Newspaper Page Text
FRIDAY, JULY 21, 1933
CITIES OF REFUGE, SUBJECT OF
SERMON BY REV. M. R. HEFLIN
At the reecnt Union Service, Rev.
Marvin Heflin preached on “Cities
of Refuge.” He suggested way3 to
escape Self.
Text: “Speak to the children of
Israel, saying, appoint you Cities of
Refuge,” Joshua xx: 2.
He said in part:
The ancient Jews were the happy
possessors of Cities of Refuge. The
murderer who had slain his fellow
man unawares, that is, unwittingly,
and who in our superior civilization
would at least be found guilty of
manslaughter and punished accord
ingly, could flee to any one of these
several cities, six in all, and be free
from the assaults of justice and the
anger of the avenging kin. It was
a piece of the divine legislation in
keeping with the wisdom of the theo-
cratic government of the chosen
people. A wholesome and merciful
allowance was made for the unpre
meditated weakness of men. He is a
wise man who has knowledge of his
own powers, but he is a wiser man
who is imbued with an accurate con
sciousness of his own limitations;
for the one person against whom we,
all of of us have to be on our ever
lasting guard is self.
In keeping then with the Israel
ites of olden time who made definite
provision for their short comings, 1 I
have my own cities of refuge, my
own Kedesh and Shechem and He
bron and Bezer and Ramoth and
Golan which I flee to escape my un
placable enemy—myself. For myself
is an enemy to me; indeed it is, and
in this respect I speak for all. My
perpetuated warfare has ever been
with this same myself.
My six cities of refuge are as fol
lows, and I hand them on with quali
fications of temperament and expe
rience to those of you who are in
tent upon the subjugation of the
forces within personality rather than
without. The first and I think the
foremost city of refuge is WORK. I
VOICE VISITS BY
TELEPHONE -
GAINING FAVOR
R. R. Thomas
MANAGER
Southern Bell
Telephone and Telegraph Cos.
L
Families are fast discovering that
the least expensive and most con
venient way to visit with out-of
town relatives and friends is by
telephone. It is just like being
there in person.
Many people say JUI
they find a tele- ==£j_JjgK|
phone visit once or iEßAs’f/ujLV
twice a month
keeps family ties
alive and warm.
For example, an elderly couple
living in Alabama have a married
daughter in Nashville, another in
Atlanta and a son in New Orleans.
It is arranged for the son to call
back home the first Sunday of each
month, one daughter on the second
Sunday and the other on the third.
It is surprising how little these
voice visits cost. By using night
atation-to-station service you can
talk 150 miles for about 50c.
If you have sons or daughter*
living in other cities try this plan.
The operator will tell you the rate
to any place. *
Farmers say that long distance
service is a blessing for them, too.
They use it to sell their produce.
Recently a farmer said a single tel
ephone call made him many times
the cost of his telephone service.
J __ Merchants say that
’ telephone's I the servlce enables
message I them to make prof-
I {table trades that
I would be lost if
1 they had to rely on
slower methods.
wm Probably nowhere
Is telephone service more appreci
ated and valued than in rural sec
tions. It Is depended on for so
many things and costs so little in
comparison to the advantages it
affords.
Would you like to know how the
telephone was invented—how the
Bell System was organized how;
and why it has grown to a world
wide system, and many other inter
esting things? Write or call the
telephone office for the 26-page
Illustrated book. The Telephone’*
Message. It will be mailed Inm. -
work now because I like it. Now, I
work because I respect myself at
work and am at rest with the finite
without me, and the infinite within
me. I find that when I am at work
I am Dr. Jekyll and in idleness I
would be fearful of degenerating in
to Mr. Hyde. Work is the salvation
of my soul, not in an evangelical
sense, but at any rate in common
sense, for it saves me from myself,
the horror that comes to men’s busi
ness and bosoms, when in fact things
go wrong and the world seems im
pregnated with the impish and sel
fish desire to strangle the happiness
of life; what a joy to hie ourselves
to the City of Work, to pass the
time honored portals and find our
way along the streets which in the
noise of their traffic deaden the
sounds that have thronged discord
antly upon our world-wearied ears,
and to enter the hives of industry
where in occupation, absorbing oc
cupation, we may -find the solace of
heartache and the anesthesia of care.
