Say - “I will”                                                                             10/26/41

 

Scripture:  Matthew 6: 1-14.

 

It is always a pleasure when conducting the marriage service to hear the bride and groom answer the questions in clear, audible tones - “I will” - “I do.”  There is something decidedly strengthening in the steady, firm answer of those who take the vows of baptism or church membership.  The positive character of clearly-expressed intention is a definite help to the whole group of people present.

 

A teacher once told me that he is never able to sit comfortably through a teacher’s meeting in which those present agree not to do something under consideration.  To be comfortable and effective, he insistently demanded the positive note - an agreement to do something, to go ahead.

 

I think it becomes clear, as we see the lives of those about us, that those who are positive in their whole life outlook are the people who are getting things done and are finding satisfaction in living.

 

Life “catches up” to so many of us and we find ourselves overwhelmed by it.  Perhaps it would not be so if we were directing the affairs of our living rather than catching up.

 

During several summers vacations from my high school and college studies, I worked on a farm, to harden up my body and earn a little money to help on the next year’s expenses.

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            (following the binder in harvest; the last summer, kept up to the binder;  & preached, too, that summer).

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One suspects the failures in marriage are largely due to failure of a husband and wife to plan their living together.  Part of the counsel which I give to every couple who come to me to be married, is that they plan together just how they are going to manage their handling and spending of money, what they will do about church, how they propose to get along with other people who may live with or near them, etc.  Not only are they urged to plan these important details together, but to revise their plans together from time to time, so that they may always be in a position to meet their lives positively.

 

In the prayer which our Lord taught us and which we repeat together at least every week, we use the words lead us not into temptation (trials, wrong desires, unnecessary testings of character) but deliver us from evil.

 

The place which prayer has in the lives of those who are recognized as rightly powerful characters today is very noticeable.

                                                Gandhi                        Muriel Lester

 

A positive attitude toward giving. 

 

A positive attitude toward being a Christian.

 

            (see Bailey in Xn. Cent. Pul. for January, 1939, p 13)

 

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dates and places delivered:

 

            Wisconsin Rapids, October 26, 1941 (“used first page”)

            Pilgrim Church, January 8, 1939 AM