The farmer and mechanic. [volume], June 01, 1915, Page 3, Image 3

About The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??

Image provided by: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Library, Chapel Hill, NC

                
THE FARMER AND MECHANIC.
3
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FAITH IT IPtv
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mm rli:misii on a hero.
I ,-vni for June is 4Nattian llc
bnUes lavid II Sam. 11:1 to
(ity William T. Kill.
! nrte editors were in consultation
(, H-Tuing a series of character
...t.'hps of public men. Name after
ii iMii was rejected because some one
i ti three editors knew of serious
rn .' jil burnishes in the man suggest-
At length one or tnose present
I timed. "Well, -what do you think
ib.it for a list of spotted church-
. If S. J A 1
v not her maae answer, une oi me
h i r 'I st teats of a man's own sanity
,.r judgment, and confidence in reli-
4, , i, i-. his ability to preserve his
f,;;!i in men and in goodness and in
(.,. after he has learned of the
l.w-uii.shes of some of the men who
... leaders in the Church and Na-
t..,.. -
i,tv once in a while some Chris
ty, leader is detected in shamefu
s liven preachers occasionally
fi' At once, a certain number of
hiii.iw thinkers cry. "If that's the
V ! of people that are in the church,
lh.M 1 do not want to have anything
t , I t with the church." Not very
I llicit reasoning, that, for if it were
universally and rigidly applied it
-iM drive everybody away from
f.rrv organization professing moral
i,- inll.irds; it would depopulate the
rtk of business; it would put all
fraternal societies out of exis
it would annihilate all po
l, i. l parties, and it would do away
with the institution f the home it
.vl livery one of these is marred
. .consistent and hyiocritical mem-
of u liveth to himself, and none of
us dieth to himself." Some day. some
where, somehow, the accusing mes
sage of Clod is going to be pointed
directly at every violator of the di
vine law which was" enacted for hu
man welfare "Thou art the man.'
WHO WF.AIIS Till! LAIIIK1,
Ter.-c Comments on tlie 1'niforra
Piaycr Meeting Topic of the
Young: People's Societies Chris
tian Kndeavor. elc. for .In no f:
"Btly Under, Soul on Top."
I ( or. 9:24-27.
slaverv of the
pint
to th body.
When the Good go Had.
What are we to say concerning the
in : l lapses of Christian men? Cer
tii ty we must face the fact, and not
tr, to cover it up. The ecclesiastical
i nit that lets loose upon the com
munity a man, be he minister or lay
man. who has been n roved guilty oi
crime, is worse than dishonest. Let us
jt least be brave enough to refuse to
tover up a vile sore with an all-arr-u'ing
plaster, like the Chinese doctor-,
of the old school. The examples
of tb Table's historical passages
bbMild be our guide.
All such moral lapses of religious
leafier should admonish us to hu
finlity No man or woman is beyond
dinger. There Is no room for spir
it, il pride or self-complacency.
"Let him that standeth take heed
lest hft fa.ll." From the intimate
circles of Christ's own companions
two of his friends fell foully on a
tingle night. The ripest saint never
outgrows the need of pray daily,
'led us not into temptation, but de
liver us from evil."
The other message to all of us
from the sins of the saints from
David down to the latest preacher
whose wrong-doing has got his name
into today's paper Is that faith is
to be founded upon Christ, and not
upon any of His followers. Men
tumble; Jesus stands fast. The
lioliest come short of being perfect
pattern; Jesus shines truer the bet
ter He is known. His character and
that of the other men are like a pho
tograph and an old painting beneath
& magnifying glass. The painting
fchows coarse and unlovely, mere
masses of pigment: the photograph
iveals new lines, not apparent to
the naked eye. They who know Je
sus best see the most beauties in
Him. Other examples become inade
quate: Jesus suffices to the end. The
long stretches of eternity will be
needed to reveal His excellencies.
'I I u" Rook That Tells The Truth
ue peculiar evidence that the Bi
Me u an inspired book is that it
Preserves life's Dronortions. It does
iiot make its heroes demigods, as do
the other ancient sacred writings.
There, are only two important char
' fers in the Old Testament who are
nt shown to have serious blemishes.
We are shown the bad as well as the
gl. in this record of a race strug
ghag upward toward God.
