Rev. W. E. C. Smith of Dorchester addressed the St. Paul's Society last night from the text "Depart from me, O Lord, for I am a sinful man." He said: One of the first things we notice in talking with a well educated man is the extreme care with which he chooses his words. We are accustomed in ordinary conversation to put things in much stronger language than there is any occasion for. When we stop to think of what we have said we often find that we are not entirely sincere.
Many of the prayers and hymns of the Episcopal Church are in words that convey the deepest meaning that is in the power of language, and if we consider carefully what we say we think it is not possible that we should be sincere. If we cannot be, it is more than useless to repeat these prayers and phrases that are only so many empty words. It hurts ourselves and it hurts the Church. We can bring ourselves, however, to say these prayers and to mean them by comparing our own very imperfect lives with the life of Christ, and when we see, like Peter, how far below what we might have been we have fallen, we can say with sincerity, "Lord, have mercy upon me, a miserable sinner."
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