The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-05-03

Detroit, Mich. He spoke az follows
but say unto you that in this place Is One great
er than the temple-"-Natt. xii. 8.
Was ever self-assertion more audaciousf 1t
was blasphemy to Jewish ears. Greater than
the templel There it stood, the apple of the
Jewish eye, the one thing in Jewish history and
Jewish life bearing in its beauty and magnih-
cence all that lavish love, ell that wealth and
worth and willing sacrifice could bring; the won
| der OF antiquity, greater even than the Acropo-
Lis. 1t filed the nations eye and pride. The
experience of the nation, the revelations of Je-
hovah, had been toward the contamination OF
that hope toward Zion, the perfection of beauty,
as 1T stood pure, white and clustering In the ra-
dance OF the Oriental sun. About it clustered
the tenderest and most cherished associations OF
the people In it were enshrined their choicest
memories About it gathered their highest
patriotic and religious associations, and from 1t
came the inspirations and aspirations of the
nation. It was the depository of their religious
symbols. the expression of their religious faith.
There were their affairs, their priests their sac
rifices, their Holy Presence and holy mission.
There was their history, there the place OF ma
tional resort, there the universal and cherished
possession. There had been the beaming OF
Gods sweetest smiles, and from thence the utter
ance of His richest benedictons.
And who is this that dared measure himself
for moment beside the temple. The half
birth, bubble upon the sea of enthusiasm; I'M
known yesterday and forgotten tomorrow. And
yet it was true. He was greater than the tenn
pie. He was the embodiment of richer patriot
ism. He was the representative of larger past.
From Him was the inculcation of higher piety,
and by His lip and His life was to be the bene-
diction of more radiant and enduring hope. He
was greater than the temple. The temple was
dead and He was alive. The temple was limited
and He had ages for His own. The temple was
inert, bearing that which was brought to it. He
was not only vital, but vitalizing, giving crea-
tive power; carrying in himself the seeds of i'm
mortal life and from himself granting overflow
ings of thought and of life to the ages that were
to come.
But we mistake the full intent of these divine
words when ne limit them to the Man of Naza-
reth. For these words present to as the identi-
ication Of God with the human race and they
teach us, primarily, the largeness, the impor-
lance Of our humanity as compared with the un-
Importance of all things else. Christ, in these
words. asserts in the hrst place the supremacy
o. our common manhood. For. bear in mind,
His utterance was not in self defense, but in de-
Tense of his disciples. Walking through the
upon the Sabbath to pluck the corn
for their own nourishment and de-
Tending not himself but His disciples,
to assert their right and to claim their dignity
above the law of the Sabbath, Christ uttered
this memorable thought. God in Christ is iden-
titled with humanity. When God was made
manifest in the flesh, it was public declaration
of the Identification Of the divine with the
human, ia worldly interests ana IN worldly pos
sibiities. This is the peculiar majesty OF the
gospel of Christ. Repeatedly Christ brings to
us these strange words, II in them, they in me-"
Abide in me, and my word shall abide in you"
II and my Father are one" THAT they may be
one in u.s." And SO, most singularly, in
strange mysticism which we cannot measure nor
interpret, but which we can experience and be-
lieye, God Identifies himself with men with
none others of His creation. And 80 He asserts
the supremacy of man in his origin, in his inter
III srd Go1 1oha
ating man, He stood at the topmost summit of
His creative work, and having created man in His
own image, He rested from all His works AS by
inspiration, we are taught that He hath made man
little lower than God, SO in the endowment of
creation he was given the God-like faculty and
the God-like authority of having dominion over
all His creatures on earth. The earth was made
for man, not man for the earth. Its institutions,
its powers, its possibilities are not to use man,
but to be used by man for his highest and
nobest purposes; and when man so soon sinned,
God rested not until, out of that sin, there was
for him the possibility and the promise
of an ultimate and glorious redemption. And
so man marches ever toward his destiny, with
God-like endowment and with God-like oppor
tunities. It is his, made little lower than God,
to enter into the secret of Gods own thoughts;
for, as he sezes the powers OF the air. as he dis
closes the secrets Of the earth, as he interprets
and chains the powers that are round about him.
he is but using his God-given faculties to find
out Gods own thought for himself. And 80 it
comes to pass that in mans experience there is
realized, in mans own life and development. the
dream of ancient minds, OF the gods. 1t is mans
to grasp the lightnings in his hand, and to hurl
the thunderbolts whittier he will 1t is mans
to reach forth his finger under the depths, and
to write his messages three thousand miles away.
It is mans to train his ear to hear the voice of
his friend in the distance; mans to quicken his
vision and to discern the stars in yonder depths;
mans to weigh the very worlds in the balance,
and to take up the isles a very little thing.
AS of Christ, so it be said reverentially of
of man himself, he came from God and goes to
God He is not limited by these little circles of
material experiences and possibilities; he is not
limited to a mere bundle of nerves, and muscles
and bones. II is his to enter into Gods thoughts,
not only, but to enter into the hope of Gods
kingdom; to have the promise of eternal fellow
ship and of eternal likeness; of restoration to
complete sonship; that he may be again heir of
God, and joint heir with Jesus Christ, to a
heavenly inheritance, to thrones, and dominions.
and prncipahtes, and powers in heaven. And
so, as read thus the Interpretation of mans
dignity, we read his supremacy. And so Christ
teaches US out of this thought, in the second
place. the mission of all law.
We are eternally talking and congratulating
ourselves upon societies, governments, courts of
justice, legislation and civilization. We boast
of organizations and of their large achievements,
and surrender ourselves readily to their influence
and to their protection. We write laws, and
give ourselves most seriously to codifying our
laws. We labor toward written law and we
gather laws together point proudly to the mon
umental virtue of our statute books. Law is
not an end, but means to an end. Man is not
made for law but the law for man; and its mis-
sion is not to be restrictive, not to subdue. not
to control that he may be destroyed, but to eau
ton and guide that he may be protected and de-
veloped. This does not mean the necessity of
violation of law for the man who violates the
law violates himself. AS law comes for the pro-
| lection and richer development of his own being,
as we have written the laws corresponding to
the moral law given of God as they are
synonymous, ofttimes, with the large. sterling
virtues inculcated Of God he who violates law
violates his own nobler and better self. Law is
not an arbitrary thing but criterion. It comes
| not that law itself may be asserted, not that
man may be bound around with restrictions and
J limited into narrow walk, a narrow mold, but
that out of these there may be ministry to
mans SELF to larger, better life