The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1872-09-23
THE HUMANITY OF CHRIST

The services opened with the singing O
the hymn, ITO Thee, o God, we bomag
pay"
After reading selection of Scriptures
the'offering up of a prayer and the singing
of the hymn, 80, see how Jesus trusts
HIMSELF" the preacher announced his tex
as follows: SIN all things it behoovec
him to be made like unto his brethren. .
Hebrews, H., IL. He remembered. wher
it first began to be noised about that he
was not what he had been in some matters
of faith, meeting an old friend who said
that he was sorry he had given up the
Divinity of Christ. He told his friend that
he was sorry for his sorrow, but nothing
else. Instead of coming to great loss he
had experienced great gain. lie had not
given up the Divinity Of Christ in any real
sense Of that term, but he had taken ND
His humanity. He was now more to him
than ever before, as lie was most like God
IN being most man. He had never SINCE
seen any reason for altering his opinion,
Instead of thinking of Christ as other than
human, he could not but feel as he read
His life as it is recorded in the GOSPELS.
that lie was the most purely human being
that ever lived on the earth. He was that
to begin with. His humanity was at the
heart of His divinity, filled as full of diyini-
ty as it was possible for one human nature
to be.
1t was of this humanity that he wished
especially to speak--of the thing most hui
man in this most human life. As he had
read, one by one, the new Lives of Jesus
that were now so rapidly coming into our
literature, he had felt that the one thing
that had not been adequately done was the
unfolding of the purely human element, as
1t was revealed here and there through the
Gospels. What interest centres about the
minor matters that reveal their quality in
the lives of the great and good when the
writer had done what he could to picture
the grander qualities, and then turned to
these lesser things, they felt instantly drawn
to his subject as man.
1t was in some such fashion he would
touch the life of Jesus Christ. Men had
become so entranced by His greatness as to
lose the faculty of telling what he would
call his human-ness. The speaker here re-
lated the story of simple Italian girl who
read in the Bible the story OF Jesus. As
she came to the last scene of all-the agony
and cruel death-and still read how He
could care in the last extremity for His
mother, and pray for His murderers, and
leave the whole world, her heart was clean
broken for the pity and pathos of what she
read, rs if it had been all about some most
intimate personal friend. This was the
true way to get at the real life of Jesus
Christ. Let them exalt Him as high as
they would, they must never forget that
Ills human nature was their own at its best.
lie was made in all things like His brethren,
lie was what He claimed to be whenever
lie spoke of Himself as 'the Son of Man,
The genial face of Jesus constantly turned
to the innocent pleasures Of their common
life. He not only gave them the largest
tolerance, but He would be one in the COM
panv. He never tried to make any impress
sion by being above his entertainers. They
could have noticed no difference between
Him and the rest, save it be in the grand,
sweet face and head. They would never
pick Him out, as they would SO many of
Ills followers, by peculiar austerity and |
sourness of countenance. Admitting the |
right in His presence the young people got |
some music and had dance, even then He |
did not believe that they should have heard |
Him rebukesEthcm. Iiis presence at a |
wedding, and what He did there, were
never to be forgotten, when they watched
for the light of his countenance on the in
nocent pleasures of life. In the reading of
that exquisite narrative Of Jesus at a we'd
ding, it was always read as if the other
guests wanted wine, and not Jesus and His
disciples. lie saw no ground for such an
Interpretation. When they thought of it,
they must not forget that, whatever this
wine was, it was not what commonly passed
for wine among them in chicago, and it
was not whiskey. The Bible described
wine that made glad the heart of man
and until they could get some like it, the
less they had to do with it the better. Paul
said to Timothy:
"Take some wine for thy stomach's
sake" If he lived now he would say,
Don't take little wine for thy stomach's
sake; let the thing alone" lie did not
mention the cheerful look of Jesus towards
innocent enjoyment that some there might
take more enjoyment than they already
did. If He were among them now, be
sure there would be no smile on His face,
but a frown. There was no innocent en-
joyment in spending whole night in ball
room through the greater part of the win
ter. Enjoyment was recreation that was
destruction. Let enjoyments be so ordered
and kept, and they were no things of which
young persons need be ashamed as to be
indulged in only after the minister had
gone home, who goes earlier for that rea-
son. The spirit of Christ could grace such
things as well as graver things. Alas for
religion that could give no countenance to
things that were countenanced by its
founder.
The speaker then referred to the coming
out of John the Baptist from the wilder
ness-an austere, severe man, who cared
not to win men, but to master them. The
Scribes and Pharisees did not like his aus
terity, and said he had devil. When
Jesus came, and mingled with Publican
and Pharisee alike, that did not please them
any better, and they called him gutton
and wine-bibber. The speaker remarked
ON the fine touch of nature there was in
Jesus comparison of this manner in which
lie and John had been received. He loved
to think of Jesus as being the same as that
Of other men. For, when the true occasion
came and the dissatisfaction of the men
who could not be satisfied with any religion
that differed from their own, was to receive
its well-deserved rebuke, He had brought
out the old trouble of His childhood and
made it tell on the consciences of His audi
ence.
The whole relation of Jesus to little chill
lren was full of the sweetest and most per-