The Wahpeton times. [volume] (Wahpeton, Richland County, Dakota [N.D.]) 1879-1919, 1912-01-25

whom We will serve. He said:
In our day the human will, although
still ambitious and avaricious. has
taken higher plane for its exercise
than in the days of Alexander the
Great and Napoleon. 1t is rather en-
ployed in the conquering of mountains
and valleys. in the casting up Of high.
ways and piercing Of tunnels; in the
erection of bridges and the master.
pieces Of mechanical enginery which
traverse the land and the sea with al
most incredible speed.
Tho Wills Greatest Achievement.
But, said the Pastor. the most won
derful achievement of the will is seen
in self-controi. The Scriptures say tru-
". "Greater is he that ruleth his own
will than he that captures a city"
proverbs xvi. 32.D The most wonder.
full illustrations of the will thus exer-
cised he believes are to be found In
the case Of Jesus and His footstep fol-
lowers. By the exercise Of His will
Jesus surrendered His glorious condi.
ton for the human estate and then de-
livered up himself. as the Man Christ
Jesus. to the doing of the Divine will.
even unto death. that thus by the
grace Of God He might taste death for
every man." (Hebrews II, o. The
motive behind that strong will was not
selfishness. but love.
Compliments the Japanese.
When I note the gentleness and
kindness and courtesy Of japanese life
in general. am astonished and won.
der little that the ordinary Christian
message has not appealed more to
your hearts and displaced Shinto wor.
ship, for which understand you have
two hundred thousand figures, temples
Sympathetically putting myself in the
place of the Japanese. fancy you say
ing. Shall we exchange our simple,
esthetic gentleness anu kindness of
spirit for the rudeness and sometimes
swagger of the soldiers and sailors,
and the domineering readiness of the
upper classes who come to us?
Sympathetics Ay. again l hear you
say. The missionaries who have ex-
pounded Christianity to us for years
have told US that our parents ana an
cestors whom we reverently worship
are despised by your Christian God.
and are damned to an eternity of tor.
ture because they did not know Jesus
and become His followers. They tell
%. additionally. that we also are bound
for that place Of eternal horror and
torture unless we'repudiate the religion
Of our birth. which has made % 10
happy and contented.: Can you won
der that we resent such teaching; that
We merely tolerate II to avoid war;
that we prefer Buddhism and Shinto-
ISM. and that our shihto temples IN.
creass the more rapidly because Of an.
tagoaism to Christianity1. ~
x Hsathsn Ancestry Not Roasting.
Alas. my dear hearers, Christianity,
with very precious truths at its foun-
dalton, seriously lost its way long
centuries ago and wandered far from
the inspired teachings of the Bible.
This is the explanation of the numer-
GUS sects and parties of Christendom
and the different doctrines. none Of
which am here to defend-either from
the standpoint Of reason or the Bible.
The Bible does not teach. as once
you supposed. that eternal torment is
the penalty for our first parents dis
obedience in the eating of the forbid
den fruit On the contrary. It teaches
that ''the wages of sin is DEATH" and
that this death wage has been the ex-
perience Of our entire race for now six
thousand years. 1t teaches that in
Gods due time this curse or sentence
Of death will be lifted and that sor-
row and signing shall fee away.
1t teaches that the whole earth shall
become Paradise Restored-world.wide
and that those who. when fully in
formed. shall prefer sin. will be ut
terly. completely and everlastingly de-
stroyed, In the Second Death"
So then, my friends, IL from Shin
toism you have learned to be esthetic
in your tastes. kind and gentle in your
manner and loyal-these lessons learn.
ed will be to you great advantage in
that future time Of blessing under
Messiah's Kingdom. On the other
hand. whoever has cultivated a con-
trary spirit will be correspondingly de-
PRAYED and will correspondingly have
the more and severer lessons to learn.
Take heaSt then today from the IA.
surance Of the good time coming. and
that every grace OF character that has
been acquired BY you. either through
shintoism or otherwise. 10 not lost, but
should b maintained,