Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1886-09-27
The Sermon OF the Rev. Mr.. Wood at
the First Baptist Church
Yesterday.
He Chooses For His Text the Living
Question, "What Think We
Of Christi"
A Beautiful TextrAbly Handled and
Expressed in Eloquent Terms.

Christ ?"
l have read that the venetians have
custom of casting ring into the waves of
the Adrlatlc at certain seasons to symbolic
the marriage of their city to the sea-
The beautiful city with its marble palaces
stands at the head of the measureless waste
of waters, but conducting these watery
wastes through her streets she has made
even the distant Mediterranean her servant
to float her traffic through her streets, where
the merry gondoliers sing their boat songs.
So to the citidel of the human mind,
| more beautiful than TRANSPORTED marble,
would | bring tonight the hither to bound
less waste of an unvalued and unappreci-
ated faith in Christ. Yea, would wed in
one blessed and indissolable union your
loftiest mental forces and the far-hashing
sea of Christ's unfathomable love and power
until these shall flow into and through your
existence as part of your daily life, and
you shall use them even as the great city
covers the sea with her fleets. And as the
ring, without beginning or end, is an en-
blem OF eternity, so shall this union of your
higher and better powers with the unknown
resources of a living Christ be as far-reaob-
ing as eternity, and cause you to sing the
glad song of redemption's morning saving
with the poet:
Jesus, love thy charming name,
Ills music to my ear;
dIh WOulu L SOullu III OUT so loud
That earth and heaven should hear"
THE QUESTION OF THE AGES.
What think ye of Christ in the complete
ness of His character The great question
which has agitated the world more than any
other in history is the questioned asked by
the perplexed and vascillating PLATE when
he said, what shall do with Jesus?" This
momentous question is still unsettled, al
though more than eighteen hundred years
have passed since it was first given to the
world. What shall we do with Christ in the
pre-emnent position which His life and
character entitle Him to occupy2 What
rank and origin shall we ascribe to HimP Ia
He mere man fallible and sinful like other
men, or is He unlike all others, absolutely
pure and perfect and yet man? Or is He
mythical character with His life sufferinQs
and death simply delusive conceptions of
misguided men? Shall we regard Him as
being of higher order than man, descending
to earth and living amongst us, or shall we
regard Him as God incarnate2 These are
the questions, say, which have agitated
the world for nearly nineteen hundred wears
and still remain to many honest inouirers as
perplexing as ever. Men of profoundest
erudition have attempted the solution of
the question and still it returns. Are we
sometimes told by small philosophers and
those who try to make up for their
deficiency in mental and spiritual per-
ception by bold blasphemy that these
are questions of small moment?
Then how comes it that three fourths of the
English literature annually published is on
religious or emi-religious subjects? 1t shows
the trend of the intellectual world. If there
are thousands so STEPPED and environed in
consciousness that they deny human spiritu-
atty, prefer to trace their origin to monkey
and believe when they break their fast that
they are sitting down to a roast joint of their
own ancestry, there are tens of thousands
yIl.al f.falr vnrI fs.r l,...
because
Zone question, more than others all.
From thoughtful minds invokes reply;
1t is, as breathed from star and hall,
What fate awaits us when we dep
TO THE LAW AND TESTIMONY.
Shall we hope to bring more research and
learning into the field of inquiry than
others who have gone before usP Then what
better can We do than to turn to the lofty
character of this mysterious Being as it Is
revealed to us through His own inspired
Word?
woNDRoUs UNITY.
In searching the Bible we shall discover
this popularity in the representations of
Christ, which we should not find if it were a
fiction: 1t is unit in itself, and thus bears
the stamp of its reality. We should remem-
Der that the character of Christ, as presented
In the gospel, is not the work of one man.
One author can carry out his own concep-
ton and secure a unity to his work which is
continued to the end however numerous the
characters introduced or however labyrin-
THAN the plot may be. Thus Charles Dick
ems leads you through the charming story of
David Copperheld, never losing a single
thread of its multinudinous characters
which are all drawn into harmonious unity
at last. Thus Homer, or Virgil or Shakes
peare preserve their identity and unity
tlfOnDlDnt. ha
If the Had of Homer or the Aeniad of Vir-
gil or the Hamlet of Shakespeare were the
production of society or combination of
poets. rich painting is made to conform
to the one idea of the artist throughout, but
it would be very different if it were left to n
society of artists, with each individual ar
fist to give the picture touch according to
his own idea of art or beauty. In the
case of statue, the sculptor takes his
block of marble and chisels it according to
his own idea from beginning to end. How
different it would be if it were the Joint
production OF a society of sculptors, each
one of whom formed a head, or hand, or
foot, according to his own idea of perfec-
ton.
ABOVE ALL LIMITATIONS.
Even then the work would not be half as
difficult as that given us in the life of the
Goldman. For poet or historian, painter
or sculptor, whether their work were their
own exclusively or a joint production with
others, would simply embody the ideas and
conception of their own time. But the
ideas of morality and of manners vary in
different ages. In one age it is high, in an
other it is low. SO there are qualities of
character cultivated in one age which are
disregarded in another. What in one ACE
was considered lofty virtue, would be con
sidered OF doubtful propriety Mt the present
time.
Now, we should remember that the life of
Jesus Christ as given us in the gospels is
not only the joint work of four or five DIFF
ferent authors, and yet perfect and harmo-
NOUS unity runs through IL all from begin. |
ming to end, but it was produced in an age
of luxurious Incidence and vice, at n time
when Epicurean philosophy had poisoned
the entire morals of society, and yet we find
this life invested with a lofty idealsm that
towers above all limitations of schools, of
age, of sect or nation; an idealism and n
beauty which have ever commanded the un. |
ceasing admiration of even the bitterest
enemies of the gospel.
A UNIVERSAL MODEL.
Other living characters represent sectional |
and never universal humanity. Abraham |
and Moses though standing far in advance |
OF their own people and time, were never.
theless distinctiyely Jewish in their views,
habits and positions, as well as in their
percentages Socrates was type of Greek
character, and could never rise above il.
Martin Luther with all his virtues was n
German, and never could be other than n
stubborn Dutchman; Napoleon the Great.
with all his extraordinary military geniua !
was purely French in his aspirations as we'll
as in his nationality; General Grant, though
receiving the recognition of the world
could never be to any other people what ne
was TO the American nation. None of these
could ever rise above the horizon of their