The Washington herald., 1918-01-13
The Herald's Sunday Sermon

The sermon below was written es-
pecially for The Washington Herald
by Rev. Guy A. Luttreli, pastor OF
the Lincoln Road M. Z. Church.
The text: Second Corinthians So
Ye are the epistle OF Christ written
not with ink but with the spirit of
the living God not In tables OF stone
but In fieshly tables OF the heart.
In this text Paul seems to Indicate
great confidence in the Corinthians.
He notes that the Corinthian Chris
tians had had their hearts written
! upon by the spirit OF the living God,
and were living epistles of Christ, as
he says in the verse preceding the
text, Ye are our epistles known and
read Of all men.
However. he was aware that the
Corinthians were far from being per-
feet. AT least he says In his first
epistle, first chapter. the eleventh
verse, For II has been declared unto
me, of you my brethren, that there
are contentious among YOU" Does
that sound modern?. How few church
es there are, even in this day, when
Christianity has fiourished for 1000
years, that do not have contentious
among them. Envy, pickering, inor-
dinate ambitions. rivilry of leadership,
mistrust, Jealousy. and selfishness
creep into the church, like the serpent
crawling into the Garden of Eden.
II the church be wise It will ex-
erctse Its utmost wisdom. ingenuity
| and grace to checkmate the guile OF
these deceiving sins and will destroy
them before they reach the anaconda
stage and wrap themselves about the
all too fragile life OF the church
crushing out It's vitality and bringing
1t to a state Of disgraceful vassalage.
However, the point remains
clear. that there were those in the
Corinthian Church who were fine
examples OF the Christ-life to the
world, known and read OF all men
1t Is no doubt that there were many
| in Corinth who noted the walk OF
these early Christians. saw their
| child-like faith. marveled at their
purity of life in the mist OF pagan
corruption. saw the courage and
determination with which they de-
Tended their faith.
There are many in the church
today, who. possibly seem indiffer-
ent to the formal matters of the
| church. have manifested no par
ticular zeal and yet deep down in
| their hearts there smolders the
| warm fre OF Christian heroism
This should be remembered.
| Recently there came to my at
tention . story OF two British Of
hcers who were captured by the
Turkish army. They had never
been very earnest as Christians. in
fact were considered quite indif-
fsrent by many OF their comrades
Yet when the cruel. blood-stained
hand OF Turkey. inspired by the
spirit OF Mohammed. reached out
toward them and offered life II they
would turn against Christ and ac-
cept Mohammed, and death IL they
refused to do so. these officers. who
before had seemed to be indifferent
arose to a sublimity Of faith and
devotion that was the marvel OF
all and absolutely refused the Of
fer and went gloriously to their
death.
so this leads me to say at the
outset that not in ALE cases do we
read the lives OF men Alright, and
we should be careful how we i'm
pute to any one unfaithfulness and
failure.
In many cases, II Is more than pos
| sible that the error is not so much in
I the lives Of Christians as in the sight
of those who loudly proclaim that
they are reading them. In some in
stances they do not read at all 1t is
like a baby taking up a newspaper