, 1912-01-04

(AsI0R RgssELg u principal audi
toriums, the Y. NJ.
C. A. He had large audiences and
keenest attention. His text was from
Joshua xiv. 10. Choose We this day.
whom We will serve" He said:
In our day the human will. although
still ambitious and avaricious. has
taken a higher plane for its exercise
than in the days of Alexander the
Great and Napoleon. 1t Is rather ein.
ployed in the c%onquering 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.
The Wills Greatest Achievement.
But. said the Pastor. the most won
derful achievement of the will is seen
in s%elf-control. The Scriptures say tru.
". Greater is he hat ruleth his own
will than he that captures a city.
proverbs xvi. 32.I 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-
Iivered up Himself. as the Man Christ
Jesus. to the doing of the Divine will.
even unto death. that thus by the
prupn nf God Hn n1iOhf tacta lanth f,r
every man Hebrews ii, 81 The
motive behind that strong will was NOT
~seltshuess. but love.
Compliments the Japanese.
When | 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
W hundred thousand figures, temples.
SymDathetically putting myself in the
place of the Japanese. | fancy you say
Ing, Shall we exchange our simple.
esthetic g~entleness 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?
sympathetic; ~. again | hear you
say. The missionaries who have eX-
pounded Christianity to us for years
have told us that our parents ana nm
cestors whom we reverently worship
are despised by your Christian God,
and are damned to an eternity of tor
lure because they did not know Jesus
and become His followers. They tell
us, additionally. that we also are bound
Tor that place of eternal horror and
torture unless we repudiate the religion
OF our birth which has made us so
happy and contented. Can you won
der that we resent such teaching: that
We merely tolerate it to avoid war:
mat we prefer buddhism and Shinto-
Ism, and that Il Shinto temples in
crease the more rapidly because of an
tagonism to Christianity?
heathen Ancestry Not Roasting.
Alas, my lear hearers. Christianity.
with very precious truths at its foun-
aation. seriously lost its way long
centuries ago and wandered far from
The inspired teachings of the Bible.
This is the explanation of the
GUS sects and parties of C"hristendom
and he different doctrines, none of
which ! am here to defend-either from
Tue standpoint of reason or the Bible.
The Bible does not teach. as once
you supposed. hat eternal torment Is
Tue penalty for our first parents dis
obedience in the eating of the forbid
uen fruit. On the contrary. 1t teaches
mat the wages of sin is DEATH" and
mat this death wage has been the ex-
perlence of our entire race for now SIX
thousand years. II teaches that In
nods due time this curse or sentence
OF death will be lifted and that sor-
row and signing shall flee away.
1t teaches that the whole earth shall
oe'ome Paradise Restored worldwide,
ana that those who, when fully In :
'oflned. shall prefer sin. Will be ut
'erly, completely and everlastingly de
''royed. in the Second Death
so then. my friends. If from Shin
,Olsn you have learned to be esthetic
III your tastes. kind and gentle In your
uahner and l~oyal-these lessons learn
Gu VIII he to you a great advantage III
,nat future time of blessing under
'eSsiah's Kingdom. On the other
nahd' whoever has cultivated a con-
nary spirit will he correspondingly de-
plaNed and will correspondingly have
sue more and severer lessons TO learn.
iahe heart then today from the as
s"rance of the good time coming, and
.not every grace of character that has
sen acquired by you. either through