Frank Beard

“ Crowned with pride, clothed with the tattered rags of self-righteous egotism, with garments a patch work of shabby gentility, such men divide their worship between their unworthy selves and the idol of Mammon which they draw in their train. The track over which they glide in such confident security is slippery and treacherous. Based simply upon reputation it is full of breaks and seams into which any moment the unsuspecting egotist may plunge.
Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall. ”

“ Death has no terror for the child of God. Neither the damp sod nor the granite tomb can hold the free spirits of the children of faith. We commit them to the earth and shed the parting tear and are too prone to fancy that the cold ground holds the object of our love ”

“ The man who puts aside the widowed and orphaned, by the plea that he is laying in store for a rainy day, takes extreme hazards with Fate. Her hand even now draws aside the curtains which reveal his destiny. The rainy day comes sooner than he thinks and his mortal remains are carried to the grave unattended by the sad procession of any whose distress he might have lifted. Holdfast is forever held in the tomb of his loneliness and misery. He sadly misread life’s great lesson, that it is far better to give than to receive. ”

“ RESCUED. Wherever the tide of human life flows very deeply and swiftly, there shipwreck is most frequent and we place Rescue Missions at these points. But do we ever think of there being rescue missions in the skies? Could we scan the far battlements of heaven we might, perhaps, see them lined with hosts of angels watching and waiting to descend to the rescue of some tender child whom it were better to snatch away to scenes of glory, than leave it in an atmosphere that reeks with moral contagion. ”

“ They toil and sweat and push at Infidelity’s inert boulder, they fancy they make progress, and sometimes they do, but in their pathway there stands the granite block of Truth bearing aloft in defiant beauty the cross of sacrifice. ”

“ Contentment is a prerequisite of happiness and no man can come into contentment until every aspiration of his nature is satisfied. The deepest aspiration that lodges in the human soul is the longing for that contentment and rest which salvation bestows. No one is really rich, therefore, until salvation is found, and if it be discovered, after heroic sacrifice and struggle, after plunging through temptation and peril, the joy of triumph will be that much the greater and when temptation has been conquered by faith and works, then Salvation makes one truly the Richest Man in the World. ”

“ One who was in a boat above the falls might see this entrancing vision and drop his oars and gaze rapturously, until, all unconscious, his boat glides over the brink and to destruction. The Christian also is in danger of such a fate. The world offers beauty and pleasure, and in such fascinating forms that it takes resolute will to keep from dropping the oars and drifting with the current of temptation and letting the good boat, which would save us, glide over the precipice into sin and into death. ”

“ No evils threaten greater menace to the nation than those which are embodied in the rum traffic and in corporate bribery. The serpent trail of each is seen in council chambers and senate halls. They work in the dark and they work stealthily. They are traitors and public foes. They should be destroyed.
Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood: their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their path. ”

“ No winds can be too harsh, no storms too angry, no mountain steeps too treacherous to defeat his patient will to reclaim the lost. Though by ignorance we fall into error and violate his commands, though by willfulness we transgress His law and traverse the road of disobedience, though the lamp of our innocence be shattered and the light of our hope fades away in desolation and despair, the Shepherd comes to us and calls, “Son, daughter, give me thine heart.” ”

“ This picture has become the saving beam of light which has shot across the dark career of many who after a night’s revelry, and alone with conscience, refuse to drink further of sin’s deadly potion, but look back upon that early scene of innocence, and resolve to make it again a real experience. Although Remorse is the remaining guest of a night of sin, there is also the confident token of an angel of hope ever ready in the chamber of repentant despair. ”

“ When in answer to his inquiry Peter said, Thou art the Christ the Son of the living God, Jesus had a corner stone for an edifice whose summit would reach the stars and whose base would be as broad as creation. The church is founded upon a fact and that fact is the historic Christ. No lever of human assumption bolstered by conceit has ever moved that corner stone the breadth of a hair. The church of Jesus is founded upon the impeccable, the faithful, the everlasting Christ who is the same yesterday, today and forever. ”

“ THE POOREST MAN IN THE WORLD. Robinson Crusoe, shipwrecked on a lonely island, furnishes a picture of woe and desolation which it would be difficult to exaggerate, and yet, through his invention and enterprise, frugality and foresight, he transformed inhospitable shores into a garden of plenty. He conquered nature, by reason of his kindly acts even the wild animals learned to love him and the ferocious savages gave him their trust. In strong contrast to him is the man who heaps opulence upon greed and by his selfishness separates himself from the companionship of men. ”

“ THE ROCK OF AGES. Some great man of old once declared that words were the only things that live forever. If this is true of the words of men, how much more so is it of the Word of God, the affirmation, the promise, the pledge, of the great I am. Its foundations of adamant are anchored in eternal truth, against its base the angry assaults of bigotry and unbelief will be driven in vain. ”

“ PILGRIM WATCH THY CROWN. Life is a journey and as pilgrims we tread its pathway, resting now and then for refreshment or ease. It is during these periods of rest that Satan employs every art to wrest from the traveler his dearest possession, his crown of life, which secures him an ample entrance to the heavenly city beyond. Folly, which represents the sensuous pleasures of the world, is employed to display her gaudy charms in order that the eye of the wayfarer may be turned aside and give Satan the opportunity to snatch the coveted treasure. ”

