the King in His beauty, if you will only take that first step and follow faithfully on. What an illustration has this congregation this very day of a soul growing in the sight of God ever to mightier things! We have been permitted to see a personality strong on the practical, commercial, and social sides directing its forces to the Church of Christ in this diocese of Long Island. For years we have had his invaluable activities in charity in the care of the orphan, the widow, the aged, the wounded, the sick; in Missions throughout one of the most promising regions of Long Island; in vigilant attention to the manifold interests-educational, and administrative of this Cathedral Foundation. We shall always remember that, last Sunday, as was not his usual practice, he worshipped with us in this Cathedral, kneeling in the Lord's Supper before this Altar. Then, from the very deliberations of the Chapter, having brought his work to a close, having given to God the last moments of his earthly life, the last grain of his strength, he passed on to those glories of the house of God which are as yet veiled from our eyes. All Christians are not to be found in exactly the same chamber of perfection. One may be a Christian who is far from the solidity, sincerity, of the perfect man in Christ Jesus. Some are believers who do not believe everything. You may be a just-beginning follower of Christ. You may be a Christian in the first stage of your formation. People may still be Christians though they are imperfect, though they have only started on their way, though they break down in many a duty. A sailor is a sailor from the day he embarks. He does not have to voyage in every sea, or to circumnavigate, or to meet half a dozen storms. He may indeed have little marine knowledge, and not enough acquaintance with the ocean to avoid sea sickness; all the same he is a seaman, albeit without experience. What he wants is the practise, the experience, the life. He is a Christian, not of the hall but of the reception room-not of the sanctum but of the porch. You are a child of God if you are born of His Spirit, whether or not you are an ideal son. Discriminate between faith in the spring and seedtime and faith in the great, rich, abundant autumn. All Christians are not on the same level. It has been noted that Noah's ark had lower, second, and third stories. The ship of the Church has some souls higher than others. Each is saved in Christ though some have more honor and more happiness than others. |