The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1911-03-20

| for his neighbor and for his God: in
| good ambitions and noble striving. II
is surely true that we become like our
deeds, build up beautiful characters.
are moulded by our thinking and our
| doing. Those who think pure, low
ing thoughts, and engage in noble
| deeds, build up beautiful characters.
But no matter how noble our char
acters may be, II we indulge In sin.
the fine gold becomes dimmed. The
| love of the true and the beautiful is
| driven out when sin Is taken in. No
man, IL he sins, can love God and his
neighbor, and be is harmony with the
good, the true and the beautiful. sin
always makes the sinner like the sinful
| acts which he commits Sin always
pollutes even god character, and
finally destroys 1t.
The poisonous effect Of sin Is in
no wise satisfied when It has eaten
| the life out of conscience, and moral
courage and liberty and character
| its eats right on until il has caused
the death of self-respcct We are
| more intimate with ourselves than
we are with our most intimate friends.
No one knows us as well as we know
ourselves. 1t is pleasant for us to
enjoy our respect and esteem for our
selves; to know nothing mean or ig-
noble about ourselves 1t is a de-
light TO have roble plans and purposes
to review every day; to be conscious
of some kind word spoken or good
deed done; but sin, In the very nature
of things, destroys this self-respect.
The pleasure OF mentally living over
again the deeds of the day, or of the
month or of the year, or of a life.
when these periods of time reproduce
to us good thoughts and good deeds
are wonderful pleasures But when
memory brings US nothing but hate
full thoughts, ugly words, evil deeds,
then memory is a veritable torment.
No man can sin and retain his self.
respect, so that sin is the death of
that perennial source of pleasure
which comes from ones respect of
himself
'In addition to these vital attributes
of the soul. sin goes on destroying
love and hope and veneratlon. and the
pleasures of memory, and the happy
outlook for the future. II destroys
every good thing In the soul which
makes for right and love and happi-
ness. 1t blots out the sunshine OF
Gods love; II destroys all the nobler
instincts one by one, until at last
there is not n spark Of soul life left.
and that being which was once pos
scssed with the possibility Of going on
forever. has become nothing but an
animal, so that when the body, being
hastened to it's untimely end by the
wickedness of its owner, dies that is
the absolute finality of that being.
There is absolutely nothing left which
is capable of continuing life, for the
soul has lived a life of sin, and the
wages of sin is death -
Rev. II. V. McCleary delivered a
forceful sermon sunday morning at
the Wesley NJ. r.. church. He en-
deveared to show his hearers that
Christianity Is a positive fact from
an intellectual standpoint The text,
from which his theme was taken Is
found in the book Of Peter 10 verse
and in the book OF John 9:25 verse.
A part of his sermon Is as follows:
f"Christianlty Is positive fact
and Is proved by the salvation which
is so telling on the world. The peo-
pie of today do not care for theories.
What they want are facts. An i'm
portant side of this question is,
does intellectually bear out that
Christianity Is positive fact
Bells have pealed from fifty
thousand churches this morning
calling five hundred million ad-
herents to Jesus Christ These people
recognize this day as the day of
the Lord. We are compelled to count
in this number the people of many
nations" Rev. McCleary spoke of
the capitals of the different nations
as the exponents of the faith of the
nations. In all Christianity has
been taken up. He said. "No
matter what men we may select
to our national oces, no mat
ter what stand our president may
take, there is a declaration of Chris.
tianity which rings forth our capital"
The speaker told of the great in
hdels, who. ON their death bed ac-
knownedged Christ as their Savior
Also of the many thousands Libraries
over tne country, containing great
volumes, which bear out the doc
trines of Christianity.
1T is the religion of God that |
gives the sage and the poet the |
power to write. We ask such great |
musicians as MendeIssohn and Bee
thoven from whence comes the music |
and they answer from the woods, |
the sea and the sky and these things |
would not exist without God"
"There Is a great mass of peo-
pie" the speaker continued, "who do
not believe, neither do they dlsbe-
lieve. They have not perused the
literature of the world. Ma man can |
read Shakespeare without the ques
tion arising in his mind concerning |
the existence Of a God. This question |
Is answered In the greatness of his |
works. But | am glad we do moi
have to rely upon reasoning, am
glad we do not have to depend on the
development of the mind, to accent |
Christianity, II Is placed on a basis.
by which we may all be saved"
In closing he said, "It is hard 10 |
and to tell lust what |
Christianity is. Paul calls IL n
mystery However we know when