In reading a great deal of current
h'Titure one easily gets the impres
m mi that all the world is evil. Many
f our popular periodicals are pass
big through a depressing stage. They
present a lopsided view of life,
ignoring the vast majority of hus
lrid.H and wives, men and women.
who are true and pure, and bravely
?rugj;llns toward spiritual excel
l uet As I go through the maga
zine from month to month, and read
aUo the- reviews of the stage, I am
reminded of an illustrated lecture I
m.oe heard upon Philadelpl ia's hous
;;. The lecturer showed only pic
tures of hovels and huts and tene
ments and human kennels such as
tnrtht of his hearers had scarcely ever
sen. ne aid not throw on the screen
a single example of the comfortable,
tiUary. beautiful homes which
bve made the city famous around
tho world. A stranger, hearing that
lecture, might have got the impres
ari that Philadelphia is one vast
wvm. Likewise, it U possible to get
from the periodical
daily, weekly and monthly, the ide:i
. K . 1.. ..
i !- numan 'sooierv is irr t tha.
dogs, and that nobodv is think-in--
upon "whatsoever things are true.
whatsoever thiners are honorable
whatsoever things are just, whatso
ever thines are nnrv whatsnvr
things are lovely, whatsoever thinks
are of good report."
Not so with the Bible. It pre
serves DTODOrtions ami iprsriwtivA
It tells fearlessly the story of King
David's shameful sin and also of his
spiritual aspirations. He is shown in
his fall a marred man. punished in
soul and estate for his sin and also
in his penitence and forgiveness.
uespite tne normal lapse which he
so oitterly repented, and which hung
as a clanking: chain to his lif until
the end, David was a man whose
dominant passion was a vearning
after God.
A Modern Sin in Olden Times.
Modern photographers can soften
a negative so as to eradicate blem
ishes in their subject. There is no
retouching in the Bible's picture of
David's sin. In strong, clear .lines
the king is shown idle on his house
top when he should have been off at
battle. He saw Bathsheba, the wife
of a brave soldier. Uriah, who was
off at the front: and he let his eyes
have free reign. He was thereby, ac
cording to the dictum of Jesus, an
adulterer before even he possessed
the woman he desired as truly an
adulterer as the foul-minded men
who loaf along our city streets, ogling
women and grils.
David yielded to his vagrant wish
es ana took 5atnsneba. men. by a
base plot, he put noble Uriah, whose
conduct shames that of the king, at
the battle front where he vrould meet
sure death. After a period of hypo
critical mourning for Uriah on the
part of David and Bathsheba David
made the woman his wife, it looked
as if the horrible strategem had suc
ceeded perfectly. But had it? Does
any scheme succeed
Cod and the moral
inevitable retribution
reckoning?
Head the classic tale of how
sinful self-complacency of the
terious king was pierced:
"And Jehovah sent Nathan
David. And he came unto him, and
said unto him. There were two men
in one city; the one rich and the oth
er poor. The rich man had exceed
ing many flocks and herds; but the
poor man had no thing, save one little
ewe lamb, which he had bought and
nourished up; and it grew up togeth
er with him, and with his children;
it did eat of his own morsel, and
drank of his own cup, and lay in his
bosom, and was unto him as a
daughter.
"And there came a traveler unto
the rich man, and he spared to take
of his own flock and of his own herd,
to dress for the wayfaring man that
was come unto him, but took the poor
man's lamb, and dressed it for the
man that was come unto him. And
David's anger was greatly kindled
against the man; and he said to
Nathan. As Jehovah liveth, the man
that hath done this is worthy to die;
and he shall restore the lamb four
fold, because he did this thing, and
because he had no pity.
"And Nathan said to David, Thou
art the man."
The Probe For Today.
Timelier story could not be studied
by mature minds today. Here is ex
posed the greatest weakness of our
generation. Most
that the social evil
worse ought upon
even strong drink.
see a growing laxity with respect
the Seventh Commandment.
The commonest of current philoso
phies is that which defies desire into
duty. Do as you please if you would
attain highest happiness, says this de
vastating teaching. The simple fact
that a person wants a thing makes
his getting it right. Unbridled desire
is exalted to the throne of life. The
old words. "Duty," "Self-Pvestraint,"
"Self-Denial" seem to have gone out
of fashion in certain circles. The
marriage tie rests as lightly as a sum-
By William T. Kllis.
