Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1879-05-18
1.-THE GREAT MYSTERY,
A Lecture BY Rev. w. A. Harrison d..
ID, i'm the Third Presby-
Geraam church


The following is lecture delivered b.
Rev. w A Harrison, d. D., pastor of tn
Third Presbyterian Church Sunday even
ing, 10Th inst:
To night we have lecture instead of
sermon, and yet like all minister's lee
lures, sermon nevertheless We.call it
lecture however, by way of allowing our
selves more latitude and freedom in tht
discourse than is usually INDUCED in Whei
we are confined strictly to preaching
The text Is found in 1st Timothy, 3, 10
And without controversy great Is the my 5
tery of goodness, (or God IIkenessl, Goa
rms ,aanifest in the flesh, Justified IN the
Spirit. seen of angels, preached unto the
Genti1es believed on IN the WorIo, recelV'
The great mystery then, or rather the
one pr6minent feature of that mystery 10
which we call your attention tonight is
that God was manifest Ia human Heshi
tbat Christ came down from heaven
40 reveal God unto man, and that
He went back to heaven to reveal man I'M
j to God and to all the principalities and
/ mowers of the heavenly world, thus reveal
| ing unto them the mystery they were anx-
! ious to penetrate, and through the Church,
which is His body, setting forth unto them
the manifold wisdom of God.
The question is sometimes asked, "N hat
was there in the person of Christ emitting
Him to the honor of unfolding, or rather
of being this great mystery ~ Let the
utterances of the Old and New Tesla
ment answer Isaiah says, Unto US
a child is born, unto US son is given, and
the government shall be on his shoulders !;
and his name shall be called Wonderful,
Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlast-
ing Father, the Prince of Peace. OF the
increase of his government and peace
there shall be no end.'
II - h 1oya Of Ha hot
speaking of the great mystery in his day
and generation. Paul presents this mys-
terry more fully in PHILIPPIANS: Let this
mind be in you, which was also IN Christ
Jesus who, being in the form of God,
thought it not robbery to be equal with
God: but made himself of no reputation,
and took upon him the form of a servant,
and was made in the likeness of man: and
being found in fashion as a man, he
humbled himself and became obedient
unto death, eUea the death Of the cross"
Wherefore, God also hath highly exats
ed Him and given Him a name which l.
above every name: That at the name of
Jesus every knee should bow in heaven
aud earth and under the earth, and every
tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is
Lord to the glory of God the Father.
Matthew, speaking of this great
% oyy1b sfyS and virgin ev shall aSa brog
His name Emmanuel, which, being in
terpreted, is God with us. He, Jesus
Christ, is the brightness of the Fathers |
glory, and the express image Of His Per- |
son. The Word was with God and the /
Word was God, and the Word was made |
flesh and dwelt among US, and We beheld |
His glory as the glory of the only begot |
ten Son of God, full of grace and truth. |
OF his fullness have we all received, and |
grace for grace. Again Paul says of |
Christ, that in Him dwells all the full
ness of the Godhead bodily, and we are |
in Him"
Now, these are, all of them, wonderful |
utteraHces and full of meaning to US all. |
To be like God, to be complete, to reach |
the statue of perfect man, we must be in |
Christ. Out Of him there must be failure, |
the branch cut off from the vine is our |
doom.
l. First, then, let us look at the man
hood of Christ. God was manifest in flesh. |
That flesh was ours. For as much as the |
children were partskers of flesh and |
blood, he likewise took part of the same
In that flesh of ours dwelt the fullness of |
the Godhead bodily: that is, God was
then in human body, and in
that human body which was a partsker
of the innocent inhrmities of our nature,
there dwelt perfect manhood. Jesus
Christ was very God-8nd He was very
man. In Him dwelt all the fullness of man
hood. Complete manhood dwelt in no
/
only man that ever walked this earth that
came up to the full model that existed in
the mind of God when He made man in
His own immage and after His own like
ness. His humanity was not the Adamic
humanity, but wss abvove it. Adam was
free from the faint Of SIM but Jesus Christ
was not only free from the accused
aint of sin, but he was freed from the pos
ibiiity of falling or SHINING, from which
Adam was not free, else had he not fallen !
ntO sin. We therefore affirm that COM {
'lete manhood was never lodged in any {
lumsn bosom until Christ camo and God
vas manifest in flesh.
We all know how it is with man now:
ven tn best are fearfully deficient Even l
reat men are often like Blind Tom, great in
ne department but failures in others Ma
ure here seems to confer her gifts with a
liggard hand, and looks we'll to the law of {
One man is gifted as q !
Judge, and holds with steady head the J
Gales of Justice, but is deficient in mag I
nation, and the creative genius or faculty. I
Here IS man like Aaron, with great pow
RS of eloquence, but wanting in judg-
nent and frmness, which gifts Moses had,
While he in turn was slow of speech One
nan is philosopher, born such, like Sir |
saRc Newton, but he could not write such |
poem as Milton, whilst Milton, in turn, l
1Ould make poor out graphing with the
bstract and recondite truths of the m6the- {
1atlcal world. Shakespeare has almost '
lpernatural power in reading the humsn
cart and painting it in words, but in the !
of the common affairs of life i
e sinks even below ordinary men. And, f
, far as diyersities in moral gifts, what an /
lugtrious example we have in Lord t
aeon. In all kinds of knowledge the won v
er of his day and generation, the author of b
he lnductive System of Philosophy, but
uffed with brides and Justly described by v
lie poet as the greatest and the mesnest of b
lankind." And so we find with E
len of eminence, as general thing, their ri
fits are in one direction. They havere- a
elved and cultivated one talent, and in the nj
xercise OF that talent they are great v
ike the iron-clad gun-boat of the late war. il
hat carried one gun of tremendous power, O
nd cut down every thing in its reach. but
'as failure when it came to ,swiftuess in o
ailing and buoyancy in riding the waves 5,
f the sea. q
Just so we find men now, deficient. one
ded, imperfect. In no one bosom do Won q
nd dwelling the fullness of manhood. h
But now, suppose you could concentrate n
one man all the eminent gifts of all the f
reat man of the world; make him the 81
srfect judge, poet, mathematician, scient- n
t, and so on through all the departments b
life: give him perfect courage honesty, G
nderness and piety-let all these gifts d
we'll In one man and to the largest meas S
g possible to humanity-let this man be el
III