Arizona republican., 1917-06-25
COD' E PRESENCE
 |S EVERYWHERE

Dr. Ray Clarkson Harker of the First
 M. E.. church in a sermon from Ezekiel ] 47: 9 Everything shall live whither the l river cOmeth," said in part: Ezekiel l 9aw in vision the river that issued out l of the temple That river at first was a soft-flowing stream that flowed east
 ward through the court by the south | side of the altar At the outer wall il
 issued south of the eastern gate. The prophet fo lows the mystic river At thousand cubits distance the river is ankle deep. At two thousand cubitS it is knee deep; at three thousand cubits it Is ioln deep, and at four thousand cubits
 It has become an impossible river. This river flowed toward the barren deso- late, blistered tract of country to the Dead sea. The region is d picture of desolation. No water fowl rest upon the 1 briny waves. No plant or fish can live
 in the saline waters. But under the in- l fluence of shis flowing stream the bar ren shores become homes Of thriving people. Fish live and fishermen ply their craft. Trees grow whose leaves fade not. Everything lives whither the
 river cometh. Our theme is, The Nee esslty of God in Everyday Life
 Peop,e have limited God to sacred l places. The grove of Daphne with its 1 temple of Apollo was d sacred spot to | which people made pilgrimage to find God. Groves were sacred to the Jews. It was under tree that the bones of Saul and of his sons were buried. Pliny tells us that trees Were the first temples for It was thought wrong to shut up the gods within walls. With their cooling ! shade, their solitude and silence it is no | wonder that groves were thought to be | fit places for worship.
 Temples have been sacred. Such was /! lhe temple at Jerusalem. Mountains
 were sacred, such as Mount Zion and Mount Olympus Rivers have been sa- cred, such as the Jordan and the 1 Ganges. But we need to have the film | cut from our eyes and to have our | horizon pushed back, ana realize that | God is palpitating presence in all. , life. The light crowds into every nook | and glen, and deluges the earth with radiance. The ocean presses into every 1 bay. and cave. and crack, and crevice l So God crowds into all life. All places | ought to be holy.
 | Al time should be holy. We think of
 the Sabbath as holy, of Christmas and l If Easter as holy, and it is well that we do. But let us not forget the sacredness l Of everyday life.
 | We say Sunday is sacred and Monday | is secular. Beware, Monday is too sacred for an unholy deed and for an ! unjust bargain.
 | We have thought of God as the God of the sanctuary. That is good. but we
 must remember that He is the God oI | our everyday life also. God must fill
 our life All of life must be sacred because it is the dwelling place of God. | It is God in all the life that glorifes | existence. The office is sacred if God be there. The toll of the kitchen and of the l washtub is sacred if God be present. ] The drudgery of life is sacred if God De | in it. Here is the secret of our relief. a tent or hut may be glorified by the presence of God, and a palace may be
 only a dungeon if the soul is without 1 God.
 We must have God for there is sin in l the life. There are sins of the flesn
 such as lust and drunkenness. There
 ire the sins of pride, and vanity, and
 envy, and jelousy, an accursed brood. | that rob the life of it's beauty anc | bloom. There are the still deeper sins 1 of blasphemv and God -defying evil. ! Without God and his mercy our hopes
 are crushed and the soul is dwarfed, | wasted, doomed and damned.
 | When we move out into business. into l politics, into the multiplied relations of | life we must take the consciousness or l Gods presence with us And the man who has this consciousness must go l into these realms. He must not seek l to hide in pious solitudes; ne must not | become religious hermit: he must not 1 insulate his religion from the world. He must not make the lamp of his life a dark lantern He must not quarantine | his religion. His religion is to be leaven | to touch the world, it is to be light to | illumine the world, it is to be salt to | preserve the world. We do not want tin
 saints, we do not want glass case Chris | tians, we do not want secret disciples. We want strong. intelligent. vigorous, | loyal, aggressive militant Christians who believe in service, fellowship, and | brotherhood, and who will carry their
 religious convictions into the marts of trade and into public office, that all fife
 and all society may be redeemed to the I