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DR. ELAM F. DEMPSEY, OF MILLEDGEVILLE, GA., FILLS DR. L. G. BROUGHTON’S “APPOINTMENT” WHILE OUR PULPIT
EDITOR IS ON THE OCEAN.
fw
HILE Dr. Len G. Broughton is en route
to England, we have the pleasure of
having his “preaching appointment” in
JL tie Golden Age filled by our popular
correspondent, Rev. Elam Franklin Dempsey,
pastor of the First Methodist church. Milledge
ville, Ga.
In preaching the last of a series of sermons
on “Epoch-Making Choices,” Mr. Dempsey
took for his subject “The Choice of a Home.”
His sermon in substance was as follows :
Text: “Then Lot chose him a’.l the plain
of Jordan; Abraham dwelt in the land of Ca
naan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain,
and pitched his tent toward Sodom.” Gen.
13:11-12.
When we have chosen our life companion,
then we begin to taste the delights of home.
For, “home is where the heart is,” and “though
a man may build a house, it takes a woman
to make a home.” Very important is a wise
choice of a home. It is important in l|he
light of the comforts or discomforts; the bliss
or woe; the happiness or misery; the health
or sickness; the holy or unholy influences,
which are involved in a right or wrong, a wise
or unwise choice. Well may we, then, pause
when making this choice and “take it to the
Lord in prayer.”
(I.) Because it is true that “there is no
place like home," therefore we should spend
most careful thought on placing our homes.
1. Its geographical location is important. On
this point, someone has said, “High ground is
much better than low; because all miasmas set
tle into hollows. Hence, remove them as far as
possible from marshes, the more so since they
breed that great home-pest mosquitoes.”
The southern side of rivers and low grounds,
and, of course, their west and southwest sides
are better than their northeast sides; because
hot weather generates both malaria, and also
southwest winds, which therefore sweep this
malaria from your houses.
Barns, drains and out-buildings, for a like
reason, should always be to the northeast of all
houses; never to their southwest. Northwest
will do.
These and similar matters should have most
conscientious attention because they relate to
health, which is the natural condition of com
fort, pleasure, usefulness. 11l health that can
be avoided is a sin.
The social location is far more important. Get
where churches and schools are near and good.
Get into a community that is progressive, moral
and refined. Beyond all, seek a religious com
munity, because religion will secure all the
above.
Make Abraham’s choice rather than Lot’s.
Canaan is a better place for your home than
Sodom. When you let mere business, social,
earthly, or worldly reasons determine the lo
cating of your home, you are “pitching your
tent toward Sodom.” Beware of Lot’s mis
take and escape his wretched destiny—lost
family, lost wealth, lost reputation, lost char
acter. Let him for whom this is meant, heed
it!
(IL) What now shall be the character of
this home, which has been so carefully placed?
When this question is to be answered, your
life companion—husband or wife—wdl have
much to do with what it is. Alas, for you then
if you have chosen one who is light, trivial,
The Gol&en Age for March 27, 1913
CHOOSING A HOME
vain, worldly, selfish, and of low ideals! What
a woe have you brought upon yourself by
your guilty folly in this matter. Repent of
your sin, cry to God for help, and He who is
love and who has all power, will help you to
cure as far as possible this wound in your life,
and, where you cannot cure, to endure and re
deem the rest. Look to Him in faith. Never
despair. Some of earth’s bravest spirits are
these heroes and heroines of unhappy homes.
But I hope your home shall be one in which
is reared an altar to God, in which prayer as
cends to Him, in which are embodied the prin
ciples of the Christian religion, and in which
Christ is the abiding guest. Thus you shall be
the happy possessor of two heavens —a heaven
here in your home and a heaven beyond for
your home.
(III.) Sometimes I have, in imagination,
seen the angels build a Christian home.
I saw them clear away all debris of deceit, of
evil, of filthy desire and motive, and all merely
surface things until they came to the living
rock of truth —Christ the Truth. And I thought
it shone like crystal. And they brought the
first tier of the foundation.
I saw them lay there a massive and beauti
ful stone and that was the husband’s and
father’s love for God. Another they brought
ai'd that was the wife’s and mother’s love for
God. And still another and that was the chil
dien’s Love for God. Last they brought a
great p ain strong stone and finished the first
tier of the foundation in the servant’s love
for God. The love for God is the first founda
tion of the Christian home.
