Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1922-10-18
Sermon by Rev. Arthur
Allen.
"The Present Crisis"

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time as this-"-Esther 4:14.
The present crisis is always pres:
ent. There is no such thing as past
or future crisis. The present crisis
is the only one life has. The storysof
Esther illustrates the critical nature
of every period of human history;
for history itself is but the sum total
Of the deposits made by nations and
generations to the life of theworM,
On the coast of Florida are beautiful
coral reefs, thrown up and constructs;
ed through the process Of the centn-
ries. They stand there today as a 81;
lent monument to the successive gen.
erations of little coral creatures. 0na
colony of these little animals comes
forward, lives, makes its deposit sot
coral and dies. So one generation APP
pears on the scene of action, makes
it's deposit of life and passes out,
And if there is any exception to that
rule, if we depart without leaving 9
deposit, then life is not as rich and
well-rounded and full as it otherwise
would be. 1t lacks something in com;
pleteness and history is held up in its
upward movement toward great SUE
preme climax.
We like Esther come to the king
dom for special hour and a defnite
purpose is all the time being worked
out in human life and history. You
do not have to search for illustras
tions of this truth. They are found
in the story of every nation whetheI
is be Hebrew or British or French
or American. Every great charactez
that ever walked across the worlds
life arose to meet crisis. Joseph
became prime minister in thez.lana
Of the Nile that he might save hilss
family, the chosen people, from FAM
inc by bringing them into 3Egypt;
Constantine became Emperor of of
Rome that he might en1anei eipase
Christianity which was ssttru ggliaa
Efsor eNs stence and GIVE siolu
in the Roman Empire. 1t is not t5nsces-
sary to multiply Illustrations. A
glance backward over our history
will furnish them in such quantity as
to convince us that every generation
has great moral problem of its
own. John Fiske wrote a book en-
titled "The Critical Period of Ameri-
can History" but someone else might
with good reason mark off another
or still another, and call it The Criti-
cal Period. Whether a man live five
thousand years before Christ in
Babylon or nineteen hundreds years
after Christ in America, he is in
The Present Crisis.
God is not poor artist who brings
on the stage, in addition to the ac-
tors, others who have no parts as
signed. Every actor in the drama of
life appears just when he does, be-
cause he is needed then to the de-
velopment ofthe plot and its solu-
ton. In the narrative of Esther
everything seems to hang on an if
or happen so. 1t is full of unexpected
turns and apparently unrelated
events only casually connected and
touching each other. If the king had
not have been intoxicated, the Jew
ess would not have been chosen
queen. If he had not have had a
sleepless night, Mordecai's service to
him would have been forgotten. The
accidental reading of the state ar
chives recalled that he had once saw
ed the monarch's life. If Esther had
not have been queen at this time, her
nation would have perished in a
bloody massacre. The characters
seem to act spontaneously, but be-
hind the scenes in the shadow is
God, who so shapes events as to fit
together each individual and occa-
sion. And what seems to be mere
chance and the mutation Of fortune
is actually Divine Providence and the
unfolding of great life scheme. Be-
ing great literature, this book is true
to life. The central fact of life itself
is that God prepares every life for a
peculiar service to its own time and
definite purpose running through it.
He had George Washington pre-
pared for the Revolution, a Lin
al, for +ba Civil War and Martin