CHAPTER THREE
POLITICAL PERIL
Sermon by Dr. E. L. Powell, on "The Need of Prophets in a
Time of Political Peril," delivered at the First
Christian Church, Louisville, Ky.
"And they, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear, (for they are a rebellious house,) shall know that there hath been a prophet among them."—Ezekiel 2:5.
He thought it would not be questioned by thinking persons that we are living in a time of political peril. He did not mean that revolution was at our door; he did not mean that we are threatened with a reign of terror; he did not mean that there was any prospect of immediate bloodshed.
I have preached righteousness in the great congregation: lo, I have not refrained my lips, O Lord, thou knowest.
I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart; I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation; I have not concealed thy loving kindness and thy truth from the great congregation.—Psalm 40:9, 10.
Our perils spring from our state—the state of our own souls. They are lacking in moral sensibility—we are in danger. We are told on every hand our country was never more prosperous—that is unquestionably so. The same might be said of Rome when that colossal empire was tottering to its fall. There were persons then who paid from $200,000 to $400,000 for a single feast. It is recorded of one man that, after spending several millions of dollars in luxurious living, he committed suicide because he had only $400,000 between him and starvation. National bankruptcy does not stare us in the face. Fortunes grow up in a generation—the dollar smiles upon us as a beneficent sun. Yet our moral condition is such as to call forth from thinking men serious and earnest fear. We are as a man living in a luxuriously appointed house, and yet, on account of invalidism, unable to appreciate his splendid home and environments.
Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.