The Alaska citizen., 1915-10-04
Sermon to the People
 
BY THE REV. G. G. BRUCE.


 men He went among them. Placing the children n His arms He look ed into their faces until the light of Heaven shlned in their eyes. He was commonly known among the Pharisees as one who ate and drank with publicans and sinners" And they were offended at Him.
 And what uid they mean by this Just what We have often heard, that you cant touch pitch without being defiled. Here is man who sits with publicans and takes no defile- nent from them. Rather il was the opposite He gave His own fife unto them. His life destroyed the utterance. evil contaminates good" Christ went among the bad and they became good. He saw beauty in every man and tried to bring out that beauty. If you do not see more beauty in men day by day, you have not had full glimpse of the Christ yet.
 What was His spirituality? Bless ed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God" It was on no less plane than this He lived. Pure things are seen ever by the pure in -eaIt. Evil men are not paraded for the pure things they see. He saw purity in the flower of the valley, in the march of history. n the pains of men, in the darkest you think He is most invisible.
 Second subjection Philosophies of men are oft revealed by the Catchwords let slip. Well, I am glad l can do as I please" Man, do you know that is your trouble al d that you are in danger of eter as I like with my own?" You have no own" to do as you like with. IL is because men have forgotten that they ale not their owC that all the flow of sin and suffering is so destructive. Jesus is a Man who never forgot it.
 There is an open secret in the text, T do nothing of myself. but as the Father taught me, l speak" Jesus was Master because he was a servant. At the command of the Fathers voice He did this or that and failure was never once record ed of Him. He did rot have lis own way. But you say, That is just what I don't want to do" All right then, go to your disappoint ment, your suffering, your ruin, If you will take your own life you can blame no one if you find that later you are dead. Learn rather the words, Yes, Lord" Not as a par rot would say them but from the depths of your heart They mean, 'I agree" Yes they mean success. victory joy, life eternal. EU' if you insist you don't need to agree, no one Will cOerce you.
 Third, sympathy. It is plain to you that the first two qualities of His life, that of spirituality and sub jection, are His relation to His God You have rejoiced as you have seen how freely and fully He was victor there He now turns to man,, and He finds just the same triumph. Being right with God He is right toward man. And since He is right with man He possesses unbounded sympathy toward man. When a man is right with God he has no trouble with his fellow man All the questions of business and society would be solved at once if men would only get right With God. And when men are right with God the quality of sympathy ic strong, very strong in their relations with man. Sympathy is a-fellow-fee!ing foranotEer.' It is the power of putting the spirit outside the per sonality, into the circumstances of another man, and feeling as he feels.
 An illustration of thi- On tht, way to Mains is Jesus and His dis ciple. As they approach the viii lage a number of men are coming carrying the form of man on bier. The man is dead. Beside the bier walks a woman, the mother of an only son. Look at the face of the mother. It but shows tithe of her sorrow. Turning you see the face of the Master of Sor- rows In His face is the sorrow of that lone mourner. He mourns as she mourns. Moving toward the bier He touches it The carry CTS stop. He takes the boy and gives him back to his mother Look at the woman's face. The agony is gone. Look at the Masters face. There is joy there. Carrying her grief and sorrow He gives her joy All is the result of sympathy. Won derful. Yes, wonderful, And worth while as we'll He went about ga thering human sorrows into His own