The Three Hour Sermon on God, Sin and Salvation

How about stealing? Do you call those only thieves who break into houses in the stillness of the night and carry off money or jewelry or clothing? Yes, they are thieves, but they are not the only thieves. They might be called petty thieves. Big thieves do not act in such an awkward manner. They do it in a very fine style often dressed in a swallow-tailed coat and silk hat, with decorations on their breasts and they steal in the broad light of day.

Do you not know that we have had such cases of robbery in the House of Commons as well as among the high government officials? Have we not had such cases also among the officers of banks and corporations? And are not some of them still confined in the state prison? Worst of all, we have heard of such cases of robbery even among the shavenheaded priests of certain religious orders.

When I was travelling in the southern section of the country I was astonished to hear it reported that some three hundred students of a government middle school had banded themselves together and had stolen $1,750 worth of books from a bookstore in the town where this school is situated. Think of it students of a middle school, whom we expect to be the very backbone of our nation, have turned out to be thieves. A dreadful thing indeed. But I mention only the cases reported in the newspapers. If all cases of robbery among our people were reported in these newspapers I doubt if the papers would have space enough to print them.

The country is full of thieves. In the state prisons at the present time I hear there are seventy thousand thieves in prison garb. But outside of the prisons there are many hundreds of thousands of a worse kind of thieves, wearing ordinary clothes. Yes, the big birds of this kind are flying all over the country.

What, then, about the sin of murder? Shall we count as murderers only those who take away a man's life by the sword or the gun? Are there not other ways of killing besides that? Yes, there are. There are a thousand ways of committing murder.

I will tell you of one a most heinous way of murder, which is very little noticed by the public. A profligate son may squander his father's money, spending it on drinking and bad women, and finally using up all his family's property and destroying his own health and honour, thus forfeiting the respect of society, he finally sinks into the depths of misery and dishonour. Now, how do you suppose his parents feel about this? Why, the father's hair turns grey early, and the mother has untimely wrinkles in her face. What do these changes signify? Simply that these parents' lives have been shortened by the wicked conduct of their unfilial son, perhaps shortened by five or ten years. They may go down to their graves so many years earlier than they would have gone but for this ungrateful son. God might have given them seventy years to live on this earth, yet they have been cut off at sixty-five. Is not the sending of his parents so much earlier to their graves by his wicked conduct as bad as putting an end to their lives with his own hand? Yes, indeed! It is a case of parricide. He has murdered his father and mother at the age of sixty-five.

And I am sorry to say that there are many cases of this kind of parricide in our country. How many fathers and mothers are going down to an early grave broken-hearted on account of the misconduct of their children?

Have you not such cases in your own town and village? You know, all our children are taught in school that being filial to their parents is the first duty of man. So they must all know that. But, alas! All school teaching enters the one ear and out the other. As soon as school days are over most of its teaching is forgotten. Our schools fail to produce a lasting effect with their ethical teaching.

I must say that while I am condemning the misconduct of our children toward their parents in such severe terms, at the same time

I must not forget the other side of the case the misconduct of the parents toward the children. I must not blame the children only and leave out the parents entirely. I must not be partial.

I think on this point of the relations between parents and children our moral teachings are very partial and one-sided, and therefore very defective. While they lay great stress on the duty of children toward their parents, they do not lay sufficient stress on the duty of parents toward their children. They condemn the least infraction of the obligation of the children, but they overlook any failure on the part of the parents.

If there are cases of parricide among our children, there are also grievous cases of infanticide among parents. Parents murdering their children. Are there not cases of abortion, and even of suffocation of newborn babes? Are these not acts of murder? Yes, they are. Mothers and fathers are doing these things. Of course those who commit such awful crimes are guilty of infanticide and are liable to be punished by the law of the state.

There are other cases of child-murder which, though not liable to punishment under the state law, are yet very wicked. I refer to the selling of girls by their parents to houses of ill-fame. Of course it is not legal to sell these girls, but many girls are sent to those bad houses for the sake of the money their parents will receive.

We have a familiar saying that girls who are sold to these houses are thrown into a dirty ditch from which they can never come back clean. They become outcasts of society. Most of them contract venereal diseases and soon die. Their lives are thus shortened by entering these awful places. Yes, such places are hell for these poor girls. They are doomed for life. And you see their own parents, fathers and mothers, having thrown their girls into this filthy ditch, drink and gamble with the money received from the sale of their children. Don't you think that these wicked men and women really murder their unfortunate daughters? Yes, they do.

Do you think that these parents have still a fatherly and motherly feeling for their children whom they treat thus? Can you still call them by the name of parents? I can not. They have no right to such an honourable title as that of parents. I would rather call them devils, feasting upon the very flesh and blood of these unfortunate human creatures.

I am ashamed to say that our public does not take much notice of the wicked conduct of these parents, and our government still allows such heinous crimes. Not only that, but even religious and moral teachers (I mean heathen priests and so-called moral teachers) side with these parents and teach that it is the filial duty of these daughters to obey their parents' will and fulfil their wishes.

