Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1915-10-22
BILLY" breaches Sermon at Noon
in meater on erich Young Ruler"

billy" Sunday preached a new sermon
at noon yesterday at the Brandeis thea
ter. taking as his topic The Rich Young
Ruler" He said:
Text: Mark KIN: Then Jesus. be-
holding him, loved him, and said unto
/ him. One thing thou lnckest; go thy
way, sell whatever thou hast. and give
/ to the poor. and thou shalt have treas
ures In heaven. and come take up the
cross. and follow me- -"
The story OF the rich young ruler, TO
my mind, lie one of the saddest in the
/ New Testament
/ Rich In glory and youth. endowed with
wealth, leader among his fellows, stand
Ing face to face with the Son OF God, de-
liberately considering. carefully weigh
ing the loss and the gain, considering the
meaning Of the step, and calmly turning
with heart like stone and going away
| from Jesusl
It Is bad enough when n young man
goes down through hot temptation; It Is
bad enough when one goes down through
impulse. or through lack OF decision
plunges into sin. It is bad enough TO
drift In wrong. but to calmly consider
and then turn ones back upon Jesus
Christ is tragedy. to weigh the meaning
Of the word and then say the price is
too great
Up to a certain point this young ruler
was a noble example. He was thought
ful, doing his best not TO make a ship
wreck, living up to all the light he had,
for he said. "All these have l kept from
my youth up"
He had no bad habits. there was nothing
/ vicious about his makeup. He was not
diBsipated. not sensual or deyillsh, had
wronged no man, had wronged no woman,
he did not steal. honored his father and
his mother, had not broken hearts. could
look the world In the face, was not hard
hearted, lie had even been a Bible read
ing young man. had been church goer,
for he knew the teachings Of Moses, went
to the synagogue. listened with reverence
and respect; was not scoffer. not n
doubter had not sat In the seat of the
scornful, all of which shows that not
only the notoriously wicked are lost.
society woman once asked: Must I
be saved the same as my coachman9"
Yes. You've got 10 be saved the same
way. The banker has to be saved IN
exactly the same way as the janitor
who sweeps out the bank. the mine
owner has to be saved in the same way
as the miner.
There was nothing in the life of this
young ruler which would tend to separ-
ate him from Christ. He was drawn to
Him. He went on the run. gladly, hope
fully, evidently expected to stay; there
was something about the heart OF Jesus
that responded.
When he reached Jesus he knelt. as not
stiff-necked. not top-heavy with pride. II
"a 81 l..
didn't have. yarn string for backbone
The angels faces must have frightened
as they looked on that scene of the young
man kneeling there before Jesus 1t is
not childish to pray-its manly. II shows
a man of iron
Eye of Jesus Saw one Fault.
This young ruler went to Jesus with
frankness In his face There was no at
tempt at concealment; he had lived the
white life. and can hear him say with
candor: What lack yet7'
There was a slight feeling of unrest;
he was not sure, and no eye less keen
than that OF Jesus would have found the
flaw. There was not a lodge In the land,
not an official board of any church that
would not have felt honored to have
had him In its membership. But the eye
of Jesus saw the one cancerous spot the
lone thing"
Jesus didn't try to make It easy for
him. When Jesus gave anyone some
thing to do with a blessing He always
made II hard.
The blind man made his way to the
pool. the impotent man was required to
pick up his bed and walk
We are afraid of soaring people away.
II people are so touchy as that. then the
sooner they are scared away the better.
II they are IN earnest there is nothing
that VII scare them away. The fellow
who Is afraid OF the bark OF dog will
never xiii a lion. No half way measures
viii do The thing to do is to strap the
old Adam in you to the death chair and
turn on all the electricity in the power
house.
what Profit from All His wealth.
We next see this young ruler going
away. He came running. but now we see
him going away slowly, but he keeps
going. and worst OF all. he never came
back.
You may walk 10 hell. but you'll reach
there just the same; les simply matter
of time.
He went away to bear his trouble alone.
went away TO Christlass life. life
without prayer. without hope, nothing TO
look 10 but trouble. What plofit did he
gain from all his purple and fine linen
and his sumptuous hving' He would give