Saturday news. (Watertown, S.D.) 19??-19??, 1918-04-18


Rev. Gay @, White, at the Methodist /
church last Sunday morning, preached
from the text found in Romans Ill.,
which reads: II am debtor to the
Greeks and to the Barbarians, both
to the wise and to the foolish
Mr.. White said, in part:
Personality is the great mystery.
Personality is that elemental selfhood
akin to the being of God, relating us
to God as His offspring. Personality
is an eternal thing in itself, cannot
be divided, cannot be analysed. IT.
involves a state of being but it in
wolves vastly more: personality is the
state of being somebody l, myself,
YOU, yourselfis But at that we have
only begun to tell the story. Person
atty is not sufficient unto itself. "A
man cannot dig a hole in the ground,
cover himself over with dirt, and ex-
pect to live. although many people
have been foolish enough to try some.
thing of the sort. mo man liveth
unto himself, no man dieth unto him.
self"
Genius. in its development and
flower, in it's product and influence,
is a composite of many personalities.
A Sir Walter Scott in literature, an
Abraham Lincoln OF a Gladstone in
statecraft, a st. Paul in worldwide
missionary e%ndeavor, vision and pur-
pose, all gathered flowers from many
fields of thought. Their minds ranged
far and near in patient research and
all that they met up with was chang
ed into nuggets of golden truth. Billy
Sunday is in debt to every sermon he
ever read, to every person he has
met, and that is nothing to his dis
credit. William Shakespeare, The
mightiest genius of the worlds lit
erature, borrowed the essential out
line of nearly every drama that, bears
his immortal name; but when touched
by the fame of his genius they were
transformed into master products of
his own creative mind.
So it is that st. Paul was hopeless
~ in debt to- everybody. But unlike
some today, st. Paul acknowledges
the obligation and undertakes to pay
up, saying, II am debtor" He was in
debt, first of all, to his w people,
the Jews, for his majestic conception
of Jehovah, for the discipline of re-
ligious training in his childhood home
and in the school of the rabbi, for his
old-fashioned reliance upon the teach
ing of the Decalogue, for his love of
religious truth, for the example of the
prophets, the poetry of Israel and the
law of Moses. Hebrew history gave
him the religious background of his
entire spiritual life.
He was in debt to the Greeks for
his broad general culture and refine
ment of character. his love of phil
osophy, his first contact with the
Gentiles, and his written language, the
Hellenic, the most beautiful and fex.
ible and expressive language that
ever crossed the lips Of men. Greece
gave him the channel of expression
through which flowed his great epis
ties and sermons, interpreting the
message of the Gospel.
He was in debt to the Romans fol
his parish, an empire, with gateways
of commerce and social communities
ton He was in debt to Rome for its
laws. its authority, its example of q
worldwide plan in operations-nol
just the academic theories of the San
hedrin and the Areopagns, but some
thing big and actual.
He was in debt to the Barbarians
the countless and often nameless
l0rdes Of people. our ancestors, fre'
loving men and women already hover
ing like an 6minons cloud along Thu
northern horizon. He was in deb
to the Barbarians for their daring
their spirit of adventure, their vii
derness life. He saw in them til,
infusion of new blood that was need
FIJI for the Kingdom Rome. Athenl
and Jerusalem are M represented j,
this morning audience, j suppose: WI
are all the descendants of thns
tribes from the northern and western
regions of Europe. Let us not fol
get the debt we owe the older civil
cations.
But Paul was supremely in debt t
Jesus Christ, who did what al thes
other Influences could not do, VIII
set him free, who saved him fromth
law Of sin and death. He was i
debt to Christ for the yery sGospe
that he declarnled wherever he Wen
saying, For me to live Is Christ
How did he pay these many debts
even in parts First, by preaching til
Gospel, the unaearchable riches {
Christ Jesus, the more abundant, OF
erdowing life, the emancipation froI
the tyranny OF sin the glorious fac
of The resurrection and the plan q
rettein I,fIoti. 5E9Ee II xAs=4se - teaaiasgS do.
we eaT him d and sgainsI al
d~etaFnae1 to know notaiag aIHo1s
~a j