I must mention one more kind of murder, which is by drink. Intoxicating drinks do destroy human lives. Are not drunkards breaking the hearts of their wives, their mothers and their children? Yes, they are. They are bringing their dearest ones to untimely graves. Yes, they are murdering them. Not only their nearest and dearest, but themselves. How many drunkards are going down to early graves? They are committing suicide. Then how dreadful is the business of manufacturing and selling -this destroyer of life, and devastating the whole country with such poisons.

I always look upon drink as my deadly enemy, because it killed my father. He died quite young because of drink. Therefore intoxicating drink is my deadly enemy with whom I can not bear to live under the same heaven. I am determined to take revenge on my father's murderer.

Perhaps even in this audience there may be some one who can say with me Drink was my father's murderer or my husband's murderer. In one place when I said this a woman cried out: " Oh, yes, drink is my son's murderer. My son died of that awful poison."

I know one case of drink killing thirty-six persons at one stroke. Perhaps you remember the dreadful news reported through the newspapers a few years ago. In one of the northern railroad stations the assistant station master killed thirty-six passengers because of drink. He got drunk while he was on duty and entirely forgot the coming of a special train, so two trains collided, resulting in the instant death of thirty-six passengers.

Drink not only destroys human life but also destroys homes and property, and so devastates the whole country. It is indeed the most dreadful enemy of mankind. The world must get rid of it. I hope our temperance societies will bestir themselves now and do their utmost toward destroying this enemy of mankind. I know they are doing good work, but not enough. Look at America. What a wonderful thing those American temperance societies have done. Think of it. A nation of one hundred million people throwing away intoxicating liquors entirely and becoming dry all over the country! Its effect upon the health, wealth and morals of the people is inestimable.

You know in our country more than onetenth of the whole rice crop is turned into intoxicating drinks. In these days of the scarcity of rice, when people are complaining of the lack of food, one-tenth of the principal food of the people is taken away from them for the purpose of brewing poisonous liquors. What a shameful thing this is to our country.

Now you see there are not only eggs of sin in the hearts of men, but big birds flying in the air all over the country. The world at present is full of sin. We find sins right and left all over the world. Every man is full of sin from head to foot. No, there is no sinless man on the whole earth, not even one.

But here, some one may object, " Oh, see here, that preacher, standing on that high platform and looking down upon us, is upbraiding us as miserable sinners, and is perhaps thinking of himself as a good man."

No, my friends, I am not upbraiding you alone as being miserable sinners. I know I am also a miserable sinner. Perhaps I am the chief of sinners. Don't you know that we Christians do not hold a mirror facing toward others but toward ourselves? If you should hold a mirror facing toward other people you can see their faces reflected in the mirror and then you are tempted to make comments upon them, saying, " That man's face is a little too long," and " This man's face is a little too round," and so on. But if you hold up your mirror with its face toward yourself alone then you can see your own face reflected in the mirror. I confess now that before I became a Christian I thought I was a good man, perhaps better than the most of my fellowmen. I had not yet violated any of the laws of our country. I had not done injustice to any man. I had not defrauded any person. I had not been disobedient to my parents. I had brought up my children in decency and order. In fact I had done nothing yet worthy of condemnation. So I thought I was a good man.

But when I became a Christian and held the mirror right before my face, and saw my own figure reflected in it, from head to foot, then I said, " Oh, what a wretched sinner I am! " I nave seen sins of all kinds reflected from my own life in that mirror, eggs and birds, of which I was not at all conscious before. Yes, I found myself to be the greatest of all sinners.

Now, my friends, tonight I am not blaming you for anything. I am not upbraiding you at all. I can not do that. Because I do not know you personally. I do not know your past history nor your present condition. I only see your faces now for the first time. How can I reprove you? No, no, I do not try to do anything of that kind tonight. But this one thing I beg you to do to take up *this mirror of God and turn it toward your own face and see what kind of men you are. Do you think that you will find the figures of saints, or angels of heaven reflected in that mirror?

No, my friends, I am afraid you will find instead the figures of black devils the greatest of sinners. Then you will surely cry out, " Oh, wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death."

I tell you this finding out of your own sins, and crying out for the way of salvation from them, is indeed the front gate to the religion of Christ. If you are at all truly desirous of entering into this religion of Christ you must come to the front gate. You must not climb over the fence or break through the hedge to enter into this religion. There are many among our own countrymen who are trying to enter the Christian religion through these fences and hedges, saying, " Oh, yes, Christianity is good for the country, for the people, for the family, for the home, for the wives and the children, so I will accept this religion as my own."

Very well, it is all true that Christianity is good for the country and the people; but you can never enter into that religion by such a roundabout way of belief. Yes, your country, your family, your wives and your children may enter into the Christian religion if you encourage them to do so, because it is good for them to do it; but you yourself can never enter into that religion by such a superficial belief. If you really wish to enter into the Kingdom of God yourself you must come to its front gate first that is acknowledgement of and repentance for your own sins. Without this you can never enter the kingdom of God,