Catoctin clarion., 1921-01-27
Funeral Sermon
For COrnelia A. Wissler By
Rev. P. E. Heimer, Ph. D.,
January 20. 1921.

Rev. P. E. Heimer, Ph. D.,
January 20. 1921.
published by request Of the family.
TEXT-MATT. 10:3s; "He that loseth
his life for my sake shall find it."
Though paradoxical this text is express
sive Of growth and development in gen.
eral and of Christianity in particular.
In this thought also lies the religious idea
of sacrifice and it's mediate and immedi-
ate value to human interests both mater
ial and spiritual; and temporal and
eternal
1t is the cementing continuous idea OF
the Bible from the Old Testament to and
through the New. emphasized most in
tensely by St. Paul until he reaches the
climax in saying Il know nothing but
Christ and Him Crucfied," and God
forbid that should glory save in the
cross of Christi
In the Old Testament it manifests it
self in Cain and Abel until it is unfolded
in the elaborate and complex Jewish rit-
ual and cult of feast and sacrifice of
many kinds and types unto many pur-
poses, but all the while holding fast to
the vicarious idea that by the Staying of
the animal it saved and forgave the soul
and SO clearly see in the Old Testament
the practice in fact what this text in the
New Testament states in principle--that
by losing the one it gained the other
the yielding of the lower for the salvation
of the higher.
St. Paul also stated the general prin-
ciple that without the shedding Of blood
there was no remission of sin. which in
practical life is tantamount to the fact
that many a man owes the grandeur OF
of his life to tremendous difficulties and
that trouble is a tonic to the soul.
This principle holds true in every phase
of nature-animate and inanimate.
| The vegetable is planted and dies to
live in numberess seed grains which in
return yield large crops. The tree kills
itself in fruit production and shade bear
ing for the weary traveller. The shad
spawns and then dies. The caterpillar
dies that the beautiful butterfly may
live; nay, rather that the caterpillar may
live in more glorious form So man dies
in the flesh that he may live more
abundantly in the spirit.
In msnkind parents give their physical
life that they may live more abundantly
in the children and therefore for the
children to be as good as the paren t.
they must be better.
| We thus behold this truth everywhere
present In the African wilds hunters
often tether a little lamb to tree and
by its bleating a ttract the voracious lion
to enable the gunsman to shoot him.
The innocent lamb suffers great fright,
sometimes dies from it and sometimes
caught by the lion before he is killed,
but the lamb dies, if 80. to make the
country more safe and habitxble.
The law Of sacrifice is more particularly
strong in the moral end spiritual. Christ
tianity is born in blood and death. The
blood of the martyrs is the seed of the
church and the church and goodness still
live because men and women are willing
to lose their lives for Jesus sake.
1t seems that the death Of men for the
advancement of righteous principle is
quite as necessary in the economy Of
God as it is for a grain Of wheat to die
to bring forth more grain, for we can not
even find our own true life unless we first
lose our sinful and sensuous one.
We can therefore recognize this prin-
ciple as of the utmost Importance and al
the most far reaching and all-pervasive
law in nature both respecting the life on
earth in it's growth and evolution as well
as in the life more abundant in the fu-
ture eternity.
And now why this thought on this oc-
casion?
Chiefly because it is mother that is the
subject of our thought and feeling and
because it is in motherhood that the text
is verified and actualized more especially
Mothers, true mothers, are the most sel'
crucifying beings existing and more
ready to lose their lives for others thar
any other creature.
They are therefore the divinest of hu
man beings and the Jewish Rabbi spoke
great truth i'll principle when he said
because God could not be everywhere
he made mothers" And surely one wh'
is not or never has been a mother cal
, scarcely-yea, can not at all-perceiv'
the love and sacrifice the soul is capable
For mothers love and sacrifice is no
to be excelled and her influence upon thu
moral and spiritual life not to be equalle'
: or rivalled. This truth is indeed visual
lied in such great men as Mckinley
5 whose devotion to his mother was poetic
:. in ''Tell mother I'll be there" Lincoln
j whose dictum, "All that I am and a
that hope to be l owe to my ange
mother" and West, whose asssrtio
that, my mothers kiss made me
painter" is sublime in influence. An
if these sons and daughters Of this nobl
mother would testify it would be the sam
;. testimony and affirm the poet when b
sings:
J. By her my lisping tongue in prayer
Was taught to bless the God of light,
Her kindness soothed my childish care
And watched my slumbers during nigh