Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-12-30
ii THE PULPIT.
REV. W. C. MERRILL DIsCoURsEs ON
CHRIsTs CHARACTER.
A Ten-Minute Talk Last Evening-Rey.
c. P. Massey ON ''The Elements
of Civilizations"


of Christ's nobility of character. The text
was from Matt xxi, AZ: what think you
of Christi" ITO the civilized world" said
the speaker, consciously or unconsciously,
this is the one question of the ages. Men
are not ready always to admit the fact, but,
struggle as they may, none but q nature
petrifed on the side of righteousness is
able quite to bar out the disturbing query.
Very likely the first reply will be, Thou
art the son of David bat closer knowl-
edge of the man and his mighty power
will make almost inevitable the reply the
Master sought, Thou art the child of God.
"The character of Christ is solitary. 1t
battles all interpretations save his own.
Religious inquiry finds no difficulty in
tracing the beauty of Christian character
back to Christ, of whom it is reflected
light; but to the question, Whence comes
his light?' no ingenuity has yet evolved an
answer that does no involve his own inter-
probation; / am the light The average
mind will not rest satisfied with an ab-
straction. 1t will have an incarnation.
The question, What is it?' will not satisfy
the universal heart; there follows logically
the other question, Who is he? What
think you of Truth? That is the question
that has made easuists without number,
What think you of Christi That is the
query that has been making Christians for
nineteen centuries. What is the Truth?'
That is the question that has carved mar
Bile into human shape. What think YOU
of Christi That is the query that has
breathed upon those statues and has made
them live forever.
IF individual souls are to be saved, they
must have an individual Savior. Person
atty seeks personality, and cannot rest in
peace with only vague ideal. The angels
song is precious to the human heart be-
cause it satisfied two great conditions of
true religion. Man must have a Being
whom he may worship, and be must have
knowledge that his worship is accepted.
Only the incarnation gives the revelation
of the one and the assurance of the other.
No man can worship law. Cohesion is a
first law of solidify. But l can as easily
worship clod as bow down to the law of
cohesion that makes a clod out of those
myriad dead atoms. You cannot worship
moral law as such. 1t must be incarnate;
not merely typifed in individual lives by
here and there fragment. You will not
rest in your search until you have found ii
beauty, in all their perfectness. Such an
incarnation will command your homage.
You will not easily pass it by.
sit may be like Uranus, all unseen, draw.
iDgi Neptune from his course, but, as dis
turbing factor, as at first conceived, it will
come to be seen a constant attraction with
out which Neptune could not maintain his
particular orbit.
What think you of Christ? Men have
lived lives of consummate purity on earth
and have gathered about them a handful of
followers; here and there shines out quail
ity really great in character, and we admire
its beauty; but here is Being in whom all
the attributes of character have burst into
glorious bloom.
I'VE are wont to do homage to the super.
lative in the realm of mind, and if the
mind of any man succeeds to q single hight,
we crown him with the wreath of bay and
ask no more of him. The pupil of So
crates writes his republic, and henceforth
Plato is philosophy. a calm, strong face
looks out from the bema upon an Athen-
ian throng in the utterance of a Defense of
the Crown, and henceforth Demosthenes
Is oratory for all coming time. E;chelus
writes tragedy, Homer sings an epic and
the world will never let them die; Cicero
speaks and Catalina is reprobate IN the eyes
only the 'Sistine Madonna to commence
rate his art, he would still have lived for
ever; had Dannecker thrown away his
chisel when Ills Christ was finished, he
would have been immortal.
Had Mozart hymned but a single
Requiem Beethoven composed but his
Fifth Symphony their sepulchers would
have been the mecca Of all tunetul spirits.
Michael Angelo wrought his Moses in
marble and his Last Judgment in colors;
Plidjas erected the Parthenon and fash
Toned the statue of 'Olympian Jove,' and
for the double achievement we set their
names on the top most pinnacle of fame.
what should we say, my friends, did
some babe, heralded only by hosts invisible
from the seclusion of some dispised hamlet,
send forth Platonian philosophy with the
commanding eloqnence of Demosthenes
and the fiery denunciation yet winning
responsiveness of Cicero; now lifting men
to heaven with the sounding meter of
Kschylus; now stirring patriotism with
the limpid murmur of the 'Sightless Bard
of Scio's Isle?' What if he should carve
a Moses paint Lost Judgment erect
a Parthenon and fashion Jove in brass and
ivory? What if he should paint 'Sistne
Madonna and throw in bas relief Thor
waldsen's Venus VicIix2' What if he
should write a requiem that should bring
Mozart himself TO tears, and com pose
symphony that should humble Beethoven
into silent rhapsody
What should you say of such q charac-
ter, should he appear among men and thus
throw all the faculties and possibilities of
mind into one Alpine range that should
make all peaks one summit? Surely you
would say the gods are come down to US
in the likeness of man, Well, then, what
a. y l.. IL. Ill Il l.
Christ is in the infinitely greater scope of
the moral realm. What think you of
Christ, my friends? Is He worthy the adj
miration of q manly soul?
Paint virtue and honor and charity and
purity and all love, with all other excel
lences dear to honorable souls, and if you
wish to picture the absolute truth of which
these are but fragments, you will delineate
the Christ at Pilates Judgment seat. What
think you of this Being " 40 is reproducing
daily in the lives of men those same rare
qualities, modified indeed, yet charming
men with their simple beauty? What
think you of HIM. There He stands, the
one figure of the ages; colossal in proper
tons, yet drawing childhood to his arms
in fearless confidence; mighty in his power,
yet mingling his tears with the tears of
those who weep the loved and lost. What
will you say of such incarnate power?
Will you say He is the son of David.
and spend half your life henceforth
in defining your position and the
other half in apologizing for it? What
think you of him2 VIII you ignore him
altogether You cannot ignore the air of
heaven; you breathe it to utter your de-
NAL; deny him you cannot; your life so
blends with his III its upper reaches that
you cannot ignore his presence. He presses
his claims upon you daily. He is great,
calm, commanding presence, and when
ever you sit alone with conscience he tow
ers above you.
Every evil thought is shadow upon
the glowing SKY, against which that world
figure stands cut in perpetual relief. Every
evil deed you do is reflected back upon you
from that face so marred with sorrow for
the sins of men. Once despised and re-
iected of men, there is now nota beauty you
can desire in him. Twenty centuries and
he changes not, save to erect himself the
higher above the horizon of human life.
1--WE make glad these Christmas days bet
cause of him. We are weak and dare no.
trust to human worth. But there is a love
and purity, though my life contain SO
little. In that can rejoice; of that l can
feel the surprising loneliness. There IS a
truth though 1 have not vet attained unto
it. In that life l see it. And so looking
Il r. II, : %