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HINTS I'RON HISTORY: L,ttk^A Tor
By A, H, 'Ellett.
The Faith of Great Men in Their Work.
HE faith of great men in their work is
known to us by the work of great men
in their faith. There has been no man
with a great faith who did not do a
great work. There are no “Mute, in
glorious Miltons.” The faith of great
men in their work is a rainbow—a glo
rious arch of truth, and the colors of
the spectrum are these:
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1. It was Healthy and Sane.
Paul’s definition of faith is: “The substance of
things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
Good; but the man of great faith has always ap
propriated what he actually had while he journeyed
toward the “things hoped for.” He has not failed
to lay hold upon the visible while he climbed to
ward the heights upon which dwelt the invisible.
The faith of great men has always been of a kind
that “kept the powder dry.” There is such a thing
as a sick faith. The faith of great men was healthy
and sane.
2. It was Steadfast and Brave.
Climbing the Scala Santa at Rome, Luther heard
a voice which said, “The just shall live by faith.”
He stood up and began the living of a new life.
When his friends begged him not to endanger his
life by answering the summons of the Emperor he
said: “I’d go if devils were on the housetops as
thick as the tiles.” He had entered on his work.
When the influence of it is ended the kingdoms of
this world shall be the kingdoms of our Lord and
his Christ.
Cromwell’s plowmen and carpenters met and
routed the veteran troops of England, by the bravery
of their faith. Every martyr that died came to
the stake with the steadfastness and bravery of a
great faith.
11 Happy he whose inward ear
Angel eomfortings can hear
O’er the rabble’s laughter;
And while hatred’s fagots burn
Glimpses through, the smoke discern
Os the good hereafter.
Sow the waste with dreams of grain
And on midnight’s sky of rain
Paint the golden morrow.”
3. It was Contagious.
The faith of great men in their work has always
been contagious. The world comes to have faith in
the man who has faith in his work. The Jews, at
the time, did not fully partake of the faith of
Moses and Joshua, but faith in Moses and Joshua
and in the works of their faith has held the Jewish
people together for 3,000 years, has defied the armies
of earth, and the lines of latitude, and the ceaseless
dash of the billows of doctrines and .of creeds.
America is strong for her faith in the faith of Wash
ington. English empire around the globe is illum
ined bv the faith that burned in the dauntless heart
of Gladstone.
4. It Stayed at Home
All faith looks to the future, but it works in the
present. All faith looks beyond the dip of the ut
most horizon, but it works here. So the faith that
great men had stayed at home. Rome sent many
adventurers to distant lands. Her legions fought
under many skies; but the men who made Rome
worth seeing were the men who stayed there. The
blood of Henry Grady glows in the cheek of every
peach that ripens for market on the worn hillsides
of Georgia. Every watermelon that boards the
train for other states rides as a witness of the faith
of that same lovable man. Grady sa^ 7 that the soil
was gone from the old, red hills, so he begged
his people to fertilize them with faith and plant
their seeds. They did. Did not hunt for better soil
in distant states. Stayed at home.
5. It Worked on Credit.
The faith of great men worked on credit. Jud
son’s faith worked laboriously and suffered terribly
The Golden Age for October 10, 1907.
for seven years before a single soul was given for
his hire. Abraham had been dead for 1,900 years
when Paul said he had not received the promise.
A small man wants his pay at the end of each
day’s work. The faith of great men worked on
credit.
6. It Worked in the Dark.
Cyrus W. Field for nine years toiling under the
waves of the jealous sea, working in the dark. Paul
exclaims, “I am persuaded that neither life nor
death can separate me from Christ,” but even with
this assurance the same great Apostle “looked
through a glass darkly,” and worked toward the
light.
7. It Worked Forward.
A great diary is that of Columbus, in which day
after day this entry was made:
“This day we sailed westward, which was our
course.”
Behind him lay the gray Azores
Behind, the gates of Hercules;
Before him not the ghost of shores,
Before him only shoreless seas.
The good mate said, “Now must we pray
For 10, the very stars are gone!
Brave Adm’r’l, speak, what shall I
“Why, say, sail on, sailor, and on.”
Faith that finds new worlds works forward. The
faith that great men had did not waste time in
vain regrets for yesterdays. It did nqt grow infirm
of purpose entertaining fears for tomorow. It
worked forward today. It stood firmly on the
earth and looked to the stars.
