942 



Now, after this somewhat lengthy intro- 

 duction, listen to the good brother while he 

 tells you about some people who were too 

 busy to attend church on Sunday, or per- 

 haps " did not feel like going." By the 

 way, my experience is that the time when 

 I do not feel like going to church or prayer- 

 meeting is the very time when it is most 

 important — perhaps I should say most 

 vitally important — that I should go. 



Here is the sermon, friends. I wonder 

 if you can afford to say amen as you read 

 it; and it would gladden my heart if you 

 would put the amen on a postal card and 

 sign your name to it. You can send a 

 postal card also to the good pastor if you 

 like. 



SERMON PREACHED AT MEDINA, O., JULY 16, 1916, 



BY REV. C. L. PARKER, OF THE KINSMAN-UNION 



CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, CLEVELAND. 



" THE JOY OP THE CHRISTIAN." 



Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation. — Psalm 

 51:12. 



This is the first time I have ever been in this 

 churrh, and yet I have known it for the past twen- 

 ty-fivp years as a church that has been talking ob- 

 scure and unknown young men for its ministers, 

 and in a few years turning them out as men of 

 national reputation and influence. 



I have been helped and encouraged thru all these 

 years of my ministry by a recital of your kindness 

 and helpfulness to one young man, a former pastor, 

 who here grew to be a man able to take a position 

 of national service and influence. 



I do not come to you with a message as helpful 

 in return as you have been to me ; but I am sure 

 I can, in good Methodist fashion, relate an experi- 

 ence. Sometimes it does not take a great deal of 

 brilliance to do that; and yet sometimes it may do 

 a great deal of good. 



Last week it was my privilege to spend the week 

 end on a visit to an uncle, aunt, and cousin who 

 live in a small town noted thru the past hundred 

 j'ears for its churches and religious life. On Sunday 

 morning I began to inquire as to the probability of 

 our going to church. My uncle said he was slightly 

 deaf, and usually went to sleep in service, and so 

 felt ashamed to go. My aunt and cousin said that 

 they had been so busy thru the spring season that 

 they had not had time to supply and provide them- 

 selves with suitable clothes to wear to church. 



So I asked to be excused, and went to church 

 alone. T decided to go with my eyes open, not as a 

 critic, but to learn what I might of conditions in 

 that town. This is what I saw: The nearest neigh- 

 bor of my uncle's was hoeing in his garden; the 

 next one was hauling hay; the third one was shak- 

 ing out some hay that had evidently just been mowoi 

 that morning. A little further on was a banker 

 who had recently purchased a chicken-farm. He 

 was working with his chickens when I went and 

 when I returned. A little further on was another 

 farmer picking cherries. At church there were 

 twenty men and forty-two women. 



The sermon was a very good one, but might have 

 been preached at any time in the Christian era as 

 well as on that particular occasion. Evidently in 

 the preparation, purpose, or delivery of it, the 

 preacher had no thought of the conditions which I 

 had observed along the way to church. 



But the text was a good one. It was a prayer 

 to live by. I resolved to make it mine thru the 

 week, " Restore unto m© the joy of thy salvation." 



Now, joy is somewhftt comparative. We rejoice 

 sometimes in severe trlsl?! thft^^lvlng God that our 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



lot is no worse. So I set out to find whether my 

 life as a religious man compared favorably in its 

 happiness with those whom I saw " too busy " to 

 go to church on Sunday. What was the fruit of 

 their lives? Was it superior to the happiness I am 

 finding in the " joy of my salvation " ? 



T began to inquire, discovering these facts: The 

 man who was hoeing in the garden lives alone. He 

 had a sister in the same town who " lives alone." 

 They both live that solitary life, for each other's 

 mutual happiness. Another man was having trouble 

 with his wife. A third one had lately failed in 

 business. The banker was having a terrible row 

 with his mother-in-law. It takes something besides 

 a bank and a chicken-farm to make a man happy, 

 particularly if he has a perennial quarrel with his 

 mother-in-law. The other man has a di'unken son. 

 " Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, O Lord." 

 We never had property enough to quarrel over ; but, 

 thank God for a Christian sister to occupy our par- 

 ent's home, so that it continues to be home to us all. 

 Thank God for a wife who, by her Christian for- 

 bearance and self-control, contributes to the " joy 

 of salvation " which she knows very well. 



Thank God for seven sons, no one of whom has 

 ever drank or smoked, who, we feel, are not only 

 saved but safe, because they have Jesus Christ in 

 their hearts. We have neither a " bank " nor a 

 " chicken-farm," but we have a mother-in-law whose 

 heart Christ has touched, and whose presence in our 

 home is a benediction to us all. 



All these are the " joys of salvation." I pray, " O 

 God, make me as glad as I ought to be for thy 

 salvation." But if I am going to pray this prayer 

 I must be willing to do my part in a happy life. 

 How may I live a happy life ? What is my part ? 

 I recalled Alice Freeman Palmer's answer, probably 

 familiar to us all. When challenged by a child of 

 the North End of Boston to tell a company of chil- 

 dren how to be happy, she told them to do three 

 things every day : 1. Learn something good every 

 day; 2. See something beautiful every day; 3. Do 

 some kind act for somebody every day. 



Time fails me to recount all my experience in 

 carj-ying out these rules; but suffice it to say that 

 they were exceedingly helpful. I learned something 

 that will contribute lastingly to my happiness. From 

 Dr. Worcester of " Psychotherapy " fame, I learned 

 that nobody ever gets a roseate view of life between 

 midnight and three o'clock in the morning, so I 

 resolved not to castigate any of my delinquent' 

 church members during those hours when a Chris- 

 tian ought to be asleep. From Dr. Fosdick I learn- 

 ed that Jesus was not only a " man of sorrows," 

 but be was also a most joyous person. The " joy 

 of salvation " is the joy of dwelling with Christ, 

 making him a resident of our homes, a companion 

 in our journeyings. a partaker of all our experiences. 

 But also these things inchided bearing fruit. Four 

 times he speaks of this. Our lives are to find their 

 type in your berry-fields, just now giving their 

 bounty : your cherry-orchards, bearing their lus- 

 cious fruit; your vineyards, fragrant in the autumn 

 with the perfume of their vintage. Paul called 

 Timothy and Titus and Philemon and the slave 

 Onesimus " fruit " which he had from the Lord. 

 So wp have a joy and crown like Paul's by bearing 

 frviit for him. 



But, again, among the things that Jesus spoke 

 unto his disciples for their joy was that they should 

 love and be loved in return. "As the Father hath loved 

 me, so have I loved you ; continue ye in my love." 

 The joy of Jesus' own life was in the fact that over 

 him and round about him, like the very atmosphere 

 lie breathed, broad as the sky above him, was the 

 heavenly Father's boundless love. It is this that 

 Archbishop French meant when he said: 



I say to thee, do thou repeat 



To the first man thou mayest meet. 



In lane, highway, or crowded street. 



