Chapel Service Last Night.

Dr. Francis G. Peabody conducted the services in Appleton Chapel last night. After anthems by the choir and prayer, Dr. Peabody read the scripture lesson from the thirteenth chapter of St. Matthew, and chose as the text for his sermon the third verse of this chapter: "Behold, a sower went forth to sow."

On the plains of Galilee, Jesus saw a sower about his work, scattering his seed with lavish hand, careless of those that fell on barren ground, in the confidence of the rich harvest which would spring from those that fell on fertile soil. "There" said Jesus, "is the symbol of the Kingdom of Heaven; with such lavishness God scatters blessings on fruitful and unfruitful soil." And what Jesus meant by the lavishness and prodigality of God was revealed in his own life--a life that never spared its energies, that gave of its richest and fullest powers to the outcast woman at the well in Samaria, to the fishermen by the sea of Galilee to the thief upon the cross. He knew that of the seeds he scattered so lavishly, though many fell amid rocks and thorns, some would fall where they would yield fruit, "some thirty, some sixty, some an hundred fold;" through his prodigality of gift he saw the possibility of the prodigality of return. Marvelous words he uttered often went to deaf, unheeding ears, but once his "follow me" entered the heart of Simon Peter on the shore of Galilee, and the lowly fishermen became the saint on whom a mighty church has based its authority, a rock against which "the gates of hell shall not prevail:" and once again his words came to John, and he too left the fishers' boats to become the apostle of God. Unstinted prodigality of gift, met now and then by the prodigality of return--this was the story of the life of Christ.

The world of nature and the world of spirit reveal the lavishness of the gifts of God. For centuries the forces of electricity were in the world for men to use, while in their ignorance they dreaded it or toyed with it, until at last one mind grasped its meaning. For centuries God's offers of the power and nobility of the spiritual life were lavished upon every man, unaccepted, until at last Jesus Christ grasped them and lived them out in his wonderful life of leadership and service.

How then shall Christ's teaching of lavishness apply to the lives of men? Here and there is a man who bends his concentrated energies in utter self-absorption to some one task of his own, to the accomplishing of some purpose, to the achievement of reputation and renown; and often he accomplishes his task only to find that the prize he has grasped has turned to ashes in his hand, that in gaining an object he has lost the sweetness of life, that in winning a place a place in men's estimation he has lost his place in men's hearts. Again, there is the other type of man, who while striving for his own definite purpose yet turns aside to give his energies to others, who finds his unselfish efforts often misunderstood, often rebuffed, but once in a while sees some great harvest spring from some little act or word, finding in the prodigality of return the reward for his own prodigality of service. This is the type of man that the teaching of Jesus approves.

At the beginning of a college year one of the great duties held up before men is the duty of concentration; in order that they may accomplish definite work and not spend their energies to no avail. Concentration is important, but interruptions to a man's work are bound to come--calls which he cannot refuse to hear. To meet these calls upon his time and yet continue his own work a man must learn thoroughly such lavishness as marked the life of Christ, lavishness which shrinks from no amount of work and is of one spirit with the lavishness of God.