Bulletin of Crozer Theological Seminary Volume 1-3 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1908 edition. Excerpt: ... BULLETIN of the CROZER THEOLOGICAL SEMINAKY UPLAND, PA. Vol. 3. July, 1911. No. 3. THE PARADOX OF SUCCESS. Baccalaureate Sermon Preached To The Graduating Class, June 4, 1911, In The Upland Baptist Church, By Professor Spenser B. Meeser, D. D. "He must increase, but I must decrease."--John S: SO. For such an occasion this theme must itself appear as a paradox. The words of the text, as you recognize readily, are the words of John the Baptist concerning Jesus. They sound like the abandonment of all laudable ambition and a timid retreat from all purpose to seek worth in himself. If, in this day of egotism and self-assertion, a man of parts were to announce himself as about to sink his life and work in the life and work of another, the world would either laugh at him as silly or pity him as weak: and probably both. But John was neither silly nor weak. He had conceived the greatest wisdom and found an unfailing strength: wisdom to appreciate the incomparable greatness of Jesus, and strength to lose his life in the life of the Son of God. The world's conception that self-assertion is the ideal and means of realizing life at its highest and best seems valid for man it is true; yet John the Baptist is the man of whom Jesus said: "For I say unto you, among those that are born of woman there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist." In John's life, therefore, we have presented the paradox of success, namely, that it is by self-effacement that we realize life at its highest and best. Success does not come to him to whom it is necessary--to whom it is aim and goal. Man's and cannot understand or feel the force of. He knows it is a duty for him. His own lone soul makes that clear to him; and to do it is the joy and reward of his life, though...