Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1913-05-07
AN ABLE Discourse.
Resume of Sermon to the S. C..
". |. by Rev. E. {. Bailey
at The Presbyterian
Church.

The subject was, "A good soldier
of Jesus Christ" The substance of
the discourse was that of all the
beautiful objects in the world which
challenge the attention and ELECTED
the admiration of manhood COM
paratively few surpassed that of a
true soldier. First. the speaker spoke
of life's battle fields which were
ones own self as a place of war be-
tween two conflicting principles of
right and wrong. The next battle
field is within the sphere of ones
own chosen profession. Here ne
discussed them in order and showed
that all had their difficulties. The
next was society. He spoke of the
corruption of society and the diff
culties attending the life Of one who
proposed to be an example to 9th
ers. Next in order was thf sphere of
religion. In matters of religion, he
said, it is the lazy mans policy to
dri.t along with the tide and be sat
isfed with eternal interests without
investigating into the matter; that
we were in danger of taking too
much for granted, on the one hand,
and, on the other, to disregard the
thou phts of the thinking; that peo-
pie were very careful about what
they eat and wear, but very In
different about what theJ believed; !;
that religion has been a battle field
only proved the importance of IT,;
that people never begin to differ
until they begin TO think; that some
were TOO narrow and muddy, others
too broad and shallow. lie showed.
in the next place, what constituted
a good soldier as distinguished from
one merely wearing and dishonoring
the uniform. The solsier's aaiform
consisted in having your loins girt
about with truth He paused to de-
fine and discuss truth as distin-
guished from error; urged upon
them the importance of seeking
after it at all cost, and having
found it, 10 love it supremely; for
it was "a flower that grows some
times in the soil of the enemy as
we'll as the friend, 20 refuse the
prickle and assume the rose" Truth
he defined to be the conformity of
our convictions to the reality OF
things" And it is true that grains
of truth may be discovered in the
midst of the most dangerous
heresies. Another part of the armour
was styled, the breast-place of
righteousness" This was designed
to protect the soldiers heart from
the attacks of Satan. The head or
the heart or both were always ex-
posed without the armour. lnhdeli-
ty is sometimes the result of deforri-
ty IN the brain; sometimes caused
by the desperate wickedness Of the
heart. He showed that the
mightiest among the holy and the
holiest among the mighty were men
after Christ; that the exceptions to
this rule we're only signals of the
doctrine that Christ's kingdom was
not of this world, and went to prove
that regeneration was a supreme ne
cessity. Another part of the armour
consisted in having ones feet shod
with the preparation of the gos-
pel." This he understood to refer
to custom among the Romans who
would place sandals upon the SOL
diers' feet with grip nails in them
so that in the desperate struggle
there would be no slipping of the
| foundation. Here he made effort to
convince the congregation of the
necessity of having our feet solid
upon rock SO firm that it would
not tremble even in the march Of
death; that the man who had a firm
hold upon truth was not the man
who was noisy about nothing; was
not afraid of unbiased comparisons;
that it was the man of sandy foun-
dations who was afraid that he
might lose his position zen the
light was turned on; that our foun-
dation was Christ the Lord who
never INDUCED in a half truth. This
preparation of the gospel fitted US
to offici1te in offices Of honor. Here
he cited examples from our present
Christian president back in history.
Another part of this armour the
shield of faith Said he, we can
not overestimate the value of an
intelligent faith, q well directed
faith with strong vigorous power
to reason in matters secular and
religious. This shield of faith COW
i L L.