Evening capital and Maryland gazette., 1915-06-14
SERMON TO HIGH SCHOOL
At FIRST NJ. f. CHURCH
DR.. Mcneil breaches the Bac-
calaureate to Graduates.
THE IDEALS OF CHRIST.
The Call Of the Hour for Young Men
and Young Women to Accept
They Shall Beat Their Swords
Into Plowshares.'


| muncement Week. as seniors, juniors
and other undergraduates marched
into the First Methodist Church yes
terday morning
The occasion was the preaching OF
the baccalaureate sermon by the pas
tor, the Rev Dr. Walter G. Mcneil, to
the High Schol graduates. The church
was beautifully decorated with flow
ers in profusion and the music by the
choir was of a high order The text
OF the sermon was taken from Isaiah.
second chapter. fourth verse: They
shall beat their swords into plow-
shears" The preacher spoke. in part.
as follows:
"All men who have turned out TO be
great men have been dreamers: they
have had their hours of vision Isa-
iah was one of these In his early
manhood he pictured a time when he
nations should not learn war any
more. II was but few years until he
saw his visions rudely shattered
But the later years brought to him
deeper confidence as TO the final out
come; he saw God at work among the
nations leading on to glorious con
summation
Men have been dreaming dreams
like lsaiah's, but they have been shat
tered by the spectre of war Plow-
shares are being beaten into swords
all Of the resources of the nations are
being laid under tribute to sustain the
carnage What has become Of the
dream? We must hold fast to our
confidence that God is in the midst Of
life. we must keep our faith that the
ultimate triumph will be on the side
of Gods Righteousness Not all are
optimistic enough TO believe that this
will prove a war upon war. that after
this they shall not learn war any more
But may we hope that the spirit of
the prophecy is to have accentuation.
and that the disposition of the nations
shall be furthered to beat their swords
into plowshares.
1T is another meaning of the words
Of the text that we seek this morn
ing. Whatever value these words NAV
ever have in speaking of the nations
will arise from the permeation of their
spirit through the life of the people.
II is the individual application that in
terests us today They shall beat their
sword into plowhares. the transfer
nation of the sword The sword is
the instrument of destruction the plow
share is the instrument of life. of use
fulness. We are TO think of the trans
formation of mans powers under the
processes of divine grace God pro-
poses to take all those powers of the
soul which make for destruction and
ruin, and convert, transform them into
powers of usefulness and service for
the welfare of mankind All the pur-
poses of God have in view the saving
OF man, through the power of Christ.
Many persons make the mistake of
supposing that the Christian religion
has suppression as its keynote. 1t is
not so. There are truly lives. out OF
which deadly things must be removed
even as there is often need Of the sur
geon's knife in the treatment of hu-
man lis. Some things must be remov-
ed because they are deadly. But the
keynote of religion is transformation
Christ seeks not to destroy but to turn
to higher uses all the powers Of mans
soul
Man has himself ever been seek
ing to control and transform natures
destructive forces. Fire and wind.
from early ages. have been compelled
by him to keep their bounds, and TO do
his will. II has remained for the
modern man to harness the electric
forces, which are so potent of de-
struction, and 10 transform them into
light and heat and energy Mans
purpose has never been to destroy. but
ever 70 transform. Even so does the
God who made man TO do His work
he took a man Of tempestuous ma
ture, changeful as the winds of the
lake upon which he sailsd, and trans
/ formed him into a man Of rock. He
took under His transforming power
the man who was quick to summon
the thunders upon those whom he ha-
ted. until at the last this man became
the very apostle Of love. He called
| the prosecutor. the murderer. and
transformed him into the preacher. the
martyr It was not destructive.bu
reconstructive process that wrought
upon these men.
The symbolism OF our text forbids
this wrong view Of suppression
Swords are to become plowshareg
| Now plowshares arc the Instruments
Of change their work is TO cut and to
oyerturn. It was the hardness and
the keen edge of the sword that gave
II value as a plowshare in the East
ern land, and in its new use it was
still TO be an instrument Of disturb
ance. All the qualities Of soul that
We possess are capable of responding
to the transforming influence Of Christ
he will convert hatred into love. and
viii crystalline the shifting sands ot
character into rock-Iike quality. He
will make the unjust man just. the
J unkind man kind. He viii give cour-