost. Its
blackness does not appall US as Il
ought. We are SO fascinated with gilt
terlnS things that we do not stop to
inquire where it covers up black liv-
ing.
Here we make choice between ma
terial things and spiritual, or between
things that are black and those that
are light-no matter which is the more
attra ctive-no matter what the crowd
is doing. Paul tells US what to do as
Christians: "Have no Fellowship with
the unfruitful works of darkness, but
rather reprove Them The meaning is
clear. As Christians we must not
hobnob with shady persons or things
that delay the coronation of the light
As Christians We must smite the
wrong; We must raise the vaice to de-
nounce all treason to the Lord Imman-
uel. we must let our lives act as media
through which the light of Christ
shines to others. AS Christians we
ought to be more aggressive agains;
everything that belittles righteousness.
Our very silence on great moral is
sues is interpreted by the world as
condoning the spirit of looseness that
touches the entire moral order.
Now as an antidote to all this Paul
urges the text that involves three
things: Awakening from a condi-
ton. departing froTh a place. and
S-Receiving new element of life.
Awakening from a condition. A
sleeping institution does nothing.
whether it is a church or an industrial
plant, A sleeping cotton mill makes
church wins no souls, makes no char
acters. and exalts no community. The
first thing is to wake up-to see where
We are and what we are
ll-Arisinq from the dead or depart
ing from condition. It is not enough
to wake up; we must get UP. Our
waking up means nothing unless we
act upon it's suggestion. The man WIN
sleeps on the railroad track gains
nothing by waking up unless he gets
off the track Waking I'D may be a
danger signel upon which we should
act
The speaker put emphasis on the
Para bic of the Prodigal Son who woke
up in the swineherd's hut, and then
acted. When the film drops from the
eyeban of a sleeping church, its new
duty is to get away from its darkness
The speaker than showed that when
we fulfill this two-foId condition Christ
gives us light.