Norwich bulletin., 1917-07-09
REV. EDWARD F. BARROW
 DELIVERED FoRCIBLE SERMON
At Evening Service of Mckinley Ave-
 nue A. M. E. Zion Church.

At the Sunday evening service of
 the Mckinley Avenue A NJ E. ion church, the pastor. Rev. Edward F.
 Barrow. delivered a forcible sermon taken from the text, "A man shall be
 as a hiding place from the wind and
 Q covert from the tempest; as streams
 of water in dry place, as the shade of a great rock in a weary land" Is.
 322. At the inception of his sermon,
 the minister said:
 The text occurs in a small prophecy
 in which the prophet Isoiah paints
 1he religious future and social prog ress of his people Like St. Paul, Isaiah. when he has finished some ex-
 position of Gods dealings with His
 people, bursts upon. an unencumbered
 vision of the future. and with reused
 conscience, and voice resonant from long debate, takes his 1oftiest flights of eloquence. The prophecy is not d
 vision of society glorified but estab- liShed and reformed
 It seems to me that the church of Christ should listen with rapt atten-
 ton to the ethical note in the text, for it's demands are essential to the social interests of today. When the prophet says a man, he means any man; and the ideal contained in the text is the shelter and fountain force of society. Any man may take this ideal. The ideal is not science nor material wealth. Ii is the personal in fiuence, the strength and freshness Of the human personality. The prophet has described personal influence on so grand a scale that it is not sur prising that the Christian church has leaped to his words as a direct pro- phecy of Jesus Christ. The words are description of Jesus Christ, for He is the Rock of ages, cleft for us all, and in whom all may hide themselves. but the primary use of the words is to present 1) philosophy of his tory, CD a great gospel. and 3) great ideal and duty for ourselves.
 Great men are not the whole of life, but they are the condition of all the rest. If it were not for the big men, the little ones could scarcely live. The first requisites of relieion and civili- zation are outstanding characters. Those that put forth like promontor- ies. A great man serves his genera tion, his race by arresting the drift. have swept down human history, but there have always been great men at hand to arrest the drift
 The text contains gospel which is fulfilled in Jesus Christ He is the most conspicuous example of uersonai the shelter and revival of society. There can never be a perfect and safe society until men have bow ed to Jesus. and owned Him as Lord. | Teacher and Redeemer. Someone has said, Sin is the longest, heaviest drift l in human history. The oldest custom of the race, the most powerful habit Of the individual" This awful ava lanche has been arrested by Jesus | Christ
 The text contains great duty and | ideal for all Through Jesus Christ | it may become q possibility to us all l We may become a rock to our neigh | bors by shutting out from them the | knowledge and infection of sin. By | sheltering them from the east wind Of | Ditiless prejudice. quarrel and contro- versy. and by stopping the unclesn | and bitter drifts of scandal and gos l sip. Many lives have lost their fer | tility for the want of a little silence | and a little shadow