USA > West Virginia > The West Virginia pulpit of the Methodist Episcopal church. Sermons from living ministers. With personal sketches of the authors > Part 26
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III. A THIRD OCCASION FOR MORAL DESPONDENCY MAY ARISE FROM A SEEMING COLDNESS AND DESOLATION IN THE CHURCH.
In the verse preceding our text, David says, "When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me ; for I had gone with the multitude, I went with them to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holiday." Now this was no more. All was mourning in Zion, and desolation in his captivity. This it was that operated on the heart of David, causing him to despair and go mourning.
In no department of Christian activity do we want to stand alone, and from no one thing do we receive so much encouragement as from the consideration that at our right hand and left there are others who are fighting, working, who will undergo danger and con- test the field with us. It sweetens all of our battle- fields if we know we have comrades who will aid us. We love association. We love the sound of the friend- ly voice, and the pressure of the friendly hand, and the communion of the friendly heart. We love sym-
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pathy, and nothing more nerves us to heroic endur- ance-to indefatigable, uncompromising, unwavering Christian activity-than the sympathetic co-operation of others-than to hear the sound of the friendly voice and the familiar tramp of the comrade by our side. You know, every one of you knows the omnipotence of social influence. Tell the warrior who goes forth to battle, that he must face the enemy alone, and he goes reluctantly. But tell him to repair to the mus- ter ground and there he will find a regiment of com- rades, and his patriotic heart is enthused and he goes willingly.
The same course of reasoning holds good with regard to the Church. The Church which was once crowded with an anxious audience is now almost deserted. The Church which once resounded with hallelujahs and praise to God, seems to have well nigh lost its vital godliness. Schisms and dissensions have arisen. The sheep have strayed away from the sheep fold without a shepherd. The once manifestly emotional and deep- ly spiritual service has evolved into a rigid formal service, and the members are all clothed in the stiff robes of Pharaseeism. Oh, how your hearts despond and you think there is no use trying any longer. " Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." This hard path you are traveling may be the safest one for your feet. God works in mysterious ways. He has thousands of ways by which he makes the transactions of this word conducive to the interests of his Church. It may look hard and dark and unfruitful now; but know this, in a future waiting, beyond the reach of present uncertainties, these mysteries will all be explained. The prophetic day whose labor is to demonstrate un- solved problems and whose penetrating scrutiny will remove the impervious incrustations from all myste- ries, will exhibit to you these misty spots of your ex- perience in the luminous light of truth.
And now, in conclusion, let me urge you, never de- spond. As you start out on the boisterous sea of life, navigating a track untraveled by any of your ances- tors, but to be criticised by all your posterity, let me
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urge you to start out with hearts sustained, ennobled, strengthened, secured, by an indomitable trust in God. I am aware that it is a hard thing for a man to be a devout, holy, consecrated Christian. It requires a vast deal of moral stamina of genuine courage. O, it requires courage and manly heroism to stand by the truth ! To stand by it when it is unpopular, and un- profitable. I tell you it takes grace and developed Christian manhood, to prosecute a successful and un- remitting warefare against the incoming tide of prev- alent vices. But proudly raise yourselves. Go forth boldly to do and dare. Begin this warfare with the first enemy. Stretch forth your hand and shout "The sword of the Lord and of Gideon," and in the name of God you shall prevail. You will have disparagements ; but ah, my brethern, let us never succumb to the creeping paralysis of despair. Many a saint has felt as overwhelmingly as did David, or Moses, or Job. But from the lives of all Christ's saints-nay, from the Cross of Christ-nay, from heaven itself, like the cap- tain's shout which reinspires the wavering battle, the voice comes to us Courage ! This voice may not come to us in the stentorian tones of Sinai. It may come noiselessly, almost imperceptibly. It may come like the tender melody of a half forgotten song. It may come like a ripple of light from a distant star. It may come like a tremulous cadence from a far off shore. No difference how it comes, the voice will come to us Courage ! and so rekindle the "faith which can alone sweeten and brighten life." Courage! You will have trials. The prophets were persecuted. The apostles fought with men as with wild beasts. Your Divine Redeemer was tempted, yet without sin.
