Norwich bulletin., 1919-11-19
APPLIES STORY OF SAMSON

you remember, as you stood before the M altar, the promises that you made and \ the unspoken promises too, your heart was filled with and earnestness and F sincerity that no one would doubt?
 You were glad to be recei<ad into the | church. and the very best of your manhood and womanhood was rulin
 fife to count.
 Have you lost anything Have you | lost that earnestness? Have you lost |
 ambition to attain to that ideal that 1
 God has for you? Have you lost
 anything You remember how after
 Sanson had played the fool they put
 out hts eyes put him down in the prison house to grind; and you know that is typical of so many of us. If some of US were to stop for me- ment and look back to the day when
 we first surrendered our lives to Je- sus Christ, we should shudder to find | how far we have travelled from him. l Some of us have lost Him entirely out of our lives, but we still go to church and we still teach a Sunday school | class, and we are still an official | member of the church, but it is only grinding. There is no spirit there. ! We turn to the hymns, and we sing,
 but it only comes from the throat, not from the heart. It used to- come from the heart, but now it is grind- ing. We turn to the responsive read
 1 ings, and if we would be frank we
 would much rather be at home read
 ing one of the best sellers. We go to church only because it is custom ary and considered the correct thing for Sabbath mornings, and we don't I wish to be known as heathens, and
 when we get there the sermon is us-
 ually dry to us. It is because we
 have lost Christ's spirit, and we are
 just grinding. You know it is quite
 possible to lose Christ Mary lost | Him, His Own Mother, and She lost
 Him for three days. and she didn't
 know it, and She didn't lose Him
 mixing with ungodly companions and ] She didn't lose Him sitting up half the night indulging in questionable things. She lost Him in the. house of q God, and a great many people lose Him there, because they will not
 obey Him. But the last picture of : SamSan is so bright in contrast with I the rest. There came a day, you re- member, when his enemies wanted to
 make fun of him, and they not only crowded the walled theatre but three thousand men and, women were on
 ! lLiO IOOI lO Uldhe .SpUIL Ol tnSlT OlG
 time enemy, and 1 have sometimes thought in imagination. 1 could sec } Samson being led up from the prison ], house and arriving in the theatre, be- ing greeted with great joy by the multitude. 1 have amost thought l have heard their ribald laughter and their jeers and sneers. And then you
 remember Samson requested that he might feel the pillars that supported the roof and then that great prayer of reconsecration. O, God remember me. And you remember the answer to that prayer and how his strength came back to him again, and he slew more at his death than he slew in his life. And Samson's life and deatt bring the message to you and me tna : God is not q monster, but a greai loving father, and His great Hear ? yearns over us because he would saNt us from tho things that mar ails I spoil us and would help us that wt I might be the finest men and worner
 that He can make us Men and wo- y men of the churches of Norwich i | we have lost out by our weaknesse: 1 and our Inconsistencies and our fool . ing, let us press back through tn, crowds and reconsecrate oursalve. : that cur lives may be strong ant