The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1915-07-12
FEET F A s I
IN ST OCkS
WAS SUBJECT
REV. j. w. BURNS AT THE FIRST
CHRISTIAN CHURCH DELIVERS
MOST PRACTICAL DISCOURSE
SUNDAY NIGHT.


CATION on the subject, Feet Fast in
the Stocks" taking for his text Acts
1924, who having received such a
charge, thrust them into the inner
prison, and made their feet fast in
the stocks" He said in part.
Almost every person has his feet
fast in some kind OF stocks. There
are some restricting circumstances
in his life which hold him fast,
These restrictions ere as varied as life
itself. Some have ill-health to hinder
and retard their progress. Others
are bound by poverty, faulty educa-
ton. something repulsivc in individ-
uality. or by being i'll mated. Do we
not all feel that as our feet are fast
in some kind of stock that at all
times prevent us from progress that
we had hoped to meke?
THE cripple, the blind, the unedu
Gated and the impoverished, are like
| " 10 lose courage in the battle OF life
when they look about tem and see
others who seem not to be fettered
in any manner. Trey sometimes lose
their nerve They forget that their
fellows. also, almost without eXcep-
ton, have some hindrance that pre-
vents them from ,eaping forward as
| they had dreamed to do. Thousands
+, of such persons are lying back upon
their oars because every favorable
circumstance and condition do not
attend them. In such a case absolute
failure is the inevitable result.
Is the fact that our feet are fast
in stocks to entirely cripple and
ruin our lives? That is the burden OF
our evening thought. Is our life's
work to be shaped by the vice-like
restrictions that bind our feet II
SO, our lives are doomed to failure
now. No let us take courage by the
fact that there is a certain power
in our hindrances.
Here are Paul and Silas. Who
could expect them to do what they
did? There was very little they could
do for the Master in that inner prison
But what they could do, they did
and they did all they could. They
were heavily conditioned for any
great results. With their feet fast
in the stocks who could expect mucf
of them? But note the result, the
prison doors were opened, the jailol
and his household converted, and the
very rulers of the city came to then
in beseeching, supplicatins tones, bid
ding them depart.
Let us look about the world anC
into history and observe. Nearly
every great reform of the past ha
been headed by one whose feet wer'
fast in the stocks Governments hay'
been founded and the streams OF civil
ization changed by such men. Pau
often spoke of his own personal re
} pugnance that failed to hinder him
His face must have been deformed
or, possibly there was a defect in nj
: eyes. At least. there was somethin!
: about Am that was humiliating. Thi
was probably the thorn in his flesl
that he spoke of. He YVES very sensi
sitive about his deformity and SAT-
that his presence was weak and hi
speech contemplate. Despite all o
this, his work stands out today as
great monument of the man.
columbus nad dreams of a western
world. His feet were fast in tn
+ stocks of poverty. He was held in
close fitting wise. He could not move
+ to prove his geography. He coul
:, not gain the confidence of wealth
t and il seemed that his ambitions wer
g to fail However when the stock
t were broken, he made that courage
r GUS voyage, that found a new cont
5 nent, and today, when the question /
e asked, Who discovered America" tn
' answered chorus of thousands o
/. school boys and girls is Columbus
4 Martin Luther, that great hero o
= faith. likewise had his feet fast il
Y the stocks of poverty poor miner
son-unknown and without friend
and social recognition. Notwithstand
ing, he set all the world ablaze an
humbled to dust the proudest hierar
chy that had eve' held the world il
its sway.
John Calvins work was perform
ed in WEAKNESS and sickness. Thougl
scarcely able to hold his body erec
he did the work OF many men. AM
gave the world q system of though
that largely dominated in western civ
ilization.
''We might name scores of other
who wrought under great disadvan
tages. Milton, though blind. produce,
Paradise Lost Helen Keller, blint
and deaf. born that way, educated
! herself and today is enlightening tn