“ COVERING HIS SINS. Here is a picture of universal application, though all do not indulge the same sin as the man here shown—endeavoring to cover his greed by showing to the world the monument of a college professorship endowed by his gifts or money. The world may be deceived in part, but what of his own conscience? He can not hide from himself his true nature and he forgets that God is ever at his side, judging not the act but the motive, never mistaken in His estimate, rejoicing at the good, sorrowing for the bad, but all-seeing and ever-seeing. ”

“ Christianity has blazed the pathway and civilization has followed. Now the rainbow arch of the gospel spans the continents and seas, from Greenland’s icy mountains to India’s coral strands, and we seem to hear the glad shout of ten million ransomed souls who sing with the ancient Psalmist, “The entrance of thy word giveth Light.”
The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light; they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined. ”

“ There are more kinds of luxury than those which mere wealth can bring, and there are kinds of want as many—luxury is a state of abundance, whether of wealth, or books, or intellect, or privileges beyond our personal need. Want is a state of poverty of clothes, or food, or of physical or mental necessities of whatever sort. It is a fact that one half of the world possesses that which the other half needs. The poor need the assistance of the rich in matters of physical comforts and counsel. ”

“ How many hearts would be lightened today if by some magic stroke their books of debit and credit were balanced and for once they could feel and know that they owed no man anything. The weight which financial indebtedness imposes is comparable only with the weight which the debts of sin heap upon us. As we think of the sins of envy, and of malice, and of hatred, falsehood, deceit and cupidity, which our conscience has been justly charging up against us since early years, the load becomes all but intolerable. ”

“ ADRIFT. Genuine life loves motion, energy, enterprise, destination. It cannot stand still nor lie dormant; it cannot go in a circle even, it must have a goal and a destiny. For this reason Agnosticism can never be the philosophy for this human race, because it is a ship without steam or sail and it will use neither oars nor rudder. It is content to lie upon the spacious ocean of Eternity, tossed by doubt, fascinated by Fate pursuing, indifferent as regards companionship or success. ”

“ The real self, the indestructible and everliving spirit, has been caught up into heaven and long before the hearse and the cortege of weeping friends have left the tomb, the glad song of the departed one has swelled that of the angelic host in the refrain, “Death is swallowed up in victory.” ”

“ There is a greater Hell Gate which with its infinite submarine and subterranean tunnels honeycombs our social structure. The saloon is the dreadful barrier to commerce and prosperity, as well as a menace to health and peace. ”

“ Though the earth and starry worlds wax old like a garment, the Word of God which represents his faithfulness and the Cross of Christ which represents his Love, will stand impregnable amid the wreck of worlds. ”

“ There is probably no phase of art which Satan has tried harder to control than that of painting. He has sought to corrupt literature, music and oratory, but even if he meets defeat in each of these quarters, he will be fully resigned, if it remains in his power, to make the pictorial artist his ready slave; for well the arch spirit of evil knows that it is pictures that catch the eye, fasten the attention, quicken the imagination and enthrall the soul. ”

“ This is not woman’s sphere. Her hand belongs not on the throttle of this world’s busy life, but on the cradle, where character begins to take form. There she belongs and there she may sit to mold the future of two worlds. ”

“ Satan has planted his batteries for the destruction of the American home, and from every saloon in the land the wicked bombardment goes on, day and night, year after year, and every hour of every day some new house is sighted for destruction. ”

“ Is not likewise the man who rents his property to evil uses equally if not more guilty than the one who boldly assumes the responsibility of carrying on an indecent traffic therein. There would be a thinning of the ranks of respectability if public sentiment should face every Dives who is a silent partner in the tenements of sin and say, Thou art the man whom we hold guilty and responsible for this murder and this poverty and this vice. ”

“ Human life must have an object of existence that is worthy of its high endowments. The only objects which are worthy of our pursuit are Purity, Peace and Truth, and the only embodiment which the world has ever known of these supreme things was Jesus of Nazareth. ”

“ The resolute faith that enabled Daniel to face the den of lions is at the command of any child of God today, and nothing else will avail as an armor and defense when the ravenous beasts of passion, appetite, covetousness and revenge attack us in temptation’s hour. The source of strength in such emergencies is a childlike faith in God and the fount of that faith is His Holy Word. In the security which faith inspires, the den of torture and trial becomes luminous as the Mount of Transfiguration to those who resist evil and dare to stand true. ”

“ We should expect no share in the fruits of Christ’s death, unless we participate in the work of his life. The cross is a meaningless symbol until we approach it over the pathway of humility, trust, self-denial and obedience. ”

“ A preacher who yields to the extreme demands of modern thought, however, will soon find himself abandoning the true and best source of sermon material and will begin to forage in the desert fields of literature to find sustenance for an impoverished mind. Many such a preacher, tired and heartless, would find instant relief if he would but burn the human aids to the manufacture of artificial sermons and turn to the rich mines of truth which still lie unexplored in the sacred word. ”

“ The home is the holy of holies where angels love to dwell. Its sacred precincts are more inviolate than the inner sanctuary of Israel’s temple. God has made it the ark of his covenant between himself and his children from generation to generation. ”

“ There are church organizations which might be numbered by the thousands, the wealth of whose membership would in each congregation exceed a million dollars, but they seem unable to buy a church organ or a pulpit bible without getting up a bazaar or a Church Fair. The same Jesus who drove the money changers from the house of prayer, sits in sad judgment upon the church which turns its sacred chamber into a market place or into a scene of rank levity and low grade amusement. ”

“ Every soul has its calvary and that crucial hour in each life will witness the peaceful, forgiving, trustful spirit that was seen in Jesus, or it will witness the hateful, furious appalling dissolution that came to the unrepentant companion of his cross. ”