Then I saw them build the second tier, and
they brought first a massy stone and heaved
it into place. That was the love of husband
for wife. Rapidly then they builded it of the
love of wife for husband, of children, for par
ents, of servant for master, and of master for
servant, until they finished it with one most
exquisite stone, “polished after the similitude
of a palace,” and that was mother’s love for
children —a love of all loves most like God’s
own !
Upon this they reared the third tier of this
wonderful foundation; and this was the love
of the home for the whole race—they loved
the’r neighbors as themselves.
Then, before my eyes, it grew into gracious
completeness, stately in its fair proportions,
springing from the solid earth and seeming to
mwqrle already with the very heavens.
From its doors and windows issued the songs
of Uve, the songs of Zion, the prattle of happy
childhood, the innocent laughter and pure gay
ety of youth, the me'low notes of noble ma
turity, and mingled with these brighter tones,
the minor chords of consecrated sorrow. For
.neither the angels nor God can build a home
into which sorrow may not come. But it is con
secrated sorrow which divine love has changed
into a ministering spirit.
And I thought as I looked I could see writ
ten over its door, “This is the very gate of
Heaven!”
Contrast with this radiant home the black
thing the evil spirits builded. These was no
clearing away ,of debris. It was placed care
lessly upon the surface things, unholy desires
and ungodly expediency. It was founded in
the weakness of woman and in the passion
of man. As it grew in bulk, its ghastly pro-
portions struck a chill to the heart. Sounds
that issued from it were of pandemonuim.
Riba.d laughter, obscene jest, voice of anguish
and fierce hate, and awful profanity. Well
might we read over its black and growning
front, “This is the gate of Hell!”
(IV.) Which, 0 man—which 0 woman! are
you building? One or the other, each family
is building day by day. If you have not yet
begun to build, 0 soul, which will you choose?
Surely, surely, you will choose God as your
eternal Master; and let the principles of Christ
build you a home in the earth which shall
be a foretaste of that Heaven which, in choos
ing Him, you make your home in His vast
Eternity!
POTEAT’S POWERFUL ADDRESS.
(Continued from page 1.)
the land. Paul tells Timothy that “They who
desire to be rich fall into a temptation and a
snare and many foolish and hurtful lusts, such
as drown men in perdition and destruction.”
And he tells him “The love of money is the
root of all kinds of evil.”
These several statements brought thus to
gether indicate the importance of the theme.
The rapid and enormous increase of wealth in
cur day makes it imperative that teachers and
preachers and publicists everywhere unite in
the study of the subject and in instructing the
people about it.
What Constitutes Wealth?
Let me offer a few reflections on these three
points; viz.: The factors in the production
of wealth; the perils of wealth; the right uses
of wealth.
First. There are three factors in the pro
duction of wealth, and but three: God, society
and the individual Every private fortune—
large or small—has these three contributors.
God’s contribution embraces all the treasures
and resources of the earth, air. wind, rain, the
laws of nature, all the special capacities of
the individual, together with his health, and
the general providence of his life.
Second. Society’s contribution may be indi
cated if we imagine, say, Mr. Carnegie alone
on a desert island, with a'l his millions; how
much would they be worth to him? A meal
of succulent roots would be worth more to him
than five hundred millions of United States
steel preferred stock. John Jacob Astor, walk
ing the deck of the proud Titanic, was worth
a hundred million dollars—because there was
somebody there who wanted what he had;
but an hour later John Jacob Astor, standing
with Wm. T. Stead knee deep in ice water as
the Titanic went down, was not worth a far
thing. That is to say, wealth is wealth only
through exchange. You want what I have and
I want what you have, and we effect an ex
change to our mutual advantage. But not
only so. Observe how large a proportion of
private wealth has been produced by the
growth of community life. A man buys a
piece of land and holds his hands for twelve
months, and sells the land for one hundred
per cent profit. Did he make the money? How
could he—holding his hands? No! Society
made that money; and that is to say that so
ciety not only presents the opportunity of
exchange, but a so increases the value of all
kinds of property. To put it definitely, society
(Continued on page 7.)