Billy Sunday one day outlined i.
me a new sermon, which he meant
to call his ".Tekyl and Hvde sermon."
and he traced for me the growth
through famous fiction of this idea of
the dual uersonalitv. "And it all coe
back." he concluded, "to what I'au.'
said about the two natures which he
found in himself." This topic car
ries us straight to that subject. Uvery
one of us is two. We are all of us
perambulating battlefields. The
war above all other wars is that rag
ing within tne consciousness oi
and women, between the higher
the lower nature. Character and
tiny are both determined by which
one of. these two-fold elements wears
the laure-1 of victory. When spirit
keeps body in subjection, then all the
graces of the Christian life are pos
isible: but when bodv is on top when
appetite drives conscience, and indul
gence spurns intelligence then all
the woes of indulged sin lie in wait.
Th clear techint? of the New Tes
tament is that Chrivt maks mn fre
from tho law of the flesh. All whu
with Him. heoime sons of (Sod are
given a spiritual sceptre which m
sure the rein of spirit over hody
I very successful church and rescue
mission can point to illustrations of
slaves to lower animal passions
drunkards, drug-victims. iecher -
who hav- Ueen emancipated by Christ,
s that they nw reveal a nc nes of
life sustained by the Spirit of Christ
So ereinty over one's lower sHf is
a sin and e;i of sainthood.
Moinly used to
done nothing for
done nothing for
say. "If relion has
yur temper, it has
your soul."
men
and
des-
which leaves
law and its
out of the
the
adul-
unto
observers agree
is at present a
humanity than
All about us we
to
mer robe. "I
stituted for "I
want" has been sub-
ought."
upon this
the Bible
thesinful-
suffering of un
The sovereign
laws of Jehovah swing into view, uoa
is concerned in the moral order, and
He holds men accountable for their
sins. The Nation itself is involved in
the moral misdeeds of men; for none
Bearing down strongly
contemporary evil comes
story of David. It shows
ness and folly and
restrained passion.
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Safely renev
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fS.OO. Testimonial and Booklet FREE.
"Shadow boxing" is a fad in ath
letic circles nowadays. But Paul
would have none of it. In our lesson,
with its forceful figure from the box
ing arena, he cries. "So box I, as not
beating the air; but I bruise my body,
and bring it into bondage." All of
which is only one way of saying that
the supremacy of the spirit is so im
portant that it is worth suffering for.
A price must be paid for emancipa
tion from the thralldom of the flesh.
Spirituality comes not by mere aspir
ation, nor piety by pining: stern work
is needed. Self-denial is the route
to soul-supremacv.
m
Our luxurious age speaks cynically
of the hair shirt and penai.ces of the
ascetics. Our sensual cultivation of
voluptuous tastes removes us as far
from the monastic type oi religion as
Iiucullus was from Simeon Stylites
No sweemns indictments are ever
true, but it is not far wrong to say
that our modern fashions hail from
decadent Rome rather than troni rig
orous Sparta. The styles of apparel
which women have of late accepted
eertainlv intimate that the claims of
sniritualitv and aestheticism are sub
ordinated to those of sense and ma
terialism. God send us prophets, wo
men as well as men. who will first
nractice. and then preach, the holy
urgency of the claims of a life lived
in the spirit. For the rocks on which
ancient Rome went to shipwreck are
now visible ahead of the ship of our
modern life.
Christians should be among the
first to confess the sin and shame ol
the recent action of British church
men in refusing to endorse the gov
ernment's suggestion of the prohibi
tion of the sale of intoxicants. At
two ecclesiastical convocations, held
in England in April, the members re
fused to abstain from alcohol. One
eminent ecclesiastic, flatly declared
that to do so "impaired his health."
What a deadly parallel this narrative
makes with the writing of the Apostle
Paul, who, for his brethren's sake,
was not only willing to forego meat,
but also to be accursed. Are the
marks of the Lord Jesus the stig
mata of the cross no longer to be
found on the church? When Chris
tian leaders put appetite above spir
itual duty, then we must with bowed
heads accent such strictures as this
caustic comment from an editorial in
The Philadelphia North American:
"Clergymen in a flutter of agitation
lest they be asked to stop tippling,
and a dignitary of the- church putting
the state of his precious health
against the safety or the empire
surely these spectacles make one re-
cret that Gilbert and Sullivan have
passed away."
n of the SDirit insures
the appetites.
Heaven has no crowns tor wills sur
rendered to wishes.
