Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-03-30
TWO GREAT CLAIMS.
The Christ Asserted He Was Free
From Sin and One With God.
NJ NEED OF HIS OWN SERMONS
Teachers Before and After Him Put Forth
No Such Doctrines.
EXPLAINED ONLY By HIS DIVINITY
WRITTEN FOR THE DISPATCH. i

/ WRITTEN FOR THE DISPATCH.
(which of you convinceth me of sin?"-
"Before Abraham was, am"
These two sentences represent two singu.
lar phases of Christ's teaching. Here is the
ideal man. Nobody will dispute that.
Nobody will question Christ's humility. OF
Christ's sincerity. Nobody will think oi
finding in Christ's life any stain of self
seeking, any effort after any prize which
worldly men count as worth having. Here
is life of absolute self-sacrif ce. 1t has no
parallel anywhere.
Think how Christ dealt with men whom
He had healed, sending them away with the
command of silence. Remember how he
put away whatever pointed toward any
cheap and unmeaning popularity. He
cared not for the applause of crowds. He
catered not to the prejudices of His time.
| The men who would seem to most people
to be likely to advance His cause-men like
Nicodemus who had influence, men like the
rich young disciple who had money, He
made no effort to gain. He set them hard
tests which they could not pass. He chose
II poor peasants. He had stern words for
the Pharisees, whom anybody with worldly
wisdom would have conciliated, the repre-
sentatives of the nation and the Church, the
people in power. He had kind words for the
common people and for common sinners.
There is no trace of "policy" in any
word or deed of Christ And what sought
He for Himself? Only the privilege of
helping the needy and comforting the sad
and uplifting the fallen; only the position
of one who came not to be ministered unto
but to minister, with the cross at the end
of it.
THE IDEAL MAN.
There is no need OF emphasizing what
everybody knows, or of reciting that which
all men, Christians or not, will agree in
saying about Christ. Here is the life of un-
exampled humility and self-sacrifce. Here
is the ideal man.
Now, let US think what we will do in this
confessedly ideal life with such sentences as
these: (Which of you convinceth me of
sin?" and Before Abraham was, am"
These sentences, as 1 said, represent GER
tain phases of our Lords teaching. They do
not stand alone. They might be blotted out,
or be shown to have been thrust in by some
piously dishonest interpolator. still the
characteristics of Christ's teaching which
they represent would stand. Indeed, the
only way to get out of that teaching the two
facts which these two sentences show would
be to leave out all Christ's words from first to
last. Nothing is more absolutely certain
about Jesus of Nazareth than that He said
not once but many times, (which of you
convinceth me of sin?" and "Betore Abra-
ham was, I am"
But think what these sentences mean:
(which of you convinceth me of sin?"
That is an assertion of distinct difference
between Christ and all other men of the
whole race. All the rest of us are sinners.
But nobody can convince Christ of sin.
Before Abraham was, 1 am" The Jews
knew very we'll what that meant. They
took up stones to throw at Him when they
heard that. That was the speech of bias
phemer. It was the assertion of an equality
to God. And these two assertions, of dit-
ference from all other men, and of a dis
tinct likeness to God, Christ made in one
way and another, again and again, so that
they can be read between the lines of al
most everything He said.
TEACHER OF MORALS.
Our Lord was teacher of morals. He
taught morality which not only went yerv
which had ever been given to men,
but which has never been surpassed in
all the centuries since. No religious teacher
after all the progress Of these ], 800 years has
gone beyond Christ, or even taught any truth
which Christ had not taught already, and
taught better. 1t is not little noteworthy
when we consider how all other teachers
have been outgrown and left behind, that
Christ is still beyond the most advanced of
u.s. Indeed, it is not even imaginable how
any morality can ever get closer to the heart
of man and to the will of God than
this which touches even the most secret
thoughts.
But through all this teaching Christ never
shows the smallest consciousness OF sin. He
never confesses in any way, as every other
teacher must, that He needs His own SER
mons. There is not hint of the slightest |
in Himself. He is forever on |
the outside of the worlds sin, speaking to |
sinful men. Indeed, He challenges crit |
icism. Which of you convinceth me of |
sin?
Now here is a phase of religious teaching |
which has no parallel anywhere. 1t is, on |
the contrary, true universally in all the an
nails of sainthood, that nearness to God and |
different sinner, who has no ideal which he |
is striving after, and who never looks at his |
own life may be IN measure unconscious |
of sin. But you will never find that true of
a saint.
Why, in every department of life the bet
ter a man is the more aware he is of his
deficiencies. The great artist knows hum
dred weak places in his work which the
petty painter never dreams OF, nor could
even recognize if they were pointed out.
The master in music is conscious of pos
sibilities and ideals and a difference and
distance between himself and them which
are not present to musical mediocrity at all.
To be sstisied is the
SIGN OF FAILING POWERS.
And yet, here is the ideal man, absolutely
unconscious of defect, never admitting it in
positions where no other man could help
admitting it, even putting aside the sugges-
lion that He too may be imperfect like the
rest of us, as foolish thought not for sim
gle moment to be entertained.
But Christ preached something beside
morality. He preached Himself. He whose
perfect humility all men reverently ac-
He whose absolute unselfsh-
ness has inspired acts OF selfsacri-
ice unnumbered, and uplifts and
helps us every day, the Ideal of
humility and the Ideal of unselfshness
breaches about Himself Let US recall some
of the things which Christ said in these
sermons about Himself: He is the light of
he world; He is the bread of life; all that
came before Him were thieves and robbers;
He is the Good Shepherd and all we are
His sheep; no man can come to the Father
oul by Him; if ye ask anything of God, He
'ays, in My name, I will grant it; We are
rom beneath, He says on one occasion to
His congregation, 1 am from above; He