Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-09-29
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
The Secret ofEternaI Life as Revealed
by the Savior.
WHAT CHRIST CANE TO TEAcE.
A Lesson Based Upon Love and the Perform
ance Of Duty.
HEAVEN NOT FOR PHILOSOPHERS ALONE
HEAVEN NOT FOR PHILOSOPHERS ALONE
-wsrrrzr ros rHn DrsrArcu.1

IL IS recorded IN the gospels how certain
lawyer asked and answered a moss i'm mort
ant question. "What shall do be said,
ito inherit eternal iiie7" And Christ made
him answer that himself
Because the man was quite capable Of an
swering his own question. II was not
knowledge that be needed. He knew
enough. The mans need was spiritual
rather than mental. It was appreciation
tnat ne lacked, and realization. Coils pur-
pose is that every human soul shall Inherit
eternal life. And we may be sure that the
conditions Of that blessed inheritance are 50
sure and SO possible OF ful6ilment that they
are within the reach Of the very humbles.
human creature 1 am far from believing
tnat haphael's "Srhool of Athens" iss
good picture Of heaven. Heaven is not re-
served for the philosophers. A good
many very ignorant people viii get in
tnere, nope. We may be altogether sure
tnat with Him, to whom the proioundest
wisdom o. TINS world Is only loolishness,
learning Is not half so acceptable as love-
There will be DO school exaluiu alton. even
In theology, at the day OF judgment
The secret OF eternal life is in the heart of
every human being. Some people seem tn
De waiting for some marvellous revelation 10
teach them a saving truth which they have
never dreamed Of Some magic gate must
open In the side of the bill through which.
as by path unyeen and unheard Of before.
they will enter into the kingdom Of heaven.
They ask the lawyers question. What
shall 1 do?" they say. Aud ali the time.
they know all that
THEY NEED TO KNOW.
Il hnd here in our Lords dealing vith
this lawyers question the lesson Of
the adequacy Of present oppor-
tunltles- he referred the man TO
that sacred book which il was the
mans professional business to copy out
and know by heart. Just as Abraham, in
the parable, assured the rich man that il
his Careless brothers paid no heed to the old
revelation OF Moses and the prophets. no
ghosts nor dozen ghosts, getting up out OF
moidly graves, and bearing messa ess with
the ink yet undried from the council cham
Der OF heaven, would have any elect at al.
They knew all thatthey needed TO know.
How to be saved-everybodv hss the an
swer in his heart Brother, there Is .
light within thee, follow it and thou art
happy, forsake IL or re use Its guiding and
thop art miserable" l. 1t give no further
leading than that, then turn about TO the
right and keep straight on; follow that. il Is
enough. Christ made the lawyer look in
and read his own answer. And there il
was already written down in the msn's
mind, waiting only for an honest and earn
est reading.
What the lawyer needed was 20 translate
knowledgs into action. Thou hast an swered
right, Christ said. sDo TINS and tbou
shalt live There is good deal Of diEer-
ence Detween knowing truth theolooicaIlv
and knowing itreligiously. We may saw The
creed, but TO live the creed is the essential
duty. Take the daily duties and do them.
shoulder the daily crosses, follow the best
reiigious light you have-the benedieron Of
God IS at the end OF that path.
The lawyer answered the question. and
Christ les the answer stand jnst as The
lawyer stated II, just sas . greater Iawyer
and laWgiver had stated il, rs IL stood writ
ten In the books OF Moses: Thou shalt love
the Lord thy God with all thy heart. aud
with all thy soul, and with all thy strength.
ana with all thy mind; and thy neighbor
as thyself." The Master made no comment
nor addition.
TAUGHT BY EXAMPLE.
Because Christ came to make his greatess
revelation to the race, not by any new words
but by new life. The truths which He
came especially to emphasize and to teach
were taught and emphasized more BY His
history than by His preaching Not in what
He said, but in what He did, are to BE-
found the peculiar aud most precious truths
of our religion. II you will think Of il Won
will recognize this fact thar when we want
expression Tor our sense the divine COM
passion OF our Heavenly Father, or Ior our
certainty Of the divine forgiveness of our
SINS, We 90 not TO the gospels but back 10
the elder scriptures. We lind words, not
in The utterances OF Christ, but in the mes
ssges which the psalmists aud the prophets
brought "The Lord is my Shepherd" That
was written in a psalm. Like as a father
pitietn his own children, even 50 is the Lord
merci ul unto them that fear Him. For He
knoweth whereof We are made, He remem-
bereth that We are bur dust" That is from
another psalm. Though your sins be a.
scarlet, they shall be as white rs snow;
though they be red like crimson, they shall
be as WOOL" A prophet said that.
Christ came TO teach the essential spirft-
uality o. religion; that it Is above all ma
terial expression, forms beng only the
symbols OF it, and Of No good--no better
than dead body, without the spirit In
spring them. That was not new. Christ
came to teach the fatherhood OF God, and
the universal brotherhood of man; that God
loves US, and that we ought TO love Him
and one another. That was not new either.
/ cannot think OF any statement by our
Lord Of either Of these truths more impress
sive than the old statements of them by the
men OF the old time.
No. Christ came to put life into all the
truth which men had taught and heard be-
fore, by His blessed embodiment OF it in
Himself One man is worth a thousand
libraries, even Of sermons. He. who went
among the heather of DecapOIis and healed
their sick, and looking up to heaven sighed
to think Of the miseries of men-He has
taught us more about Gods fatherhood and
mans brotherhood than all the preachers.
though they bought their sermons straight
from God, could have taught Us in
A THOUSAND YEARS OF SUNDAYS.
He who Tor ourselves humbled Himselfto
the bitterness Of death upon the cross, needed
not TO preach in any new words. even Of
heavenly devisiug, about the boundIess
love God, and the iniauity Of human sin.
and Cots longing to save the sinner. The
cross WAS sermon enough.
So Christ took the LAWYERS answer inst AZ
he put II, and accepted II, making NO addi-
tion What could be added to it sThou
shalt love the Lord thy God with all thv
heart, and with all thy soul. and with ali
thy strength, and with all thy mind: and
thy neighbor as thyself." What beside
this can anybody write in 'sThe whole duty
OF man ?"
And so the word at the center OF religion
Is the word love- And the apostle was
right who declared that "love is the ,uIiIl-
ing % the law" And he was right, too,
who said, only love-then do anything"
Because he knew that he who genuinely
loves can do nothing amiss toward his Mas
ter whom be loves, nor toward his neigh
hftr hng oil IL