Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 179, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 July 1913 — Short Sermons FORA Sunday Half-Hour [ARTICLE]

Short Sermons FORA Sunday Half-Hour

Thome: LIFE. ♦ ♦ ♦ v| BY DR. ALBERT FITCH. ♦♦ ♦ v Text—Enter ye In at tho narrow gate; for wide Is the gate and broad le the way that leadeth to destruction; and many there are who enter by If How narrow Is the gate and straight Is tho way which leadeth to life, and few there are who find IL ' ,

These are the words of Jesus. They are distinguished by their impressive severity. There are always people who are per verse and discontented, and who take no interest in these words, and are in the nabit of rejecting them as absolutely inconsistent with their idea of A Christian life. You and I are the children of the twentieth century; that is to say, we are an easy-going, pleasure-loving generation, and we receive these words,' for the most part, if we receive them at all, with an inner prejudice and a definite Irrellgion. They carry with them a message that provokes a challenge from our twentieth century civilization; they seem to set forth a reflection oh the world from the point of view of the new idea, as against the admirable old Idea of a past generation, the deeply rooted institution of human nature. It is no wonder' that men balk at this idea, when it seems to be out of harmony with present day twentieth century life.

. / . ..... B, Stones don’t roll up hill. They always take th® easy path of rolling down hill; a shot does not leave the gun by the butt end, but goes right out at the mouth of the barret It takes the way of easiest resistance. So the Scripture tells us to follow the straight path which leadeth to glory. Some Christians never reach the greatest happiness, because they always follow the lines of least resistance—the lines of no resistance. They are living what they think is the perfect life. Is not that the rule of all human development; the survival of the fittest The strong man dominates the weak man, and he must give In. \ ' Read your history and see the nations and the men who have fallen because they have followed the paths of least resistance; see where they have ended. On the other hand, see the men who have succeeded because they followed the straight and narrow path. See our modern commercial life, with its one code of elthlcs for the multimillionaire and another code of ethics for the poorer man—for you and for me. You can see It in our commercial life to-day, wherever we see men getting together enormous amounts of money; wherever you see men putting pleasure before principle, desire before justice, conquest before character, self before one's neighbors, the things of the world before the glory of God. Whenever you find these things and find men following the easy, path, you find that they come to destruction. They have come to the end they set out to reach. On the other hand, true progress has come only when men have boon willing to travel along the straight and narrow path. What is the thing that sustains society to-day? It to the thing we call home. The home Is simply a group of people who have made up their minds to lead the straight life. Here the individual member sacrifices all for the sake of the group. The father sacrifices himself for his children. Wherever you see a home where there Is discord, there you will see a broken home, a disrupted home, one that ends In divorces one In which the children are moral bankrupts.

That is the whole foundation of our society; that Is whore we do good to the greatest number; whan men agree to walk In the straight and narrow path under any government whether it be that of a Republic or a monarc*. Instead of the easy path principle, Mong the linos of least resistance, more you have a sturdy people. Whan men endeavor to set forth their own ideas of government Independent of other men, such government Is nflt government at all; It sometimes means anarchy. Why do we build our hospitals today? Because we believe in the new Christian civilisation. Why do wo take care of our old people in homes for the aged and the sick instead of getting rid of them as they did in Sparta of old, by killing them? Because wp are a civilised people. Why do wo have reformatories now instead of prison. Because wo have learned that by simply turning a key on a man and locking him up apart from his follow-man, wo {astray him and ha destroys us. We do it for our own property's safety and for the reform of the individual. There are many, many men, la our own day who find tbomsetvos at the end of flour, or throe, of oven one year, not as good as they were before, to whom money and its pursuit are the ssaln objects in life. Some cannot look their own children in the foco or their neighbors, or their God, because they have last their character. But character costs a greet mi everything to saerileod to