Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1873-10-02

the telegraph flashes back to us the in
telligence, that it has safely arrived, it is
good tidings to us.
When the peace of the world is dis
turbed, and nations are engaged in dead
~ conflict, and countries are desOlated,
and cities are burned and ensanguiEed
fields are strewn with their thousands
of dead and dying, and the word comes
at last that the war is over and peace is
declared, it is good tidings to men.
When, a few years since the news
with lightning speed went through our
land, that Lee had surrendered to Grant,
that the overthrow of slavery was an
accomplished fact. that the war was
over, and that our brothers and our sons
were coming home, it was glad tidings
to the millions of anxious hearts, who
with intense longing, had been waiting
for such an end.
A prisoner is in his cell yonder, his
life is imperilled, Lis friends have sought
for him the clemency of the executive
slowly go the days and nights over
him as he waits in agony and suspense
hope wanes and almost dies Within at
length messenger comes and bears to him
the word, that entreaty has prevailed and
he is pardoned; can you conceive with
what fullness and emphasis it would be
glad tidings TO him?
Our text tells us of glad tidings; glad
tidings, beside which, all that have ever
fallen upon human ears and hearts, sink
into insignificance. They are tidings
from God; tidings to men, to all men !;
tidings of equal moment to all, and in
which all have a like interest. They
were first sounded out on calm Judean
night, over the plains of Bethlehem
from angelic tongues: '"Behold | bring
you good tidings of great joy, which
shall be to all people. For unto you is
born this day in the city of David, a
Savior which is Christ the Lord. And
this shall be a sign unto you; we shall
find the babe wrapped in swaddling
clothes, lying in a manager" Then,
with its sublime and swelling harmony
came in the grand chorus, "GlOry to
God in the highest, and on earth peace,
GOOD will to men," These tidings, were
repeated and authenticated by our Lord
and Master Himself; were caught up
and proclaimed by His divinely commits
stoned disciples; and, with their light
and blessing, have rolled along down
the ages, until our day, they have gath
cred a might and power, surprising all
that has before attended them.
These tidings our text characterizes
as, "The grlorious gospel Of the blessed
God" Gospel, is but another name
for "good tidings." The gospel, here
includes or stands for, all those truths
and facts which enter into redemption
by Jesus Christ. 1t is Gods gospel to
men. Heavens glad tidings to perish
ing world. 1t is that faith, which
was once delivered unto the Saints. tits
a Divinely delivered, God-given faith
and given once for all. We are to
look for no Other-no new edition of it
will ever be issued. In every age and
cline, it is the same old, old story, ever
new, ever fresh, ever full of power; it
is "the glorious gospel of the blessed
God"
And why? What entities it to such
wondrous designation? No other
message that has come to men, has re-
ceived such a designation. To the high
est productions of human wisdom, and
the profoundest reasOnings of human
philosophy, men have not dared to APP
ply such a designation. The very I'M
truthfulness and blasphemy of such a
thing, makes them recOil from it. This
gospel stands unique and alone; there is
but one "gloriOus gospel of the blessed
God" And why is it, alone, thus desig-
mated? 1t is glorious in the manner of
its utterances. No mere human ut
terances are like the utterances of the
gospel; no book is like the Bible. There is
a something about it, in its very man
- II. Ill
ductions 1t is not its artistic structure ;
it is not its literary merits; it is not its
eloquent passages; it is not its sublime
poetry; it is not its profound logic
Other books have these, perhaps, in an
equal and even surprising degree. But
there is something about the Bible that
no other books or productions have.
We NAV not be able to describe or ex-
plain it but as we read it, as we go
over its pages, it is something that we
feel something that comes to our con-
seriousness, and no words speak to us as
do the words of the gospel. Perhaps it
is that charm or power, which made the
common people hear Jesus so gladly.
There is a calm dignity, a sublime sim
plicity, a natural authority, transpa-
rent truthfulness, and a profound ear
nestness, unto which no uninspired hui
man words approach. The gospel
speaks, as one who has the right to
speak, who has the authority to speak,
and who is competent to speak. 1t
makes no apology for its assumed au-
thority; it spends no words in giving
reasons for its assertions it enters into
no speculations and probabilities; it bal
ances no discordant opinions and yet it
fathoms the questions of profoundest
nature, upon which it treats. 1t speaks
as if men needed that it should speak,
and as if it expected to be belied in what
it speaks. Affirmation is its characters
tic, not discussion. 1t declares, not rea-
sons, and places its declarations beyond
the questionings of reason. 1t addresses
itself to faith, not to inquiry; to obedi-
ence, not to speculation as constitu-
ton and law. No man has lived, or does
live, who has dared to speak or write, in
the manner of the gospel. No one has
dared to take onits assumptions no one
has dared to make its affirmations. How
weak, by its side; how utterly without
certainty, authority and power are
all human PHILOSOPHERS, and spec
ulations, and reasonings The
Cullu earliest lCIIuS W IGdu II, ana SODH-
est comes to understand it, 50 simple is
its language, and so clear are its state
ments of its great truths; and yet, the
wisest tongue and the profoundest
scholar, find in it their master. Its
whole manner is super-human, and most
truly does it speak with authority. The
air of a measureless sovereignty per-
vades il all. Thus, in the manner Of its
u5terances, the gospel is glorious.
The gospel is glorious, in the truths
which it unfolds
They are truths which man needed to
know for which his nature painted :;
but unto which he never could attain
but by this gospel. Nature, and his own
intuitions, might teach him of a God,
but nature and intuitions could never
lead his conceptions up to the moral per-
fections, which in the gospel are unfold
ed of God. From nature, human soci-
ETY., and his own consciousness, he might
learn morality-morality wise and good,
so far as it went---but no such pure,
broad and unselfsh morality, as is taught
in the gospel; none that so fits all hu-
man relations, and conseryes all human
welfare.