The Hickman courier., 1877-01-26
JESUS.

JESUS.
4 Je,c's Tribute to the Life of The Founder
Of ChTiStidHity-COmpa for
the PoOr-His CHEZ
Pirtue.
f Professor Adler lectured yesterday at
:tandard hall on ''the foundation of
christianity" After quoting sayings y
christ which he said contained tie key
Bote of the faith he founded, the lecturer
hSpressed his conviction that christianity
vas not revolt against Judaism but
lcOnfrmation of it; the law was to remain
intact, but it was to be the spiritual law.
I@There is, he continued, "a grand and
lqaciOus quality in the personality of
Jesus, as presented to us in the gospel.
Fhich has worked extraordinary results
smong all nations What is that charm
lam not here to dispute the doctrines of
he church. l desire to approach my
ask with the reverence that BELTS a
heme so interviewer with the tenderest
ceilings of the human heart"
THETnfEsFN wHIcHcHRIsrc CANE.
"The Ne4Testament has scant mate
Iial for iography OF Jesus. Some
acts ther are, however, which stand
Drth pro nently," continued DIR. Ad-
sr, and, Ihereupon, he sketched the
haracter, surroundings and religious be-
Iefs of the people among whom Jesus
lroI IL e,1cl-o, - 6 H. =; a,,0,,.,- -, II
bear upon him of the belief Of the
lews in the coming Of a Messiah, and
LThen every natural means of fulfllment
S.l~asssssa,s Isre,alAIzs peen cut OFF, OF
fTheir hope inits fulfllment by supernat-
ural means. The kingdom of heaven, he
said, was to be established on earth, and
the general resurrection was to precede
the millennium. One hundred years be-
fore Christ their hopes were high in Pal
estine. The political situation was in
tolerabie, the weight of the Roman yoke
beyond eT Aprance, and the state OF re-
ligious al frs but little better. Espe-
cially in Galilee these conditions OBJ
tained. The Messiah was daily expected.
Several impostors presented themselvs.
When would the hour Of deliverance
come? When would the true Messiah
appear? 1T was" he continued, "at
this time and under these conditions that
Jesus af Nazareth appeared. What was
the lesson he taught? That of righteous
ness. This he taught, and the change
that was to come by righteousness. So
great his hope, so raptureus his enthusi-
asm, that he thought he was TO bring it
himself-that he himself was TO be the
Messiah.
CHRIST AND THE PHARISEES
cit has been said that Christ came to
overthrow Phariseeism; this is not so.
He only rebuked its excrescences and
abuses. The Pharisees were not, as many
suppose, a sect of hyPocrites, devoid of
honesty and worth of purpose The
principles they taught, Christ taught.
The teachings in the sermon on the
mount are to be found in contempor-
aneous Hebrew writings. and are of the
same general character as those of the
Pharisees." DR.. Adler next spoke OF
Hillel, great rabbi and one of the Phar-
isees, and of his high character and cru.
dition. According to the gospel cf
Matthew" he continued, Christ did
not attempt to abrogate the teach
ings of the Pharisees; he tried to
insist upon the Impotence of the
teachings of the heart. He denounced
the Pharisee teachings when they clashed
with the principal of moral rectitude
or usurped an undue prominence Con-
tinuing, the lecturer quoted Christ's saw
ing: am not sent but unto the lost
sheep of the house of Israel" and said !:
Indeed Jesus seems 10 have limited his
work to his immediate surroundings.
Yet, if the Millennium was arriving.
surely the whole world was to be in-
cluded and all the nations were to come
to Palestine and the holy mount"
WHY cBIsTIANITY TRIUMpHED.
The lecturer next considered the claim
that Christ had replaced the stern law of
retribution with those of charity and
brotherhood. This was not true, he
said. The teachings OF the older
prophets were not harsh. Stern they
were, but only in 50 far as duty itself is
stern, allowing no mawkish sentimental
ity to stand in its way. Not for pity's
sake, not for loves sake, but Tor the sake
of right because it is right''-this was the
idea Of the prophets in regard to matters
ofduty. But" said the lecturer, Gin
the intercourse of men, in matters CON
cerning the relations of the rich and the
poor, the strong and the weak, how ten
der the teachings of the prophetsI The
ancient prophets were idealists, preachers
of the spirit. In Jesus We have renew
al of the spirit, protest against formal
ism. But the hopes they had in the
distant future he saw close at hand, and
believed he was to be the instrument
Even if its substance was not new, We
must accord a general reverence and ad-
miration to the style of Jesus's teaching. |
Hillel and Buddha, long before Jesus,
had the spift of meekness; but in the /
story of 4 other life has thus method |
been pursued with such harmony and /
consistency. The secret of Jesus's pow
er lies mainly in his sympathy with the
neglected classes of the community. He
visited the publicans, the dumb, litter
ate masses of Galilee, he gave them hope
and so, in the earliest days of christian
@ty, the appeal to conscience which he
, 2E.sslA--t9led bore its fruits, and, in those
esrly days, the christian church was
real instrument of good" The lecturer
next spoke of Christ's helping the down
trodden, his love of children, and instruc-
ton of the ignorant, and added that his
life was "hallowed by the mournful
tragedy in which it closed" ''It was
,he humanii and not the dogma of Je-
Jus, said h.. by which christianity tri-
THE ArPLIczIoN OF RIeHTEoUsNEss.
DR.. Adler resumed as follows: "The ;
-itality of all great reformations is not {
n the dogmas on the surface, but in the {