The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-03-01
q AM WHAT I AMI" SERMON BY DIR. ]. A. MACSPORRAN

Dr I MacSporran used "By the
 Grace of God | Am What Am" as the
 subject of his sermon at the First
 Presbyterian Church Sunday morning.
 He said in part: We have no dlI-
 ficulty in accepting a moral universe
 in which there are such facts as pain,
 sickness death and disasters. We can
 see that these are necessary to prog
 ress, to education. to character that
 they are the very conditions when
 make the free moral life or man pos
 sible We can see that they provide
 the soil and discipline for the soul
 mastery and the spirits opportunity,
 that these times work for good ana
 can be reconciled with our faNh and
 trust in the eternal goouiless anu
 love.
 "But it is one thing to accept pain
 and suffering, defeat and loss as nec-
 essary features in the scheme of things,
 and a very different thing to accept
 these when they come to us personally.
 Somebody must suffer, somebody must
 undertake to bear the heavy burden
 and make the great sacrifice some
 body must prove to the world that
 man does not live by bread alone and
 that the cross of Christ can be tri-
 lmphantly borne: somebody must
 prove to the world that the living Christ in our midst today is doing
 what He did of old--calling men from their business to attend to the Father business. But what makes me cold
 and dumb is why should this partieu-
 lar thing be laid upon me.
 My theory would have been satis- fled If it had been somebody elss who had to endure this hard and bitter ex-
 periense. Little children debut why should 1t have to be my baby? In war soldiers are killed--but why should it be my son? This is question that ploughs deep and which no one can escape. If yoa have not cried out or the depths. my brother. the day will come when YOU will. And uNless you have an answer you will find that there is nothing in your religion that is adequate to the strain of reality. The answer of the Apostle Paul Is the only satisfactory one that was ever given to the passionate query of the perplexed soul
 "Paul had something definite in mind. He called it the grace of God in Jesus Christ the Lord. In fact. Paul used it so much that the church has been using it ever since in every | meeting of the fellowship of Believers, Contact with Jesus Christ brought q new power into the people of the New Testament. They caught soiii ess !; if {; | from Him. They felt goodness. a purity. an authority that was ire sistible and the more they yielded to 1 the impression His personality made upon them the more the life of the ] Savior was communicated to them What they meant by grace was the personal power and influence. this di- | vine magnetism. the kindling of new affections and interests and aims which they always experienced when | in vital contact with the Savior.
 1 "'By the Grace of God Am What Ana minister. a missionary, a teacher. an officer of the church. II one can say T have done great things with my life. I.have given my means | without stint. I have heard the cry r of distress and want. I have given !~of my leisure time and devoted my l hest talents in the service of the king l dom. I glory in it. not because ot what I am. but because 'Bv the Grace of God I Am What I Am.' It is the rowe~ of the Master .~muricated that enobles me. It is bv this that we attain to uudreamed of achievements.