The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1913-05-02
PAYS TRIBUTE To
KNIGHTS TEMPLAR.
Rev. John c. Sage Speaks Of orsanl-
cation Formulated for the Pro.
lection Of Christian
Faith.
EVOLUTIONARY LESSON
Reminds Knights That Tempiarism Is
Teaching Truth and
Faith In Its
Doctrines.

At the annual Ascension day service
of the Knights Templar held in ST.
Johns church yesterday afternoon the
Rev. John G. Sage preached ser
mon, his subject being, THE Worth,
Dignity and Destiny of Man. Revealed
by the Ascension" He took as his
text, THE Man Christ Jesus.
After extending a hearty welcome
TO the knights, and commenting upon
the propriety of such gathering as
that on Ascension day, he spoke of
the christian purpose of templarism.
Historically considered, the organ
ization was organized for the further
ance and protection of the christian
faith. Throughout its ritual it teaches
the primary doctrines of christianity,
exemplifying and symbolizing those
facts which the knights had just con-
fessed in the christian creed. 1t was
eminently proper, therefore, that to-
day, as protectors of the christian
faith and believers in the Christ life.
they should consider what the day
commentaries the ascension of the
Lord into heaven. Briefly sketching
what 1t implied in the life of Jesus
Christ as setting a seal not alone to
His divinity, but as showing the com
pletion of and the destiny of His hui
man manhood, which was taken into
heaven, the speaker continued the sub
ject of his sermon, showing the doc
trine Of Christ as revealed in the
worth, the dignity and the destiny of
man. In the course of the address,
Mr.. Sage dwelt upon the historical
conception of man, showing that
through the old religion and the old
sentiments of thought, there had been
no conception of mans nature, which
he declared to be fast dying GU.
through the advance of the very
science that had been in the pas.
called to its aid. That man was
evolved from material atoms and only
such, that there was within him, even
in his higher functions, no evidence OF
the spiritual. the speaker showed to
be fast passing from the thought of
any serious minded thinker, and this
largely because modern scientists had
been revealing the impenetration of
the spiritual into the material. The
speaker, however, noted that this
conception lives in practice among
many people, who seek to satisfy only
the material self in life, forgetting and
|neglecting all their spiritual faculties
and endowments.
Turning to another theory of the
institution of man, he gave short
resume of the evolutionary theosophy,
which in itself was not antichristian,
tracing the evolution of man from
lprotoplasm, as the eyolutionists did,
through the various stages until they
reached man. Evolutionists declare
that man was the summit and final
completion in its physical endow-
ments of evolution. He is the goal to-
wards which all creation has tended,
and no higher creation will be pos
sible. quoting from various evolu-
| tionists concerning the progress of
man through the ages, and the gradual
development of the altruistic senti-
ment in man through time. He show
ed how the theory stops short of any
completion which would satisfy he
instincts of humanity for the time
must come, according to the evolu-
itionists, when the earth, the abode OF
man, will cease to be, and then there
! is no explanation as to the further
life of this highest creation of Gods
creation
Mr.. Sage remarked upon the pathos
of such theory, even as spiritually
conceived by such a reverent think
3er as John Fiske Turning, then, to
THE conception of mans nature, sci
forth by Jesus Christ, Mr. Sage dwell
upon the fact that Christ recognized
the moral power of every man; that he
recognized no stage or position OF
wealth as contributing to mans rea
worth, but that his dignity and powe'
and destiny were revealed by tht
Master because he is the child of God
i The speaker showed how the recog
milton of the equality and worth o
mans nature had changed the face o
human life, making the truest democ
lracy possible. He then showed ho'
the ascension of Jesus Christ as {
type and foretaste of mans ascension
gave the seal of mans real nobilit.
las creature of God, which shoult
live not alone upon the earth, BIZ
through the ages of eternity. This !
1.-THE sublime revelation of Christianity
that human nature is made of earth
evolved perhaps, but has within it tn
spark of divinity which makes ma.
the child of God, who shall forave
live with God
In concluding his address, Nh
Sage reminded the knights before min
that templarisn was teaching thi
faith and truth, and that as knights