The Kendrick gazette. [volume] (Kendrick, Idaho) 1892-1968, 1919-01-24
Sermon by Rev. Gregory

81 am resolved what to do" Luke
16, A.
The man who is referred to in this
text was bad at heart yet desired to
be looked upon favorably by those
who knew him. When he could de-
ceive his master no longer and was
forced from his employ, he said,
81 am resolved what to do" He
would not make amends to his mas
ter, but went deeper into deceit and
wrong. with the idea of profiting at
the expense Of another. We are
many times made to admire the re-
solutions of men though they may
not contain all we would have them.
AS we recall the resolutions of men
in the various vocations of life,
their effort and sacrifice to attain
their purpose, we feel the import
ance of the task absorbs the entire,
being. AS we have read of men
who desecrated rights, ruined cities,
killed legions and waded through
blood, with resolution to conquer,
we feel their purpose was of vast
meaning to them; but alas! as we
think of the murder and weigh the
crime there comes over us shiver,
which causes us to breath out the
thought, Oh! that the resolutions of
men were to make more of the op-
portunities of this life in which
mans duty is to build character,
pure and undetiled, confess for my
part, to be profoundly moved by
great resolution. recall picture
l once saw. A man who had come
to the point of destiny, his brow is
knit, his eyes look afar and see
nothing; his lips are drawn together
like the clasps upon the manacle of
prisoner, the pose seemed to in
dicate that this man would plunge
through foaming billows, the will
derness of the mountain and thru
the dreaded storms of winter, to ac-
complish his decision; beneath the
picture was written these words,
'The die is cast" Resolution is
sublime spectacle; when life rises
up to meet the tempest, when all
ones strength springs up to break
down spite and irony, it is a vision
equipped to catch the eyes of the
angels of God.
When we think of men like Mar
tin Luther beset by dignified synod,
environed by hedges of angry polit-
ical opponents, there is no one who
can be lacking in sensitiveness to
his high resolve. When he looks all
this in the face he knows how his
life is in jeopardy and faces dam
gers that shut down on him like a
night. There is something past be-
lief in the splendor of the man, he
looks beyond and sees the smiling
face of the great God, and says.
Here | stand, God help me, can
do no other We are constrained
to feel that any man who reaches
. the point of resolution is worthy of
! respect.
Sometimes people grow bad with
| out purpose but we are convinced
a people never grow good without
, purpose. 1t is solemn truth at
s tested by all the records of the
, world that no life happens into
+ goodness. We don't stumble into
virtue; we don't rise upon the
stones of anything other than sub
lime purpose when we grow to be
good and learn to be true. II
would be better to attempt the high
- er life a thousand times and miss
it than never to have tried at all.
!; am not asking about your past, lei
God remember that if He must, OF
- forget it if He will; let us try a new
q chance; let us begin new race; LEI
us turn our faces and our fee
. Gods way and make for new life