The second city of refuge, and it
is geographically situated hard by
the first, is the City of ORDER. Or
der is the prerequisite of successful
work; that if we do not compel our
selves to system we get little accom
plished, and that little unsatisfac
torily. Archbishop Benson of Canter
bury was an ecclesiastical genius,
and yet in his biography written by
his son, who had good cause to
know the truth, he slept only five
hours out of every twenty-four and
spent the other nineteen in the mul
tifarious duties of his high calling.
So with all the great men of art and
letters and of professional or com
mercial renown, regularity of appli
cation has ever been the rule and
not the exception. By system we not
only accomplish much more, but we
achieve a peculiar poise and a bliss
ful contentment with self. An order
ed day is like a swept and tidied
room; an unordered day is like a
cluttered desk. The Shechem of Ha
bit; Ah! that is a city which if one
has ever visited he will be loath
to leave. The pilgrim to this mecca
of peace will forget his nomadic ten
dencies, apply for citizenship and be
content to spend his life within its
protective walls.
The third city of refuge is FAM
ILY. Men need a wife and children
as a locomotive needs an engineer
to prevent a wreck as well as to make
i'; go. This is the inner city in a
man’s life, the secret city such as
exists in China and such as was to
be found in ancient urban civiliza
tions dissipated in the centuries.
Here is the City which stands senti
nel in the center of the outlying
circle of all the cities of refuge—the
Hebron of the heart —and into
which a man may shut himself unpur
sued by the hosts of the market
place. The City of Home! Such is
Hebron in the Hill of Judah; fairer
and more secure than all the cities
of the plain.
The fourth city of refuge is FOR
GIVENESS. I am speaking of the
escape from self and self is never
so tyrannical as when its armour
propre is wounded by the aspersions
just or unjust of other people. It is
then that self learns to hate and the
only hope of contentment lies in
flight to the city of Forgiveness, Be
zer beyond the Jordan at Jericho
eastward. For hate, my friends, does
not pay. It is pure waste. It exhausto
our vital forces and gives. us nothing
in return. Why should I let my en
emy rob me of sleep? I shall put
aside all feeling about him, even if
ii takes as much moral effort as a
drunkard needs to refuse his drink.
I shall endeavor to emulate Mr. Lin
coln of whom Emerson says: “His
heart was as large as the world, yet
it had no room in it for the memory
of a wrong.” I shall strive to practice
the common sense axiom of Paul
Morton, who, when asked if he did
not like to get even with anyone who
had done him an injury, replied'
“No, I haven’t time. I am too busy.”
To get rid of hate and its spend
thrift results we must hie ourselve3
THE JACKSON PROGRESS-ARGUS, JACKSON, GEORGIA
Have You Tried
the New
Crown Standard
gasoline
*
• •
Standard Oil Company
INCORPORATED IN KENTUCKY
to the city of Forgiveness, the city
set upon the heights. To bear grud
ges, to harbor bitter animosities, to
wish evil to any man, is to dwell in
the miasmatic .swamps of the low
lands and to roam at large in the
uncircumscribed spaces of Judea,
subjected to all the requirements oi
the law for man. I know of nothing
that so robs the soul of peace and
the life of that equanimity which is
essential to correspondence with op
portunity, as the dwelling upon the
wrongs inflicted upon us, witting or
unwittingly by our fellowmen. It
takes the angel out of us; it dries
the fountain of charity within our
heart and turns the crystal water in
to poison. It deprives the mind even
of the power of concentration, and
is a certain prelude to paucity of
thought and effort. The city of For
giveness, easy of access and nearer
at hand than all the cities of refuge,
is within the reach of the angered
heart and the clouded brain, and wel
comes its pilgrims with the out
stretched arms of Jesus Christ Him
self who said, “Love your enemies;
do good to those who despitefully
use you;’’ and “forgive your bre
thren their debts even as you would
expect God to forgive you your
trespasses.”
The fifth city of refuge is HUMOR.
I say this in all seriousness for T
believe with all my heart in the
religions of humor. Self is prone to
take itself too seriously, to esteem
itself above its just desert and the
cnly effective medicine for recovery,
a bitter physic but most necessary, i~
laughter. The higher moods of the
soul have always a tendency to grow
unhealthy. What an argument or
text of scripture could never reach
has been transfixed by a smile. The
walls of many a spiritual Jericho
folly have tumbled at the sound of
laughter. For the distinguishing qual
ity of humor is its inherent sanity.
People deep in love do not laugh
much because they are quite insane.
