Omaha daily bee., 1888-02-13
Christ More THIN u Man.

ht lne 1reSDy Jerlan cnufcn yesterday
morning there was a large congrega-
tion. The attendance at the Sunday
service is increasing rapidly, and this is
largely due to the excellence of the SER
mons delivered by the pastor, Rev. DR..
Phelps. His ripeness of scholarship,
clearness of statement, vividness Of il
lustration and his dashes of eloquence
make him strong pulpit orator. Yes
terday he took as his text Paul's words
to the Colossians: ''For in him dwell
eth all the fullness of the godhead bod
ily." From these words the speaker
sought to carry the thoughts of his hear
ers, along easy lines of reasoning, to a
realization of how high u conception
Paul had of Christ. Several strong
suggestions were made from the study
of the original words, and their peculiar
significance, when thus used to the
COlossians, whose belief was peculiar.
The preacher alluded to the fact
that many believed that Christ was
grand man, n moral hero, wonderful
reformer, but this conception he de-
nOunced as nonsensical, when COM
pared with the conception which Paul
had. If this low estimate of Christ's
character was intended, the divine pen
went sadly astray. The words meant
more than this, much more.
There were many gnostlcs among the
Colossians. They believed that God
was so great that he had nothing to do
with this earth. There was such an in
finite distance between God and man,
that humanity could not reach up to the
divine. Between the two was the con-
dition in which there were emanations
from the deity, and these were called
aeons. They gave Christ the position
to combine christianity with gnosti-
cism. Paul, as seen by the original,
clearly touched upon this belief, and
gathering up all the virtues manifested
in these aeons, declared that Christ not
only embraced all these, but still more,
the fullness of God himself. 1t was a
grand climax, n wonderful conception.
Christ could not be deified by man.
There were saints; there were wonder
full men who had been canonized, but no
worship on the part OF man made Christ
God. He was God, whether man wOr-
SHIPPED him or not.
The fullness of the godhead was in
him bodily. This meant much. One
might build mighty cauldron as large
as the Roman amphitheater and might
fullness of the sea, but it would not have
all the sea by any means. 1t would not
be the fullness of the sea bodily. No one
man, however grand, could contain God.
He might be filed with Gods spirit, but
Christ contained the fullness of the god
head bodily. Omnipotence, ,Omniscience,
every power and attribute of God, was
contained in Him in their fullness.
This conception was beyond human
comprehension. Who could answer the
question: what is God?" The scien-
tist, the philosopher, the bible student,
the angels themselves, yelling their
faces in his presence, could not put the
answer in language: they could but tell
some of the attributes, yet all OF God
was in Christ.
Christ was also human. When the
birthday anniversary OF Stephenson, the
great English engineer, was celebrated,
there was II great crowd of people.
Among the pageantry and brilliant pro-
cessions there appeared little band of
peasants, humble in mien, poor In
purse, who were given the most promi-
nent place in the great gathering.
These were from the quay where Steph-
enson was born, and their cheap little
banner bore simply the words: He
Was One of U.s." So when beyond the
river, when all should pass the iudg-
ment seat before the great white throne
amid all the golden robes and brilliant
crowns. those from earth would be
given II glorious welcome, for HE was
one of us.
If you desire to get new Hall type writer
cheap, drop postal card to II. A. p, BEE
nNn hnrn ha Hrsf yUhn