Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 January 1914 — Short Sermons FOR A Sunday Half-Hour [ARTICLE]

Short Sermons FOR A Sunday Half-Hour

SHUTTING THE DOOR. BY THE REV. GUY ARTHUR ’ JAMISON. And the door was shut—Matt, XXV., 10. # The’ foolish virgins did not expect to find the door closed upon them. It was theft own foolishness that Resulted in this keen disappointment And in the story of their humiliation is suggested to us a sad truth —that we may unconsciously, unwittingly, have the door to all that is best and worthiest closed on us. I think very few people purposely refuse to seek the best things of life. But indifference and neglect may become a sin and close the door to life’s best blessings. There are lines of conduct that we may follow, and we never dream that we are raising barriers between ourselves and the best There are certain things that we may do until we will no longer respond to the best thoughts and feelings. Darwin tells ns that in early life he was very fond of music, found great pleasure in reading Shakespeare. But in after years, he so concentrated his mind and soul on the investigation and study of nature that he lost his taste for music, no longer cared for Shakespeare. The great poet no longer made an appeal, the faculty of music became atrophied. He had noquarrel with Shakespeare or music—they had not changed. He still knew the eno to be the greatest poetical genious of the centuries, the other one of God’s avenues of speaking to man seme of his best emotions and aspirations, and yet there was no longer anything in the squl of Darwin that responded to their appeal. Unwittingly he had closed the door on Shakespeare and music. It may not be a serious matter to dose the door for a time on music and poetry, but there are things that we dare not shut out of our lives even for a day. Every influence that makes for development, the uplifting, the noble, the Chrlstlike, the ideal, we must be careful that we do not intentionally or thoughtlessly shut out And every day as we go forth to meet life we are consciously or unconsciously opening or shutting the door to lififs best things—in our thought, in our emotions, in our acts, in our friends, in our amusements, in all our habits. We may think lightly of these things until some day when we have an important choice to make, a critical temptation to face, an undertaking to <MPry through that may affect our whole destiny. And if we have not been living in the way that will enable us to make the right choice, meet the temptation or succeed in the undertaking we, like the foolish virgins, shall find the door shut. Our whole life is concerned in every choice we make, in every temptation we master, in. every undertaking we accomplish. Perhaps we never meant to shut the door on purity and power, on character and success, but somehow they have escaped Into the dim distance. We never meant to gaow indifferent to the appeals made upon the soul by higher things, nor to grow hard towards our fellow, nor to let life’s best opportunities slip, but sud denly our eyes are open find that the door is shut Lifc|fihe foolish virgins, thoughtlessly shut the door on the Master. xJ