Dream not of rest and freedom. I tell you, you will have discouragements and conflicts, and heartbreaks. It is a part of the Divine plan that you should suffer and be strong, and then quit like men. There never will be a day that you will not feel a sadness of heart. There is no escape from it. These pains and heart- aches are graven on the hearts of millions, with a burning stylus, and you never will be free from them till you get within the gates of your Father's house
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and join in the chorus "unto him who hath loved us and washed us in his blood."
The past may have been dark and the future may be Cimmerian. The past may have been battle and the future may now be full of gloom and apprehen- sion. But hope in God. In all your past experience you have never had an hour so dark but if you looked above you, you could see the hand of God and the bow of "peace and promise." In all your past battles you have never perished, nor have you ever known of the weakest one being conquered if calmly hoping and firmly trusting in God. How could they be conquered ? I tell you 'twere an easier thing to move the everlast- ing granite of the hills than to move that man or wo- man who has his feet firmly planted on " the Rock of Ages." How could they be conquered ? Christianity knows no defeat. The path of Christianity is strewn with victorious trophies, and her battle fields are cov- ered with the fragments of her slain. And standing on this lofty eminence of Christian aggression, with the twilight of the twentieth century already flood- ing the fading campfires of the nineteenth, I bless . God I can look down the long dark avenues of the past and say, Christianity always has conquered; and turning my gaze adown the misty future, I bless God I can triumphantly say, she always will conquer. O I see her stepping over toppling thrones and crumb- ling dynasties, with the diadem of universal empire on her brow and the scepter of undisputed royalty in her hand, and with the glory of youth in her coun- tenance, driving her enemies before her like chaff before the whirlwind; and ever and anon amid the din of the battle, I can hear the clear ringing tones of her Great Commander shouting " All Hall ! be not afraid." Thus she is going on to eternal victory. No earthly power can hinder her in her on ward course ; for "one shall chase a thousand, and two shall put ten thousand to flight."
PERSONAL SKETCH.
REV. JAMES B. FITZPATRICK, now stationed at Zane Street M. E. Church, Wheeling, is a native of Rockbridge county, Virginia. On the 26th day of November last, he rounded up a half century oflife. His father belonged to an old Irish family, and was born and reared in Ireland. He came to this country when a young man married a Virginia lady, and spent the remainder of his life in that noted Commonwealth.
The subject of this sketch was educated in Virginia Schools ; and in November, 1855, when twenty-three years of age, he en- tered the ministry of the M. E. Church, South, in the Virginia Conference. He remained in this Conference up to, and during the war, although a portion of the time he was in the army, and was in some of the hottest battles fought during that great struggle. After hostilities closed, and when the Virginia Conference territory north of the Rappahannock was transferred to the Baltimore Conference, Brother Fitzpatrick fell into the Baltimore connection ; and at once took high rank as a preacher.
In 1872, at the close of his second year in Harrisonburg, he was compelled to move South on account of enfeebled health. He was accordingly transferred to the Florida Conference, and was sta- tioned at Tallahassee and Jacksonville, serving three years in each of these cities. His health was entirely restored by the balmy air of the Southland, and receiving a call to St. James Church, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, he went thither, and remained one year. Finding the climate undesirable, he returned to Ken- tucky, and came from there to the West Virginia Conference, M. E. Church, and was stationed at Zane Street, Wheeling, in Oc- tober 1872.
Brother Fitzpatrick is no ordinary preacher. He is a man of unquestioned ability. He has a rich and vivid imagination ; is deliberate and methodical in speech, and never fails to command the attention of his hearers. The impassioned portions of his sermons are intensely dramatic ; and he has just enough of the Celt in his make-up, to enable him at times, by his shining wit, and grotesque personations, to occasion a complete captivation of his audience.
As Brother Fitzpatrick has only recently come among us, I give below a few paragraphs from different newspapers in towns and cities where he has been stationed :
The Harrisonburg (Va.) Commonwealth, speaking of Brother F.'s lecture on "Lot's Wife," says: "The lecture was intensely
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entertaining and impressive. Mr. Fitzpatrick is one of the ablest pulpit orators of the Baltimore Conference."
The Shepherdstown (W. Va.) Register, speaking of Brother F.'s transfer from that place to Harrisonburg, Virginia, remarks : " He is an able and forcible speaker-none more so in the Balti- more Conference ; and while this community feels loth to part with him, we congratulate the people of Harrisonburg upon re- ceiving so eloquent, faithful and earnest a minister of the Gospel."