Through the years it has furnished food for the
faint, light to the lingering and a bugle call of vic
tory for all.
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Among the Workers,
Southern Methodists have launched their Lay
man’s movement in a great conference held recently
at Knoxville, Tenn.
One hundred and fifty thousand dollars must be
had for Baptist State missions in Texas by Novem
ber 1. It will probably be raised. ‘ 1 They do things
in Texas.” • , ,
A man who is satisfied with a rushlight when he
can illumine his home with gas or electricity is not
usually accounted very wise or very progressive.
How much wiser or more progressive is he who is
content with the rushlight of reason when the very
Sun of revelation is shining for his illumination?
The Light of the world has come, yet still, as of
old, men love darkness rather than light.—Exam
iner. .
The N. Y. Examiner says:
“The Lord Bishop of London, now on a visit to
this country, said in a sermon at Trinity church
last Thursday that ‘life is a stewardship, not an
ownership.’ Bishop Charles A. Cook, of Bloomfield,
has been saying the same thing for several years
past, but now that a Lord Bishop has said it, per
haps we Baptists may give it more earnest heed.
It is the truth, whoever says it, and the quicker we
accept and act upon it the better for our souls and
for the world at large.”
A letter from Japan in the Purity Journal has this
sensible statement:
“Some people think that all we have to do is to
tell the brethren of Jesus and they will believe, but
this is all a mistake, for while these people are
hungry for salvation and they are seeking Jesus, I
say they are seeking Him because they are seeking
peace and something that will satisfy the heart
and He is the only source of satisfaction, yet we
have to prove to them that He is the true God and
that He can and does give peace, and not only do
we have to prove it by His word but by our lives.
I believe that the best way to reach these people is
to let them see Him manifested in our lives. And
this is our mission here.”
The ‘Burial of /loses,
Sy Cecil Frances Alexander,
By Nebo’s lonely mountain,
On this side Jordan’s wave,
In a vale in the land of Moab,
There lies a lonely grave;
But no man built that sepulchre,
And no man saw it e’er;
For the angels of God upturned the sod
And laid the dead man there.
That was the grandest funeral
That ever passed on earth ;
Yet no man heard the trampling,
Or saw the train go forth;
Noiselessly as the daylight
Comes when the night is done,
And the crimson streak on ocean’s cheek
Grows into the rising sun;
Noiselessly as the springtime
Her crown of verdure weaves
And all the trees on all the hills
Unfold their thousand leaves;
So without sound of music
Or voice of them that wept,
Silently down from the mountain’s crown
The great precession swept.
Perchance the bald old eagle
On gray Beth-peor’s height,
Out of his rocky eyrie '
Looked on that wondrous sight;
Perchance the lion stalking
Still shuns that hallowed spot;
For beast and bird have have seen and heard
That which man knoweth not.
But when the warrior dieth
His comrades of the war,
With arms reversed and muffled drum,
Follow the funeral car;
They show the banners taken;
They tell his battles won;
And after him lead his matchless steed,
While peals the minute gun.
Amid the noblest of the land
Men lay the sage to rest,
And give the bard , an honored place
With costly marble drest,
In the greater minster transept
Where lights like glories fall,
And the sweet choir sings and the organ rings
Along the emblazoned hall.
This was the bravest warrior
That ever buckled sword;
This the most gifted poet
That ever breathed a word;
And never earth’s philosopher
Traced with his golden pen
On deathless page truths half so sage
As he wrote down for men.
And had he not high honor?
The hillside for a pall!
To lie in state while angels wait
With stars for tapers tall!
And the dark rock-pines, like tossing plumes
Over his bier to wave
And God’s own hand, in that Itnely land
To lay him in his grave!
Tn that strange grave without a name,
Whence his uncoffined clay
Shall break again—Oh, wondrous thought—
Before the judgment day,
And stand with glory wrapped around,
On the hills we never trod,
And speak of the strife that won our life
With the incarnate Son of God.
Oh, lonely tomb in Moab’s land!
Oh, dark Beth-peor’s hill!
Speak to these curious hearts of ours,
And teach them to be still;
God hath His mysteries of grace,
Ways that we can not tell,
He hides them deep, like the secret sleep
Os him He loved so well.
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