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2
Text: — “Fear not them which kill the body, but
are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear him
which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.’
Matt. 10:28.
OUBTLESS in speaking of cowards
some may think that I am going to speak
of the cowardice of Judas Iscariot, the
man who sold his Lord for a pittance.
But Judas Iscariot is dead and does not
need me to give him advice. Others
may expect me to talk about the cow
ardice of the man who goes out by night
and takes the life of a fellow man. But
D
I am not going to talk about that kind of coward;
neither of the one who runs in the other direction
when he hears the bugle call of his country calling
him to action at the front.
The coward that I want to speak of is the one
who knows the rig'ht, and has not moral courage
enough to do it. There are always only two sides
to every question, a right side and a wrong side;
God on the one hand and Satan on the other; and
the man who does not always stand for the right
no matter how much it may cost him, the man who
had rather do a little wrong so as to smooth things
over, or to make things easier for himself, is a moral
coward. If I were to come to you and tell you that
you were a coward you would like to knock me
down, and yet how many of us have not done cow
ardly things'?
DIFFICULTIES.
First, there is the coward who stops to count the
difficulties in his way, and as he looks at them they
magnify, and the longer he hesitates, the Trigger they
get. If the devil can get a man to moaning and
groaning over his difficulties he laughs in his sleeve.
Every man must have hs dfficultes, and the man wll
use them as stepping stones; the coward will crouch
and whine and decide that the world is against him
and he can do nothing. We are not to go to heaven
on “flowery beds of ease”; we would not be worth
our salt if we did, for there would be nothing to de
velop us; there would be nothing to put us on our
mettle and make us do our best. A young pastor
came to me and said, “I have so many difficulties
in my work; how can I overcome them?” I said,
“I do not know of any way, except to just overcome
them.” We are too fond of talking about turning
our difficulties over to the Lord and then sitting
down; instead of realizing that He must overcome
them through us. The Lord will never overcome
your difficulties except through you.
I was taking to an unconverted person, who said,
“Oh, I know I ought to be a Christian, but there
are so many difficulties about the Bible; so many
things I oan not understand.” I said, “It is possi
ble that you are nursing those difficulties instead of
trying to overcome them. If you are going to eat
fish you do not try to eat the bones first, but you
eat the meat off and then you find out what the bones
are for. You don’t get to the bone before you eat
the meat.” Many people in reading their Bibles
are always running up against bones and trying to
dispose of them before they get the part that is
meant for them as a beginner. If you digest the
meat of the word you will find no trouble when you
come to the bone. Don’t make the Word of God one
of your difficulties, for it is the one thing if properly
used to help you over all other difficulties.
I remember one day meeting a man on the street
who was “down on his luck.” He had come to a
difficulty, had become discouraged, and stopped try
ing. A sicker looking man I never saw. He was
moping along with a dirty face and soiled linen and
his coat had not been brushed for a month. I said,
“Why, what in the world is the matter with you?”
He said, “Oh, hard luck! hard luck! Looks like
the whole world is down on me. I haven’t struck a
lick of work for a month, and I don’t see any use
in trying any more.”
I said, “Haven’t you got any water at your house
to wash your face with? Couldn’t you possibly get
THE 'REAL COWARD
Tabernacle Sermon by Reb. Len G. "Broughton, "D. "D.
SMnocnphicallr reported for The Golden Age. —Copyright applied for
The Golden Age for April 1, 1909.
a clean collar? Don’t you suppose you could brush
the dust off your coat?”
“Oh,” he said, “don’t make fun of me. I am so
miserable.”
I said, “My friend, I want to give you some
friendly advice. You think the world owes you
something, and it does, but you are not going to get
it until you are worth it. You go home and wash
your face and shave yourself; brush your coat, or
put on a better one if you have it, and black your
shoes. Then you go out and look for work and peo
ple will think you are worth having.”
He didn’t like it a bit at first, but I left him, and
he went towards home. The closer to home he got
the better he liked my advice, so he went in and
fixed himself up to look as well as possible, and then
started down town. He was a contractor, and when
he got down town he met a man who wanted some
building done. They got into a conversation to
gether, and my friend looked so prosperous and
talked so bright that it was no time until he had
signed up to do fifty thousand dollars worth of work.
No man will overcome difficulties in any depart
ment of life if he begins to whine and back down
every time he sees something that does not look so
easy.
TEMPTATIONS.