The Jacksonville (Fla.) Union, alluding to Brother F.'s transfer to Hamilton, Ontario, compliments him in the following lan- guage : " The many friends of Rev. Mr. Fitzpatrick, while re- joicing at his prosperity, will regret to hear that he has accepted a position that removes him from this city, where he is so well and favorably known, and where it was hoped he would remain long and build up the cause he had espoused. We wish our friend every success in his new field ; and knowing him as we do, we have little doubt that he will soon become as popular in Canada as he is in Florida."
The Church wherein he now ministers is well filled every Sab- bath with anxious auditors. With such a pastor, I take it, no Church will be afflicted with lethargy; but on the contrary, it will always be awake, alive, and abreast of the times.
SERMON XXVI.
BY
REV. JAMES B. FITZPATRICK.
THEME :- WILL IT PAY.
TEXT :- "Godliness is profitable unto all things."-I TIMOTHY iv: 8.
It is Morning : we take our stand upon the top of that mountain just there ;* we turn our faces to the East. The sun has just driven his chariot through the gates of the Orient, and with his golden sceptre chased the night away. In the distance we see the beautiful Ohio winding its way like a thread of silver, amid a woof of beautiful emerald ; here and there a boat proudly rides upon the sparkling water. There, just in front of us, lies farm against farm. The plow- man turns the sod. The dairyman drives forth his wagon. The children are moving happily away to school. 'Tis a beautiful picture : all is life, energy, enterprise. We will now turn our faces westward. The city is almost at our feet ; black clouds are lifting up there sooty heads from a hundred " smoke stacks," and spreading out into one great heavy cloud, covering and hiding from our view, Church and State House. Here and there, fire leaps like lurid lightning from this dark valley ; and from beneath it all we hear the deep toned roll, as of far off thunder. What means all this ? We will descend and see.
*Wheeling hill.
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We are now in the streets ; an hundred furnaces in full blast. Vulcan swings the sledge; the throb of the great engine's heart is heard on every hand. That thunder is the roll of commerce. Cars are arriving and departing. Clerks and salesmen, all are rushing hither and thither. The lawyer urges his case before the judge. The banker is busy at his counter. All is energy, push and noise. What does all this mean ? Surely the people are not all crazy. Surely this is not a great lunatic asylum we have gotten in- to ? No, they are not crazy, they are simply trying to settle the question, "Will it pay ?" and settle it affirm- atively. They are all after money, and I don't blame them for that. Money is a good thing and has many uses. It secures ease, brings you comfort, enables a man to breathe the pure mountain air, drink mineral waters, and bathe in the sea. With it people can purchase fine houses and elegant furniture, costly silks and beautiful flowers, and feathers and jewels, and make themselves look pretty, when without it they would be as ugly as sin. In fact, it often makes a man somebody, when without it he would be nobody at all. On the other hand it enables people to build churches, and parsonages ; send the Gospel to the hea- then ; bring joy to the heart of the widow, and dry the orphan's tears ; and cause the flowers to spring up along the path of the poor.
It will pay ! The avocations of the world pay. Men make them pay. Now, will religion pay ? This question may startle you, but it is not sacrilege to ask it. We have a right to ask this question. We are willing to submit Christianity to this test. If it will not pay, then let it go. Away with it !
1. Will it pay the country and the world? Go to India ; grand country ; beautiful mountains ; lovely vales; and grand rivers; sweep on through the post Vedic and Vedic periods, until you find the fully developed Brahman, ,with his lofty countenance and stately stepping, ruling the land ; while a subtle Pantheism roots itself every where in the soil of Hin- doo thought. Where are her railroads, telegraph lines, institutions of learning ? Where her commerce and
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civilization ? They are not. Christianity has not yet poured her bountiful beauty upon that land Buddha. leaped from the Jungles of Uruvela and cried in the ears of all men, "Cease from sin, get virtue, cleanse the heart; this is the doctrine of Buddha." Still, this did not yield the revenue for which the heart yearned, and the nature struggled. O, lift up the Cross in that beautiful land, and then I am sure a voice will ere long come back, " It will pay."
