Dr. George A. Gordon, in a sermon on “The Land of Pure Delight,” says:
The world of our ultimate and supreme concern, the world to
which we give the name heaven, paradise, eternity, is the world
of pure spirituality. I ask, what grounds have we for believing
in the reality of that world? The answer, the sole answer which
assumes many forms, is that we believe in the moral conception
of the universe in which we live.
Let me illustrate. Longfellow, in one of his beautiful sonnets,
speaks of being at Newport News after the war, and while there
he sees a nameless grave, over which there was this inscription:
“_A Union Soldier, Mustered Out!_”
That is all--“A Union Soldier, Mustered Out!” And Longfellow
said: “Here was a man who gave his all, his life, his name, that
I might live. He gave his all, his life, his name, and went into
oblivion that the Union might live.” On what basis did he make
his sacrifice? The sense of duty. He died because he felt that
it was his duty to die, because he felt that if he was true to
himself he could not withhold that sacrifice. If the universe is
worthy of that servant, will it let that soldier die forever?
Jesus gave himself on the cross for the world. Why did he do it?
Because his moral nature told him to do it. He believed in the
moral ideal of human life and died that men might be pure and
come to their best. He died for an ideal--that alone explains
His sacrifice.
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