SUNDAY COLUMN.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIII, Issue 6, 4 May 1912, Page 8

SUNDAY COLUMN.

ALTERNATIVES. (By Dr. Joseph Parker, London.) “To whom shall we go ? 1 — John To whom shall we go? The discourse is upon alternatives. Who is the other man? What is the other Book? If .ve turn our backs upon Lime, then Son of God, where is the Hie** Always ask for alternatives; always ask tor a constructive side of things, here roe many men who can find fault; few v. no

can build. Better build a wail than destroy a faith. Stick to this one question and you will com© out all right. Lord, to whom shall we go ? 1. We might live the animal life; wo might be so many animals. Do you want me to labour that point, or do you instantaneously say you could roc for a moment consider the alternat.ve

of mere animalism? Do not be in a great hurry about this. “Animal” is really a word which signifies a liv. ig thing; there is no baseness or, fc.ilnoss about the word animal. We curselves are partly animal. But by the animal life is in this connection meant some low, base, vicious form of hfe,

the trough life, the flesh Hie. “tie that soweth unto the flesh shall of lire flesh reap corruption.” Will you cornsent to unman and dehumanise yearselves so far as to be mere anim d? 11. What is your second alternate e? “Will yon live,” says the tempier, “as I do?” “How do you live?” “I live the secular life.” Have you c. ef studied secularism? It lias its dogmas,

its opinions, its canons and its nar; nv philosophy. Live the secular kre. take an interest in the newspapt rri, in the nows of the day, just rise in the morning to read what was d me yesterday and get through your time as well as you can. 111. Well, what say you to the next alternative? I think you might live the careless life; that is to r y, let other people think about the spi. itual and superstitious things, but you keep on solid ground, and you take a little enjoyment where you can get it; go out to suppers and dances and come home drunk.

No, ray mother forbids it, all ny training, goes against it - all ray early imprdscs vote on the other side. Want is the careless life? It is the life that cares for “none of these things.” There is a group of men praying—pass them, we do not care for their praying; wo do not want to join them; we are hound for the race and the revel, the feast and the devil; we are happy-go-lucky boys—join us! I think not. That might suit some sides of human nature. All that I have yet heard provides for little sections of ma.nho.xli. and I want something that fills the whole vacuum, the entire abyss, the infinity of my nature. “We go out,”, say the careless people, “we go out at night, we sleep, all day, we make as much money as we can by gambling and betting and lying, and that is a fine market; we have a large balance at the hank, and having got that largo balance there, we say to our duties, Hands off! You live for us, we do not live for you.” Well, I willI not join the careless people: I cannot, i IV. I want a religion that takes; I the best out of all alternatives andj adds something of its own to them; and leads me into higher heights and diviner raptures of thought and imagination. Christ makes us a great offer to-day. He throws upon us the responsibility of declining it. Peter’s reason for coming to Christ is sufficient and rational, “Thou has the words of eternal life.” The man who has the words is the wise man. Things perish; the Word, the Logos remains. “Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Son of God.” A NEW PREACHER AT ST. PAUL’S CATHEDRAL, LONDON. Canon Peter Green, who is so well known as “Artifex” to readers of the Manchester Guardian, took for a week the midday special services at St. Paul’s Cathedral. Here are a few sentences from his addressed:— I think that one explanation of our world-wide empire is that, on the ' whole, and making many sad allowances, we have done better and more for the black races than any other nation. I think it is our treatment of the slave—-the one perfectly virtuous national act in history, as Mr Lecky calls the emancipation movement. —1 believe it is that which God rewards to-day with world-wide' empire. God grant that wo may go ondoing our duty to the black man and so deserving Gad’s confidence. “Yon’s Young.” About six years ago 1 was listening to a young man about twenty-two who was violently preaching atheism. An old North-countryman standing next me —l did not krjow the man—nudged mo with his elbow and said: “Eh, yon’s young. Lot him marry a good woman and bring up four children, and he’ll know whether there is a God or not.” Miracles cf To-day. I was talking some time ago to a' relative of my own, a man who never willingly spoke of religion, though lie was a deeply religious man. He was eighty-four. He said to me: “All my life I have been delicate. All my life I have been poor. All my life I have had to work hard. Often I have looked ahead and not known how I was to provide for my wife and family during the next six months. Looking hack I can see how at every corner, at every turning, God has met me with a miracle.” TABLOIDS. Let ns never forgot that an act of goodness is of itself always an act of happiness. There is hut one tiling that can never turn into suffering, and that is the good wo have done. No man can have fallen so low but

he still has a retreat in his soul, where lie shall ever find a few drops ol pure water, and be girt up anew with the strength that he needs to go on with Ids life. Talk not of a good life, hut let toy life speak. Take ton looks at Christ for every mne at self.