Notes of a Sermon preached by the Rey. A. N. Rowland in the Union Church on the morning of January 30, 1921
"Blessed is the man that endure th temptation, for when he hath been approved he shill receive the crown of fe which the Lord hath promised to them that love Him, James ig 2 (The man who teally succeeds is one who wi s through his temptations, for his reward is not a larger livelihood but a larger life).
We all recognize that the crown that comes by way of: battle is of more worth than the crown that is inherited by birth. That is what we mean by success. But there are two kinds of success in life. One is measured by what a "man achieves, by the amount of the world he is able to get under his hand. The other is measured by what a man endures, by the extent he is able to keep the world out of his heart.
Earzy [peas or Our first idea of suc sis, naturally an external one. We think of it as an advance among circumstances, an improvement of outward conditions. We identify it with the passing of examinations, the winning of credit. We measure it in terms of position, pay or applause. We picture it in career from powder-monkey to admiral, from log cabin to White House. We are fascinated by the rise of the "little Corsican" and the "little Welsh attorney, indeed the people who crown themselves with fame deserve our respect, for they have passed a real test.
But in the experience of most of us there comes a time when the tide turns, flows inward instead of outward, and we perceive that what a man has done with his circumstances is not so important after all as what his circumstances. have done with him. This turn of judgement which we know so well explains the fascination of such a book as "The Mirrors of Downing Street,"' where an effort is made to depict our chief public men as they are known to their God. Whether any man can do such a thing is another question, but the very attempt to do so wins the attention of mankind. Instinctively we learn at length to ask of a suc-coeder, what is the effect of his title on his habits or of applause upon his character? Does he carry his wealth with simplicity, his honours with humility? Does he bear disappointment with sweetness, and face loss with courage? Or have his temptations been too much for him? Does he think more of himself because he has moved to the west of the city? Have his ideals evaporated in pretensions, has his faith fizzled out in profess. ions?
Human verses Business Success.
There is a certain epitaph which reads: "Born a man, he died a grocer." That is no reflexion upon an honest trade, or we should be sorry for ourselves who sold bis-cults, soap and cigarettes in huts of the ¥.M.C.A, The idea applies to any professiow~ "Born a man (let us say), he died a stockbroker." "Born a man, he died a parson." The idea is that a man may so completely throw himself into his business that he is enveloped by it, narrowed and controlled by i His shop front, his dividends, his meetings. as the case may be, engage his entire interest gad imagination, until he canne@ftve outside them, cannot live without them. You can appeal to nothing in him but the grocer. the stockbroker, the parson. Is that success? Fr one point of view it certainly is. Tt is a business success, a speculative snceesy, an ecole ical success. But it cannot be called a human success, And therefore it is a divine failure; if Christ is right, God meant to make us bigger men. There is a higher kind of victory, for. if it is hard to contend with fortune, it is harder still to defend the soul.
"The man who really succeeds is the man who wins through his temptations (to narrowness, littleness, crookedness, hardness), for his reward is, not perhaps a larger velibood, but assuredly a fuller ife."
Nosier ELeMents or ARACTER.
To pass the higher test is to win the nobler reward. Instead of outward success this man wins an inward sovereignty His crown consists of life in its fullness, not what he gets but what he jis. A bigger soul is his reward. If a man stands.the test of cireumstances, whether by affluence or hard times, he comes out in a new and enlarged edition, with more capacity of insight and judgement, of sympathy and serenity, a greater power of rebuke and inspiration. He becomes a royal man.
Carlyle tells of an incident in Paris during the revolution of 1848. A mob was charging down the streets, reckless of authority and bent on mischief, when an elderly man came forward to confront them. The mob would have pressed on, but their leader turned and checked them with these words, "Citizens, it is de la Cure: 60 years of pure life wishes to address you."' That is a matter of common experience crystallized by the French instinct for drama. And it illustrates the text: "Blessed is the man who endure th temptation he shall receive the crown of life."
This is a principle that is not confined to Christianity.It was recognized in Stoicism, and has -parallels in the' best. Roman thought. Christ did not invent the nobler elements of character, but he gave them a chance and a channel and brought into view a master and a goal—consequently it is not philosophers only but average people who by enduring temptation have gained the success of the Barger lite.
Tue Vicrory tuar Stays, And finally it is a quiet looking victory but it lasts. I headed this sermon with a phrase I found on the same spot in Athens where the Apostle Paul once discovered and employed! famous inscription: Just opp " to where he stood on "Mars Hill," on a natural bastion jof the Acropolis, is a temple of diminutive size but beautiful proportions. Yt is dedicated to Niké; Apteros, the Wingless Victory. Now the figure of Victory is very popular in Athenian art, and so tar as T know is always winged, And that is natural, for we think of it flying amid uplifted banners and the trumpets of Fame, carrying its consequence ift and far, But how often the-victory that has come by sudden flight has disappeared as suddenly. Think Suvonarola: think "of Woodrow wilson. Their victory indeed had wings, and went as quickly as it came, Like the patriot who had "vases, roses all the way," until the reverse that brought him to the scaffold in the same city.
Thus T entered. and thus I go!
triumphs. people have - dropped down dead.
"Paid by the world what dost thou owe Me?"'—God might question, now "Tis God shall repay; T am safer 80."
These men were fortunate because they had_won the other kind of victory. For there -are victories not announced, hardly recognized, slow to win, but sure to stay, wingless victories. They do not fly away because they are not like the bubble reputation, woven of exterior things that disappear, but are part of a man's own self, the crowning of his very life.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.