Let us see again how the spirit of cowardice acts
in men, causing them to exaggerate their tempta
tions. A man said to me, “Doctor Broughton, I
have such an unusual temptation, such a hard temp
tation; I just know that no man in the world ever
had such a thing as that.” I asked him what it
was, and then said, “Why, man, I know hundreds of
men that have had that same thing to contend with;
I know hundreds of men who have met it bravely
and conquered it.” And yet the devil had so ex
aggerated that thing in that man’s eyes, that he was
fairly mastered by it, thinking that he did not have
the strength to overcome it. The devil makes many
a man lose out because he is so strongly tempted; he
persuades them that they can never amount to any
thing because of those temptations. But the very
fact that you are tempted is the best reason fro you
to know that you are worth something. His satanic
majesty wouldn’t be taking so much trouble to make
you fall if you didn’t amount to anything. Suppose
Daniel, when he was so sorely tempted in the king’s
palace, had decided that it was no use for him to try
to be temperate and sober when they were forever
trying to make him drink wine and eat things his
conscience forbade him? Do you think the Lord
could have used him as He did? No, no matter how
insidious the temptation that came to Daniel, he
overcame it, and he has been used to bless the world
for thousands of years.
Again, I believe if there ever was a crowd of cow
ards, they are found in the church. Why are Chris
tians not brave enough to do what they know is
right? Why do we drag our Lord’s banner in the
dust so often ? It is cowardice; nothing more. Dr.
Dixon was once riding in a train when a Jew came
in and sat down beside him. They engaged in con
versation, and finally he said to the Jew: “I wish
you would tell me what you think of Christ?”
The Jew said, “I do not hesitate to say what I
think. I have the greatest reverence for your
Christ, but I have the greatest contempt for Chris
tianity as I see it. I could never be a Christian, for
you profess one thing and act another.”
How sorrowful it must make our Master when He
sees the contempt with which the world views His
Church; and yet in many instances the world is war
ranted in its opinion. Why? Cowardice. Where is
the church that will take its stand on any moral
issue? Where is the church that will take a definite
stand against the club room and its whiskey? Why
does not the church take its stand against the round
dance? The world knows why. Words can not ex
press the contempt that I feel for the institution,
church or otherwise, that has convictions, but has
not the moral stamina to support them.
THE COURAGE OF CONVICTION.
Then there is the difficulty of other people’s opin
ion. Many people would lose their souls rather than
do something which might give somebody an excuse
to laugh at them. You have heard the story of Mc-
how he had an old farmer friend whom he
had known for years. When McKinley was to be
inaugurated, he sent for this old friend to come, but
he was too timid to accept the invitation. However
when McKinley was elected the second time he
again wrote his old friend, enclosing him a railroad
ticket. This time the old man decided he would go.
He went to Washington and when Mr. McKinley
heard that he was in town, he sent his carriage over
after him, brought him to his home and made him
stay as his guest during the time he was in Wash
ington, treating him as he would any great jpoten
tate. There was a man who was not afraid of what
other people might think. There is a man who
stood for his convictions. There is a man who over
came all obstacles. When he was nineteen years of
age he was in a meeting one night, and a plea was
made to the unconverted. Many young men stand
back at such a time, because they are afraid of be
ing laughed at; but this young man stepped out
into the aisle, walked down to the front, saying, “I
want to join the church tonight. I am going to
stand for Christ.” And he did stand for Christ,
and it was Christ who gave him the courage to over
come all the obstacles that were in his path. And it
is Christ who will make men and women out of us
all if His grace is appropriated. We may talk about
overcoming difficulties, and we may name all the
difficulties in the catalog; but I want to tell you
where the power comes from that overcomes all diffi
culties. Christ is the source of all power; the source
of all strength; the Christian is the man who has
the right to overcome, for “I can do all things
through Christ that strengthens h me,” and I ask
you now, my friend, that you accept the One who
spent His life in overcoming difficulties; who is
touched with a feeling of our infirmities, because
He has been one of us.
Why So Importunate ?
Why so importunate,
•Soul that is mine?
Heaven is still above;
God is divine!
He who is led by the
Angel of Duty
Sometimes attains to the
City of Beauty!
Why so importunate,
iSoul that is mine?
Still roll the seasons round,
Still the stars shine;
All that we long to be —
All that we crave —
Time shall not cheat us of,
Nor yet the grave!
Why so importunate,
iSoul that is mine?
Thine is the part to do —
God’s to design!
What tho’ the way is steep,
Sterile and thorny,
Prayer shall thy spirit cheer
All thro’ thy journey.
Why so importunate,
iSoul that is mine?
Future ne’er yielded yet
To lead and line;
Who would rest, one day,
In God’s abode,
He must arrive thereat
Over God’s road!
ARTHUR GOODENOUGH.