Look out over Egypt-grand old Egypt. The cra- dle of all the civilizations ; the birth place of history, with the channels of thought poisoned by the teach- ings of the Prophet of Mecca. Grand old countries prostrate beneath the foot of the Turk. A moral siroc- co has swept over the land. Only here and there a blossom blooms.
Sweep on around the globe, Behold the oldest em- pire of the world, China! Old moss-grown China ; with its four hundred millions of souls. Her founda- tions were laid before Alexander had fought a battle ; before Plato saw the light ; before Romulus had found- ed the walls of the western empire. Old stubborn China! The Brahmin, the Budddhist, the Parsee, and Confucius have all tried to lift her into the sunlight of a better civilization. Still, she is carrying coal to her cites on horseback ; and until five years ago, she was locked up in darkness, having no other promise after death than an eternal sleep, or at best the heav- enly Nervana.
But we will turn away from this dark picture. Now, look at those countries blessed with the presence and power of our holy Christianity. What has she done for them? She has cut down the forests ; plowed up the prairies ; cut through the mountains; built up cities and towns; erected churches, school houses and hos- pitals ; mines have been laid open, and the treasures of the mountains have been poured into the coffers of the nations. She has elevated the morals; enlarged the charities ; quelled animosities ; polished society every- where she has gone. A message to Europe is only the work of an hour. A trip across an ocean, or a conti- nent, is but the pastime of a week. Christianity lifts
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up the mind of a people to a higher plane, "and strengthens the intellect for discovery." Science walks safely only when she places her hand in the hand of Christianity. Guardian of the country-no ship of state has ever sunk while she was on board. Let her fair hand be on the wheel, and the stormking may fling his lightnings and hurl his bolts crashing through the billows, as they leap to smite the clouds. The deep toned thunders may crash from shore to shore, still she will outride the storm. The clouds will melt away, the air will be filled with sweet music, and redolent of the odor of sweet spices, wafted from the land of promise. Will religion pay the nations ? Let them answer, and if they "forget not the hole of the pit whence they aredigged," the evidence will come up in thunder tones, corroborating the statement of the Apostle, "Godliness is profitable unto all things."
I say here this evening, that it is my honest belief, that the American people are more deeply indebted to our holy Christianity, and to her faithful ministers, for everything that is necessary to the true happiness and prosperity of a people, than to all the statesmen, and all the warriors the country has ever produced; and the sooner this truth is learned and properly appreciated, the better it will be for the whole country. Oh, ye na- tions of the earth, come and shake hands around the Cross. Embrace each other at the Open Sepulchre. Come, and here on the anvil of eternal truth,"beat your swords into plowshares and your spears into pruning hooks, and let the people learn that it is not politics, but godliness alone that can bring together and ce- ment in the bonds of brotherhood, all the sections of our country, and enable us to send back its history to be filed with the folios of eternity, as well as to be read by all the ages, proclaiming from this grand na- tional standpoint that "godliness is profitable unto all things."
2. Let us carry this text into the realm of personal or individual experience. We will take it to the bat- tle field. The contest has begun. The skirmishers have been withdrawn. The struggle has commenced. They go in by regiments, I hear the roll of the mus-
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ketry ! Now, the brigades pass forward ! The artillery now begins to thunder forth shot and shell ! The no- ble fellows are falling on every hand! Now, behold ! An army corps pivoting on the enemy's centre swings toward our right. We are ready. They meet ! they meet !! The shock is like that of an earthquake ! Crash ! crash ! crash ! crash ! The worst has come. Charge bayonets ! rings out along the line. There is where that noble boy fell. The work is done. The dreadful bloody work. Night comes on. The moon coldly looks down on the scene. There lies a splendid boy. He was his mother's darling. He is dying. Stoop and listen ! He has a message for you. What is it? "Tell mother to meet me in Heaven." Oh, sirs, what is religion worth to the dying soldier ? Or, what is it now worth to that mother, whose heart went to the grave with her boy ? Go pile your gold at her feet. Purchase her hopes if you can. No, no; Cræsus never was rich enough for that.
