The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1882-08-09
Jesus the Son of Man.

The Son of man is come to seek and to save
that which was lost. Luke xix
Nothing could better illustrate his per-
feet manhood than his identifying him
self with the humble incidents of private
life. He had grown up under the com.
mon ordinances of human experience as
child, a son, brother, friend, and a
neighbor. AS Jew he had shared in
the social, civil, and religious life of his
nation. His presence at this marriage
(of Cana) showed that he continued the
same familiar relations to his fellew-men
after his conservation as before it.
Neither his nationality, nor education,
nor mental characteristics, nor natural
temperament narrowed his sympathies.
Though burdened with the Oh COM
mission as Messiah, he retained a vivid
interest in all things human. With us
any supreme occupation leaves only
apathy for other things. But in Christ
no one faculty or emotion appeared in
excess. His fullness of nature suited it.
self to every occasion. Strength and
grace, wisdom and &ove, courage and
purity, which are the one side of our
being, were never displayed so har-
moniously and so perfectly as in him.
But the incidents of this marriage feast
show that the other side, the feminine
gentleness and purity, which are the
ideal virtues of woman, were no less his
characteristics. They threw light on the
words of Paul: "In him is neither Jew
nor Greek, bond nor free, male nor
female; but Christ is all and in all" He
could subdue Plate by his calm dignity,
but he also ministered to the happiness
of village festival. He could withstand
the struggle with the prince of darkness
in the wilderness and through life, but
he wept over the grave of Lazarus. He
could let the rich young ruler go his way
to perish If he went, but he sighed as he
healed the man who was dumb. He
pronounced the doom of Jerusalem with
lofty sternness, but he wept as he
thought how they had neglected the
things of peace. He craved sympathy
and he showed it with equal tenderness.
He was calm amidst the widest tumult,
but he sought the lonely mountain for
midnight prayer. He sternly rebuked
Peter for limiting a temptation, but he
blamed his sleep in Gethsemane as
weakness of the flesh. He gave away
crown when on the cross, but he was
exceedingly sorrowful even unto death
In the garden. He never used his mi
raculous powers to relieve himself, but
he provided for the multitude in the
wilderness. His judges quailed before
him, but he forgot his dying agonies to
commend his mother to lifelong friend.
He rebuked death that he might give
her son back to the widow; and he took
part In the humble rejoicings of hum
BILE marriage that he might elevate and
sanctify human Joys.
In the fullest sense he was man, but
not in the sense in which manly virtues
are opposed to those of woman, for he
showed no less the gentleness, purity,
and tenderness of the one sex than the
strength and nobility of the other. He
was the Son Of man in the grand sense of
being representative of humanity as a
whole. Man and woman have in him
their perfect ideal.
The miracle in nature is no less real
or wonderful than that of the marriage
FEAST and strikes us less by its being
familiar. A miracle is only an exercise
in new way Of the Almighty power we
see daily producing the same results in
nature. Infinitely varied forces are at
work around us every moment From
the sun to the stone, from the stone to
the thinking brain and beating heart,
they circulate sleeplessly through all
things forever.-Geikie'S Life of Christ
Upsetting Moses.