The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1878-12-23
FIFTH AVENUE BAPTIST CHURCH.
GOD WAS MANIFESTED IN CHRIsT-sERMoN BY

REV. DIR. ARMITAGE.
As no religious services will be held in the Fifth
Avenue Baptist Church on Christmas Day Dr. Armi-
tage preached usual his Christmas sermon yester
day morning the subject of God as manifested in
Christ. taking his text from l. Timothy ill., 16-"Cod
manifested in the flesh" Macaulay has most
eloquenty said logicians may reason about abstrac-
tons, but the great OF mankind never feel
interest in them. They must have images. The
strong tendency of the multitude in all ages and
tions to idoatry can be explained on no other prn
ciple. This idea expressed by the historian is but
another way of treating thought which the great
apostle lays before the Coossians when he calls
Christ the image of the invisible God. This Church
familiar with hosts of gods and goddesses
and had been gathered from men who had worshipped
images all their lives. God had forbidden
man to make any "graven image" for him
self. because nothing which he could make
could bear resemblance to God. But while God pro-
hibted such object of alteration He condescended
reveal all His attributes and nature in in
carnation that the otherwise invisible God should
all His fulness in a human breast and dis
play all His glory the form and features of His Son.
These ideal neaments were to rest upon what seemed
ordinary face assuming no vapid and senseless
beauty and yet to he the of virtue ideal
lied the visible inspiration divine thought human
likeness. The image of God which man would carve
would embody passions and prejudices taken from
his nature, and would insult God by its odious
basphemy in distorting His character; but the
image which He has given in His Son is the express
likeness OF His person. Thus He condescends TO
weaknesses and cuts of all latitude to that blight
ing polytheism which violates His unity. Jesus is
His image, not in the sense in which men bear His
likeness tor the question here is Of visibility and
invisiblty Paui's thought is that in Christ we
have full compensation for our inability to gaze
upon the invisible God. No man has God at any
time. The Only Begotten, who in the bosom OF the
Father, has revealed Him. This mastery thought OF
the apostle throws light upon text. This work
manifested il fraught with weighty import. We are
too apt to lock upon the incarnation as a mere
shrouding Of Gods glory while in fact, it was His
great method OF revealing Himself by substituting
His visible Son for His own invisible presence.
GOD MAKES HIMSELF KNOWN TO MAN.
Christ. then, is Jehovah embodied. To manifest is
to make clear what is obscure. So Christ makes the
of perfect spotlessness. but he had
being without sin and guile. Christs face tho
transparent mirror into which. when looked. he
od with mortal eye a. the image OF the invisible
Cod the breast of Christ became the shrine Of the
divine presence Jesus said. The Father dwelleth in
me" and His great apostle adds, In him dwelt the
fulness of the Godhead bodily" When we claim
that God is brought to view III Christ. the
thought is far reaching for it opens to us His
very heart for inspection, and the first thing that
discover there is His humility. Here il new
feature discovered in God by the incarnation of
Christ. Heather mythology knew nothing of humil-
ity as an attribute in deity Everything like it
despised in man craven and cowardly. There
fore man OF mummy was mean and contemplate
and what the devotee disalowed in himself he could
not tolerate in his God; consequently the full
thought of condescending could not enter the
mind Of man ennoblng the character of God
till the Father gave to IL full expression in
His Son. who said in his character well
his words, Il meek and lowly in heart"
Thus in the incarnation there nothing degrading
to God; but. on the contrary Ut was Godlike
ception that he should partake of the life of His
creatures and to know them perfectly. not only
in thought, but in their expression that the new
doctrine should become divine humanity. by which
He transferred His throne from mans head to his
heart. When the magii saw the young child they
simply beheld the divine Shekinah jewel in a
human casket. The song. GLORY To God in the
Highest" is but the ancient chant to the angclJe
hovah repeated. and the utterance, Peace upon
EARTH. is but the articulate Jehovah, God Of Eden.
whose promise had flowed down through the ages
like river bearing its bosom the ark OF the