Everv day, in the gymnasiums of
the great cities, one may find classes
of men busily engaged in trying to
ketp their bodies "fit." They spend
time and effort in the duty of pre
servins: their health. Because of the
fear that their muscles will grow soft
and their arteries hard, they put
themselves into the hands cf physi
cal trainers. Only in like manner
can souls be kei.t in condition. There
must be vigorous and sustained drill,
maintained by conscious purpose. If
one neglects the reading of the hicrhr
forms of literature, the Bible especial
ly, and the regular use of prayer and
meditation upon spiritual themes,
then of a surety one's soul will grow
flabby and unfit. In the old ter
minology of religion, the forms of
worship, public and pricvate, were
called "exercises." That is the right
word. They "exercised" the faculties
of the spirit, and kept them in good
condition. It is more important to
discipline our souls- than to cultivate
our bodies.
Any habit, however harmless in
itself which says to the will, "You
cannot control me." is a sign of the
Moslems observe th month of
Ramadan ty abstinence from food.
tobacco and other indulgences, from
sunrise t sunset. Mohammed made
this a reuuirement of all who follow
him. But anions the wealthy classes
a usage has grown up of spending
the nights of Ramadan in revelry and
feasting, and sleeping through the
greater part of the day. Thus they
obey the letter of the law, but violate
its spirit. The fast is really turned
into a feast. We cannot throw stones
at the Moslems for this, because w
live in glass houses. The idea of fast
ing has departed from us. Our occa
sional calls to a day of prayer no
longer add "and fastini;." The spirit
of self-denial is not characteristic of
tne i nurch m our time: although it
is a sure mark of tbe Gospel of
Christ.
Not denial, but discipline of in
body is the Christian urogramme.
The body is a tool for one
the spirit is trained for two
world;
worlds.
Si:Vl'.X SKNTKNCK SF.IIMONS.
i s the soul of
ct.
Thought
Browning.
Human improvement is irm
within outward. Frond-.
What is fame? an empty bubble;
Gold? a transient shinning trouble.
--James Grainger
Doctrine is nothing but the skin
of truth set up and stuffed. Henry
Ward Beecher.
shall be ashamed
words in this adul
generation, the So
be ashamed of him.
in the glory of his
holy angels Mark
For whosoever
of me and of my
terous and sinful
of man also shall
when he cometh
Father with the
round
8:38.
Live, there are manv
Needing thy care;
Pray, their is One at hand
Helping thy prayer;
ight for the love of Govt.
for renown;
but in His great strength,
in thine own.
-Cowen.
Civility may be truly said to cost
nothing: if it does not meet with a
good return, it at least leaves von in
the most creditable position. Beau
Brummel.
Only the
the reining
of
Not
Strive.
Not
BF.IilKVKS TYPHUS FFVFR
CAN i: KXTKKMIXATKD.
Gen. Gorgas Says It Remains Only to
Know Amount of Antitoxin to Administer.
Washington Star.
Prediction that typhus as a menace
to armies will disappear just as ty
phoid fever has done was made by
Surgeon General Gorgas of the Uni
ted States army, who has been offered
the post of commander-in-chief of the
sanitary forces in Serbia under the
Rockefeller Foundation. He said it
remained only to show by actual ex
perience the right amount of anti
toxine to administer. Gen. Gorgars
statement was made to the Serbian
agricultural relief committee of Amer
ica. The campaign against typhus in
Serbia, Gen. Gorgas declared, might
cost only a few hundred thousand dol
lars or it might run into millions ,de
pending on the progress made. One
of the most necessary moves, he point
ed out. was the return of the families
now held i" congested districts to
their fams. for little progress could
hbe made where the people are hud
dled together infested with vermin.
With the people distributed over a
larger area he said the problem be
came one of extermination of the ver-
nun wmcn carries tne iever, ana
whose only habitat practically is the
human body.
WILLS CFNT TO IIACH CHILD.
Parental Blessing Goes With Bequest
From $15,000 Itate.
New York World.
Dr. Tyler G. Cooke, of 40 Elm street,
Richmond Hill, and his sister. Mar
garet CJordon Cooke, a nun in St.
Mary's Convent. Peekskill. received by
the will of their father. William J.
Cooke, I cent each and the parental
blessing. The remainder of the prop
erty, estimated at $15,000, gos to the
testator's widow, his second wife.
The will, filed with Surrogate NobI
in Jamaica, explains that the children
were provided for before the will was
drawn. Dr. Cooke said his father had
made generous provision for him In
his lifetime.