But the campfires are again kindled. The Chap- lain asks the Colonel to have the men called togeth- er, and he will pray with them. Presently that long roll is sounded. A hymn is sung, and we are about to kneel in prayer. The General appears and is called on to pray ; and oh ! such a prayer. How tender; how loving ; how he pleads for the mother of that boy. How he lifts, on the arms of his faith, the widow and children of that burly soldier, who was shot dead upon the field, and how urgent he interceded for the noble fellowswho are wounded and still live. All are in tears ; think you those boys would not die for such a man? Will they ever refuse to obey a command from his lips. No; never. They will cover him all over with glory, or die on the next field in his defense. As a soldier and officer his religion is worth more to him than his salary. It is without price.
Take it into the storehouse. There it makes a man honest. His weights and measures are fully up to the standard. His yardstick measures thirty-six inches every time. He never sells sheepskin gloves, declar- ing that they are kid, or paper soled shoes for leather. What he says is the truth. People find this out and
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they trust his judgment, and bestow upon him their patronage. Nothing pays him so well. It is his best investment. While the godless cheat, whose mouth is filled with falsehood, whose thumb slips on the yard- stick an inch to his own advantage every time-such a fellow may prosper for a while, but ultimately his sins will find him out and crush him, if not in this life, most surely in the life to come.
Take it into the family, and the members of that household are clad in the beautiful robes of a spotless virtue. There you will find the most affectionate pa- rents, the most dutiful and loving children. That husband loves his wife, and thinks she is good enough to be the Queen of England; and that wife looks with pride upon her husband, and esteems him as the no- blest of all men. He may be an humble hard work- ing man. He may come every evening from the blaz- ing mouth of one of our furnaces, with his hard, bony hands, and sooty garments. No matter ; he is one of God's noblemen, and she knows it. Or he may come from one of those coal mines across the way there, with his face as black as the face of Ham, and his lit- tle lamp fastened to the front of his cap. (God bless him, I have great respect for the coal digger. I am more deeply indebted to him than I am to the Presi- dent of the United States. We can't do without the miner). His light has been shining all day in that dark cavron. Now he goes to shed a purer light on his little home circle. His best investment is his faith in Christ.
There is a man just along side of him. He enters his hovel with horrid oaths upon his lips. His chil- dren hide from him. His wife trembles at the foot- fall of the brute! Whose influence is that man un- der? Whose teaching does he follow ? Not the teach- ing of our God. No, no. The god of bottles has charge of him, Ah! my brother, the wages of sin is death.
Take it into the home of the rich. Christianity is the rich man's best safeguard. He walks through his splendid halls. The finest carpets yield softly be- neath his tread. The walls are adorned with the work of the best artists. His library is filled, alcove above
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alcove, with the best of books. His table is well sup- plied with the delicacies of a Continent. But he real- izes that his noblest mansion is that "house whose maker and builder is God," When he goes to his ta- ble he first implores food for the soul. The most loved and beautiful picture on the wall, is the picture of Jesus paying the sinner's penalty ; and the most highly prized and carefully read book in that library, is the Word of God. In such a man the widow and orphan find a true friend; the Church an earnest helper; the school a staunch supporter; the country a true patriot and defender. Oh ! that we had more of them. Every one loves such men, and God loves them, too.
There is another alongside of him. He is a manu- facturer. Perhaps he runs a nail factory. He has a godless heart within. He looks upon that hard work- ing man simply as a machine, out of whose labor he can get so much money. If he could get his nail feeder to work for two cents a hundred, he would doubtless do it, and grind the poor fellow's wife and children into perpetual poverty. He has no use for Churches. He would give nothing to schools, if he were not forced to do it by law. His nail feeder gives more to the poor than he does. In fact, he has no use for the poor, if they are not his slaves, serving him under the keen lash of necessity. No wonder they despise him. No wonder they feel like taking vengeance on him. O, how much better for him and them if he would follow the example of his neigh- bor, and invest somewhat in that grandest and best of all conservators, Christianity. This he would find far better than his hundreds of thousands in gold.
Bring Christianity into the house of mourning. Put it to the test there. The doctor has done all he could. The husband and father is dead. A cloud as black as a triple midnight, has fallen upon those hearts. The arm upon which that woman leaned is cold and rigid in death. The heart that loved so tenderly, the mind that planned so incessantly, all, all now lie a heap of ruins. Hopes are blasted. Ex- pectations are disappointed. Hearts are broken. Are
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