The egotist besieged with an over
If you have, you KNOW what this
brand-new type of motor fuel (that
sells at no extra cost ) will do!
If you have NOT, just one tankful
will convince you that it contains
actual, added anti-knock properties
and gives more poiver and smoother
performance.
the modern hydrofined motor oil combines in one
™ w o jj q ua ijti e9 c f both paraffin and naptha
lene base oils. It wiil save you money on your oil bills because it requires
fewer changes, and gives greater lubricating efficiency at low cost.
■jjj Pronounced S-O-Lubc.
weening sense of dignity also is mon
strously solemn for the same reason.
The City of Humor, Ramoth in Gil
ead, the home of the Gaderenes; the
city of fun; where would we be, most
of us, with our long drawn faces and
our grotesque self-importance if wo
never entered its hospitable enclos
ures and permitted ourselves tempo
rary residence at least in its home
of health and merriment.
The last city of refuge, for though
there are many more, I confine myself
to six that our allegory may be com
plete, is the CHURCH. Here, if you
will, is a resort far removed from
the world of men, and in which the
world of self is translated into the
fairest colors and the most likeable
proportions. A city set upon a hill,
eternal in time and lasting in eter
nity; the Golan of Bashan on earth
and the New Jerusalem in the hea
vens. Whatever your sorrows, what
ever your sins, whatever the strug
gles within or the manifold wrest
lings without, this is none other than
the metropolis of the soul, and the
capitol of the heart of man.
Why should we flee to this city
of refuge? Here is one reason, and
not the deepest or the most spiritual.
Because it is the oldest city upon the
face of the earth. Under one name
or another it has always existed. In
the Church as she is today we claim
membership with the institution
whose “altar fires Moses builded in
the wilderness, whose services were
held in the catacombs of Rome in
the reign of Nero, whose lofty cathe
drals grace Milan and Cologne, and
whose weekly gatherings still take
place in every hamlet and city of the
civilized world.” I am drawn as with
the cords of a magnet to this anti
quity, to this connected triumph over
time, and I feel with pride that I am
a citizen of no mean city. So for this
reason and for many others I de
plore the present smallness of the
population of Golan and advocate a
wholesale pilgrimage to her numer
ous shrines. Kedesh, Shechem, He
This company has never made ex
aggerated claims for its products.
We prefer to let the quality of our
products speak for itself. Fill up
with this new orange-colored
Crown Standard Gasoline at any
Standard Oil dealer’s or at our ser
vice stations, and then you be the
judge!
bron, Bezer, Ramoth, Golan —and
the greatest of these is Golan, the
City of God.
STARK
Mr. and Mrs. Hollis Holloway and
children are spending a week with
relatives in Jasper county.
Mr. and Mrs. Fielder Jones, of
Macon, visited Mr. and Mrs. Van
Jones Sunday.
Mr. Matt Holifield, of Macon, is
spending a few days with his brother,
Mr. J. H. Holifield.
Mr. J. C. Bartlett and Miss Marion
Bartlett were visitors Sunday of Mr.
and Mrs. Jack Marks, near Monti
eello.
1 BARGAIN ROUND
TRIP TICKETS
ONE CENT PER MILE
K|D For Each Mile Traveled
tt AUGUST 4 and 5
ML’! Round Trip Fares
it FROM JACKSON
NEW YORK $21.85 CHIGAGO $20.80
DETROIT $20.75 PHILADELPHIA $18.60
ATLANTIC CITY $20.70 CLEVELAND $20.60
KANSAS CITY $24.05 BALTIMORE $15.15
Proportionate fares to other points
Buy Railway and Pullman tickets in advance.
Reduced fare tickets must be purchased before boarding
trains.
E. E. Barry, Asst Gen. Pass. AgL, Atlanta, Ga.
Southern Railway System
Little Miss Dorothy Gresham, of
Atlanta, is visiting her aunt, Mrs.
John Cook.
Miss Margaret Pace, of Cedar
Rock, was the week-end guest of her
aunt, Mrs. W. L. White.
Mrs. Van Jones entertained thy
G. A.’s at her home on Saturday af
ternoon, An interesting program on
“Africa" was rendered, after which
ar. African Jungle game and a Bible
contest were enjoyed, the prize being
won by Miss Sara Hodges. A social
half hour followed in which a de
licious sweet course with an iced
drink was served.
Don’t forget the singing at B. Y.
P. U. Services next Sunday night at
8 o’clock.