Sermon Notes on Character

Transcript

I first know character through conduct. Then something interesting happens. One day we take a leap and know character by itself. The process reverses. At first we know the character and then conduct. Now we are able to know what the conduct will be because we know the character. [Inserted: $157.59?] There comes a time when we must stop analyzing. Throughout life we do this. Life would be limited wd.? unrealiable if we could not pass from a study of conduct into confidence in character of men. 1. The principle is true in nature. The uniformity of nature is an expression of its character 2. There could be no friendship without it. Friendship is communion with and confidence in character 3. This is true of [illegible: Courtship?] 3. This is true of character 1. This is one of the most sublime books of scripture. J. A. Froude, somewhat extravagantly perhaps, set it far above all the poetry of the world. Carlyle said of the Book of Job "I call it one of the grandest things ever written with pen. It is our first stament of man's destiny and God's ways with him here on earth. there is nothing written, I think, in the Bible or out of it, of equal literary merit. A philosophical clue to the enigma of [illeg: inner?] suffer Though he slay me -- These words anticipate possible disappointment and pain. But they discuss a hope beyond them. Their hope lies in the character of God. Obedient is the mouthpiece of character. Conduct is the tru[m]pet at the lips of character. Character without conduct is like the lips without the trumpet.