Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-01-27
Last Nights Sermon
"THE TIMID WOMAN,

Last Nights Sermon
SUBJECT: 1.-THE TIMID WOMAN"
Mark, " 25-3l: "Tha scene of this story
is in Capernaum. Our Lord has but re-
Gently returned from the country of the
! Gadarenes, on the other side of the Sea
| OF Galilee. On the way over He had
| stiled the tempest, and while there He
had healed the wild man who was filled
with legion of demons, and the people
there had besought Him to leave the
country quick as He could, for in
saving a man 1000 hogs had been lost,
and they didn't want any more work done
for them at that price.
II can see some of those old hog-raisers
wringing their hands and declaring that
the whole country is going to be ruined,
| unless the Man who had sent their swine
galloping headlong into the sea can be
| persuaded to depart from their coast, and
not cast out any more devils IN their pig
worshping land. What did it matter
If homes were unhappy; If women and
| children were having to live in want,
fear and wretchedness? What did it
matter If men were being robbed of their
manhood by the demons that possessed
them. and made like wild beasts, so saw
age that they would break their chains,
and ragged and wounded and bloody
would become terror to all who came
near them in place of the dead?
What did it matter If people were
sometimes killed, and homes were some
times burned down and much property
destroyed by these wild men? What did
fsrho
the ravages caused by them? Hogs had
been raised in untold numbers. Their
madness had never done the hog busi-
ness any harm and the swine trade was
great thing among the Gadarenes,
Didn't It give employment to a lot of
men who looked after them and fed
them, and took batter care of them than
they did of their own wives and chill
dren? Destroy this blessed hog business
and down goes everything they said.
So they wiped their weeping eyes on
their hogskin coat sleeves, threw up
their hands imploringly, like a brewer
just before election, and besought Jesus
to turn His back on them as quick as
possible, for every minute He tarried
more and more hogs We're rushed into
the sea.
A BLESSED BUSINESS.
isn't that just like the whisky busi-
ness at this time? Oh, 1t is blessed busI-
ness! Don't it give employment to a
multitude of folks? Don't lawyers and
sherifrs and Jail keepers and contractors
who supply penitentiaries get rich liv-
ing from the stream of dollars it turns
their way? Don't it bring men to town
to trade? Don't 1t promote sociability
and good feeling among the people? |
Don't they shake hands more in the /
saloons than they do in the churchSs? |
Don't the license fees pave the streAts .
and make a lot of public improvements? /
Don't it do this and doesn't it do that? |
You might have heard good deal Of .
that same kind of talk about the untold I
benefits of the hog business that day In .
Gadara, as delegation after delegation
came up 10 Jesus and besought Him to .
depart out of their coasts
"It makes a lot OF difference i'm this |
world as TO whether We look at things |
from hog standpoint or from man
hood or a womanhood and childhood .
basis. The man who thinks more of his
pigs than he does OF his wife and babies .
Is the DEVILS idea of what a husband and .
father should be You cas urlng hell I
and heaven together when you can bring .
whisky and Jesus Christ together Hold
ing a dollar within an inch of a mans
nose win make him stone blind to every
thing that Is good
so when the Gadarenes declared In .
such unmistakable terms that they pre-
ferred their hogs than decent men. Jesus
took them az their word, as He always
does, and returned with His disciples
across the sea, telling the man for whom
He had done so much to go back to his
home and tell what great things had been
done for him. 1t would make mighty /
good reading II we could only know how
much that mans testimony hurt the hos
business. Early the next morning, as
Jesus was taking His morning walk with
His disciples. JaiFus came 10 Him with
great trouble in his heart and said: MY |
little daughter lieth at the point Of death,
I pray Thee come and lay Thy hand on
her. that she may be healed. and she shall
live And Jesus. followed by a great
crowd of people. started at once TO go
with him, for there Is no case on record
Of Ifis turning a deaf ear to any father
or mother who went to Him in trouble on
account Of a child. and this ought 10 give
parents confidence in going to Him nov
for their children. for He Is just the same
today as He was that morning when He
started SO promptly Tor the home Of
Jairus.
'.How many little children In GsdaFa
we're al the point OF death when Jesus
gas there. and who might have been
saved from death had not their hog-Fais-
ns fathers besousht Him 10 depart out
y their coasts. but those who would rath-
y keep hosa than Christ cannot expect