Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-03-03
ESPECIAL TELEGRAM TO THE DISPATCH.

Jews Reject Jesus?" ''It is central ques.
tion," said the preacher, "did the Jews re
iect jesus? When 1 spoke to my Christian
friends about the subject and told them how
I proposed TO answer it, they thought wal
not In my right mind. 1 met Christian
clergyman the other day and, of course, VI,
talked shop. Even he supposed that
would take the side of Jesus as against my
| people.
81 am only a candid. unprejudiced stu
| dent of the New Testament, as 1 am also o.
the Old Testament or any other book. You
know. therefore, what my answer must be te
the text But does not the whole Christian
Church affirm the contrary? Do not all say
with one voice that the Jews rejected Jesus
and that the crucifxion stands as crime
not to be forgiven in this world or the next:
Every cross on Christian church points as
a witness against our people, charging that
we have slain one so pure, so noble-He who
descended from home in heaven that He
might save the lost of Israel-the one who
ought to wear gold crown placed on His
head by His own people.
AN INvETERATE ERROR.
"Yet in the face of all this testimony I do
not hesitate to say that the charge is but an
old and inveterate error. Jesus is no longer
living personality-a human being whose
teachings can be measured by any of the
standards used for other human beings. He
has become an object of iaith-a faith which
is supported by eternal punishment on one
side and by paradise on the other. Who
can reason with such a faith? He has be-
come a dogma, pivot on which salvation
revolves. When man begins to spin
theories out of his brain what can't He put
into them? He can put in only as much
knowledge and as much feeling as He pos
seSSes.
Presbyterians--the creeds that were sup
posed to contain the eternal truth by which
men were to live, and on which they were to
go to heaven-have to be revised. In an
ancient book of ur.literature writer says:
No man knows where the grave of Moses
is, but l know where it is. He is buried in
the Talmud.' So Jesus has been bnried in
Christian theories. Emerson says, truly.
that the cure of bad theology Is not found
in another theology but in common sense.
We will not put one theology against an
other, but will appeal to that court which
knows neither Jew nor Gentile-commcn
sense-and before it will plead the cause
of my people.
GREAT NATION.
1 take the charge as 1t stands. Did the
Jews reject Jesus? Which Jews? How
many OF them? 1t is commonly thought
that the Jews were small remnant living
then In Judea. In reality they were great
nation, scattered throughout the whole
civilized world. So numerous and rich were
they that they had great schools of learning
in Babylon, and thither the youth had to 60
to finish their education, just as we now send
our young men to Europe. The Jews were
scattered over vast distances. 1t was not
the day of newspapers or of the electric tele-
graph or penny postage, and news of what
was done in Jerusalem reached the outskirts
of civilization only after the lapse of years.
You car see then how ignorant of the mis-
sion and doings OF Jesus the great majority
of the Jewish nation must have been at the
time of His death.
"What do you think when it is said to
you that the American people have decided
that the Worlds Fair shall not be held in
New York? When have the American peo-
pie been asked to decide that question?
Never. When were the Jews, as a nation,
asked to decide on the character of Jesus?
Never If the Jews did reject Jesus, which
one did they reject? There are no less than
six in the New Testament. First, there
was Jesus an instructor, a teacher of ethics,
a reformer of the church. With this Jesus
the Jews had no quarrels. The next was
worker of miracles. l mean no dlsrespect
when say that he would be called faith
curist in our day because he healed only
those who had faith.
HIS OTHER ATTRIBUTES.
"Third, He was Christ, the Messiah of
the Jews, the figure wholly independent of
that Jesus, the moral teacher, and that of
Jesus, the miracle worker. Fourth, there
was the Redeemer of the whole world.
Fifth, there was the Son of the living God,
Himself incarate, who is particularly de-
picted in the gospel of John. Last of all,
we have the Judge OF the World, who at the
resurrection will divide the human race
into two parts. How these six different
conceptions are to be harmonifed is beyond
the power of people of ordinary minds.
Now, which of these did the Hebrews
reject? The moral teacher? I defy anv
one to show me passage in the New Testa-
ment which says that his morality was re-
jccted. Even when the Pharisees were re-
buked by Jesus they remained silent be-
cause they had been taught not to answer a
master, and they regarded Him as master.
Did the Hebrews reject Jesus as a worker
of miracles? Was physician such as He
Testament says the crowds were so great
about Him that He had to escape from
them by stealth.
did the Hebrews reject Him as the
Messiah? ? They neither accepted nor re-
jected. They had not been taught that the
Messiah was to be one to lead them to
heaven, but that He was to be an earthly
ruler. They said, when Jesus was extolled
as the Messiah, let Him do the work OF the
Messiah. AS God or a part OF the Deity
they did reject Him. They could not un-
derstand that claim. They did what thou
sands OF Intelligent men do this very day.
GREAT MYSTERY.
As a redeemer Jesus was great mystery.
He was neither rejected nor accepted.
Those who could believe did so, and those
who couldn't kept quiet. and so as to the
other supernatural claims. There is a
world o. difference between what history
tells us and what we see before our eyes.
We can understand, perhaps, why the Jews
did not take up Jesus as God if we con-
slider the work of the great preacher,
Phillips Brooks, in Trinity Church. The
building was crowded with Intelligent busi-
ness men, men who would pursue bust
ness advantage to the utmost. They sat and
listened with bowed heads, and went away
to strive 10 live better lives because OF what
they mad heard.
But, suppose, after his moral teachings,
MIR. Brooks had said he was the son of God
come to heal the sick and do great miracles.
Would not that have destroyed the effect of
His teachings even though things incompre-
hensible had been done by Him? This is
the reason of Lent in the Christian calendar.
After time Palm Sunday will come. IL is
the greatest festival OF the Catholic Church.
1 will read the origin of the festival"
uara l.. e<orv of fha onfropoo of Clr,z4