The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-06-09

Caesar because they had used their prlestly au-
i thoritv over the people to make them submit to
the tyranny and oppression of Rome. They
| were we'll suited with their position. They were
| suffering nothing from oppression They were
growing fat and waxing rich upon the spoils of
their own people that were paid to them TOR the
| their fidelity to their people and to God; and
these fostered these doubts among the people,
and said: This man is a pretendef; this man Is
one who is telling you falsehoods; he is de-
cever he is false in his professions false in his
claims; he is but an artful and cum
ming teacher, who is seeking to seduce
you into following him, and to giving him
allegiance He is false prophet who is seeking
by these insdious means to win your loyalty
and your fealty, and finally to overthrow the
powers that be and involve you in worse state
| Of oppression than you are in now"
But the sweetness of the character Of Christ,
it's challenge to the criticism Of the world, the
deeds that He performed, began to have tell
inc effect upon the minds and hearts Of the
| Jews, and when Christ had unfolded His
scheme, when Christ told them that He was to
come. not as temporal monarch wearing
crown and royal robes and welding sceptre
over the nations Of the world, but He was to
come as spiritual king, lie was to come
and manifest Himself as the birth.
the new creation through the spirit OF God,
and He was to have for dominion by His doc
trine, by His principles. by His truth, by His
loyalty to God by the way and manner and con-
versation Of His life over the hearts and spirits
| Of men. that He was to be a spiritual ruler and
| His kingdom was to be over the internal nature
of man. and mans allegiance to Him was to be
| in conformity Of his spirit and that of Christ.
| When He had gotten this proposition fairly and
| squarey before the Jewish mind He reinforced
| it with the fact that, .Now come to you thus
claiming and come to you thus proclaiming.
! and come to you thus explaining, and now
| will reinforce by showing you that | must be
| whom | claim to be; must have been sent by
God; must have all my power from God, my
| teaching and my truth must be from God
because | am going to give you the evidence that
no man on earth can give except he be from God
and has his authority from Him." And for that
reason Christ exhibited to them all the various
| miracles that are reco rded of Him. He exhib
tied to them many miracles that are not re-
corded, but the sacred scribe tells us that these
| which are included in the record are given to
| us in order that we may have the full argument,
and that we may believe just as Christ intended
! that those Jews should believe on Him. And when
He had manifested Himself in this way and had
| reinforced His teaching, and reinforced His
| truth, and reinforced His claim with the exhi-
biton of these miracles to them then
they began to question among themselves
wisdom, whence hath this man the power, why
| can this man perform these wondrous miracles,
unless He be that which He claims to be, unless
He be Him whom we have expected and who
has come in this unexpected way. and Is pro-
claiming to US this unexpected doctrine; doc
| trine, however. that has reason in it, and that
has in it the internal evidence of being divinely
| born" And because they had expected Christ,
| when He came to come in the omnipotence of
God, and to manifest that omnipotence by His
ability to control not only the hearts, and minds,
and loyalty of men, not only to hold sway
| it and dominate the rest OF the world, but that
that could suspend natural laws and
could perform things that were out of the order
| of natural phenomena, because He was to have
those things, and this man came doing those
very things, suspending with word the laws of
| gravitation, suspending with word-the dissolu-
ton of life, suspending with a word the progress
of disease, suspending with word the inf1ictic-s
that had come upon men for their sins; because
he had been able to do all these things these peo
pie began to question and ask of those who
doubted and those who denied, and those who
rejected, and it brought the life, and the teach
| ings, and the works of Christ naturally to the
front. and it was: SWELL, if this be not Christ
| when Christ does come will He do more
miracles than those that this man has done?"
That was the pungent question that was put to
every one of the Jews that was rejecting Jesus.
| That was the question the answer to which was
| convincing men that He must be the Christ, and
| they were therefore giving Him their faith.
| Some Of them answered it, "No Christ when
| He comes cannot do more miracles than this
| man has DONE for this man has exhausted the
| manifestations of omnipotent power so far as
| we are able to receive those manifestations;
| there is nothing that human ingenuity can de-
wise; there is nothing that the imagination of
| man eau hope for wish for; there is nothing
| that we cannot attribute as evidence of the ex-
ercise of omnipotence beyond the things
| which this man hath already done"
| Therefore they repeatedly put the question to
the scrbes to the pharsees, to the learned doc
| tors, to the chief priests, to every one who
doubted, and denied, and rejected Christ who
| said: "When Christ does come, will He do more
| miracles than these that this man hath doneq'
| Christ knew the way In which they thought of
it. Christ knew the way in which this argument
0l,ek Il, xrIt oh khn~n
| ouestionings arose. Christ knew that in hun
! dreds of the hearts Of those who were anxiously
| following Him and anxiously taking up His
truth, piece by piece, they gathered it from
| His lips, and watching FOR these manifestations
of His omnipotent power from God,
| He knew that they were talking these
| things, and that upon the issue of them was
to be determined the faith of the followers
that He had then and of the followers He was
to have throughout the history of the world
hereafter aud when occasion afforded Him in
| the person of the man who was brought to Him.
and because of the press In the room could not
be brought unto Him. but was let down through
the roof of the house, He there found the oppor-
tunity to answer all these questions for his ques
tionng disciples, and to give them the immuta-
BILE argument, for then and for all time that He
was Jesus Christ that He was the Son of the
living God, and that He did have the power on
earth that He claimed to have.
The grand issue of Christ coming into the
world, as He himself announced 1t, was to save
sinners. Inc grand once tnat ne was TO per-
form and that God endowed Him with-an in
sigma to-day of His royalty as the Son
of God, is His power To forgive sins; and it was
that fact that Christ desired Is PITT Sc plain that
no man in all the ages to follow might ever have
/ al cause to doubt it; and it was that fact
tha. Hs des,r.,. then and there to establish be-
You'd cavil to every rss.rs'"i n.nu. "a anu "n s
this man was brought to HIN " ION MS ped the
man hopelessly palsied and inseparapis Jolhsu
to his bed so that they were weoasd together,
and the man could not get about. thought there
WAS no place for him where he could go without
his bed going with him; when they took the tiles
| off the roof Of the house, and let him, with his
couch, as the Scripture records it. down into the
presence of Jesus Jesus then saw His opportunity.
| He the time had come for Him to confound
all these doubts and to answer them by one
transcandent manifestation of divine r,osvar that