Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1882-02-27
IDENTIFICATION OF THE MEssIAH

Abstract of the Sermon of Rev. Emory
Miller at the First M. E. Church.
The pulpit of the First M. E. church was
occupied yesterday morning and evening by
the Rev. Emory Miller. In the forenoon he
preached sermon In regard to the Identified
ton of the Messiah, taking his text from the
first four verses of the first chapter of Romans
as follows:
paul, a servant of Jesus Christ,
sasa unto be the an gospel ap0S' Of G se9
(which he had promised afore by his
prophets in the holy seriptures,) concerning
his son Jesus Christ, our Lord, which was
made of the seed of David, according to the
flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with
power, according to the spirit of holiness, by
the resurrection from the dead"
The speaker commenced by saying that the
idea of Messiah is one of the oldest in
possession of man. Given to Adam, it has
lived in some form, more or less corrupted,
among all generations, and ever and anon
developed pretenders to messiahship from the
time "men began to call themselves by the
name of the Lord'' to those who figuered in
apostolic days. This long list of pretenders
doubtless led to general skepticism as to the
claims of Christ, for men would think "there
have been so many mesSanic frauds, how
shall we know who is the genuine" This
doubt the apostle recognizes and meets in the
text, stating the manner in which Jesus alone
is identified both in himself and divinity
His designation as the genuine Messiah in
the department of his human nature appears
in the concurrence of prophecy concerning
him, AS to the family in which he should
appear, it states to Adam he must be men,
Der of the human family. He must descend
from Abraham through Isaac, Jacob and Ju-
dab. OfJudah's tribe the family of Jesse is
selected, and of this family David is the chosen
progenitor of the human nature of Jesus.
The Messiah then must appear before the lin
age of David is lost or his family becomes ex-
tinct, or the prophecy will be failure; and
any claimant must be fraudulent who is not of
this lineage.
As to the time of the Messiah's appearance,
it is prophecied, Q) to be the ''fulness" of
time; (2) before the dissolution of Judah's
nationality; (S) as cotemporaneous with this
dissolution.
AS to the place, Bethlehem is declared by
prophecy to have that honor.
must concur in the advent of one person
with such particularising circumstances as to
exclude all other persons.
The fulfllment: The decree of Augustus
requiring that tribute should be paid no
longer by the Jews as a nation, but that all
should be enabled and pay tax as individuals
made that enrolment the dissolution of Ju-
dah's nationality. The Journey of Joseph
aud Mary from Nazareth to Bethlehem to be
enrolled was because, as descendants of David,
they must be identified at the town of David
where his lineage was kept; and here in this
family at the time prophisied Jesus appeared;
and In the advent of no other human being,
do these prophetic requirements concur.
The speaker then pointed out that Christ
was identified in the department of his divini-
ty by the exercise of power in his resurrection
from the dead. The argument for the resur-
rectlon of Christ was here sketched, and its
demonstrative character was pointed out.