The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-10-19
WHAT Is CHRISTIANITY
Rev. wallace Nutting at the Plymouth
Congregational Church

Congregational Church.
Rev. Wallace Nutting, at the Plymouth Con-
gregatioual church last evening delivered a
most eloquent and powerful sermon to a large
congregation upon the theme, .'What is Christi
anity?" His text was from
Col i.:l5-"The image Of the invisible God. -
Mr.. Nutting described an incident of a recent
rainy afternoon. He stood facing the cast
suddenly he became conscious of a rain bow so
deep and gorgeous in color, that his admiration
was was unnonnded; And as he looked, second
plete arc, from horizon to horizon; but the sun
Itself could not be seen. He thought of the
color when He e1 ta nsa t e TINS crown Of
MIN that this was His bow in the clouds, the
sign oil victory over the storm. That bow had
love brooding over the world, and bright with
the prophetic glow of a better day. For il
Swallowed forth the expression to the world of
the life OF Jesus Christ AS the sun could not
be seen, but only its luminous image thus no
man had seen God at any time. He continued
Christianity, then, means much or little
For Christianity is the life of God revealing itself
TO men. 1t is not church, not a system of re-
iigion, not our habits of doing business, not our
principles, not our affections, not our faith in
immortality. 1t is not any one of these things
because 1t Is all OF them. must not retire to a
cave and call that part OF the sky that appears
on a mountain peak and sweep the entire
horizon, can see but q small part of the
heavens. There is more of invisible than
OF visible According as we appreciate and I'M
derstand Jesus, we shall define Christian ity. 1t
was not very much to the Pharisees, still less to
the soldiers who fastened Jesus to His cross.
Nay, IL was not much to the disciples them
selves, while He led them about Galilee To
Peter, while He still preached to Jews only,
Christianity WAS narrow thing. To Con .
stantine, and the emperors who forced form of
religion upon pagans, Christianity was some
thing which could be regulated by kings, and
hence II did not rise above policy. To
~ IN ID
In a certain garb, cut according TO for
muia, and In particular posture and
locality, Christianity Is q circumscribed affair.
The meaning OF Christianity grows with the
history of the world and with the development
OF the Individual. No two among us see IL
alike or feel 1t alike. If 1t seems to US narrow,
We think It shallow, we are shallow; If it takes
little hold upon our life. that is be-
S Geass s Within mmO,sai Lie dos. slmos.
touch Us, because we have not touched IL. One
unacquainted with electricity could not be per-
suaded that there was death In the touch of a
cold wire. Thus men dead to God imagine that
God is dead once heard great preacher tell
how dry book the Bible seemed to him, when
changed, but it is not dry to him now. 1t is a
sparkling fountain OF Immortality.
II Christianity 10 what Paul and Luther
thought Ii to be, we shall miss the meaning and
the blessedness of life, unless we have such an
experiences of Christianity as they had. Now,
we lind that every study becomes interesting to
IL.
why Christianity fails to be attractive
TO some is that they take it to be some
thing other than it is. 1 believe that
when we grasp its meaning, as we may grasp IL,
We shall enter into its sweep and influence. 1t
is true OF us all in some degree that we have too
narrow ideas OF the perfect life of Jesus Christ.
His light shineth in our darkness, and we ap-
prehend 1t not Let US get hold upon Thee, o
God that our religion may be swallowed up in
Thy lifel
Christianity is not set of rules to live by.
Christianity is not founded upon principles, but
principles are founded on Christianity. Princi-
pes will not save man, because Il man must
save his own principles. drowning man is
not saved by principles, but by rope. Men are
first in this world, and principles afterward
Are you not tired Of seeing men stop short with
principles, instead OF going back TO the fountain
OF principles? What are their principles good
for unless they know them to be features in the
life of ,,.G God! The truth is that
Christianity secondhand. and like most other
secondhand things il is hardly worth half
price The business man who squares his deal
ings by his principles instead of by his Savior
has a mechanical religion liable to wear out,
instead of a religion that grows better in the
use of it, as true Christianity The character
OF God makes principles, and they burn them
selves into the world by means OF the revelation
OF God in Christ. Take away all the principles
in the world and you would have God left, but
take away God and there would be no principles
left The gist OF the whole matter is this:
Our principles are permanent ii We have the
image OF the invisible God stamped upon us.
otherwise they are uncertain. Only life begets
life. accord ling to the eternal law oil God, that
If my Christianity is alive, aud capable of bear
ing trial and wear, IL does not depend upon a
set of rules. but upon the fact that God loves me
and love God. Then out of my admiration
for Gods character as / see it In Jesus,
only will they be worth anything The
golden rule must be founded on the rock of
ages, or II Will be without force in our lives.
That Is the same as saying that the golden rule
means thinking of others; it means sacrifice
and ii was uttered by the man who sacrificed
Himself for His brothers So then If Christian
ity in you means love TO that Christ who has
shown the beauties OF the golden rule we shall
follow 1t, but If IL is simply principle shall
drop 1t whenever IL Ia convenient
There 10 no such thing as successfully going
alone in this world. We cannot spin correct
lives from our own souls, as the spider spins
web from her body. Men are not creatures
capable OF working alone. We cannot SO much
as sign our names without making use of some
material beyond ourselves. IL is a bad omen
that man should not want God TO help him.
Every eternal achievement OF men. all noble
qualities are the result of cooperation
with the spirit of God. SO whenever
we find ourselves or anybody else claiming that
Chr stanity is set of rules or principles, let
not be Disguised at the poor results OF Christian
ity, but let us go back 10 the eternal glory OF
Jesus Christ, who is the image of the invisible.
aud find there in His warm immortality Chris.
tianity which is nothing less than God
likeness. Neither Is Christianity the
sions OF the life of God in the world In
some periods of the worlds history il has
within il all the population OF the state. Clearly
in such a case Christianity is not the church.
In this age no doubt some are within the pale
of church fellowship who ought 10 be out, and
some are cut who ought TO be in. Divisions
between the bad and the good are only approx
mately correct. For instance, here IL a bold,
concerted man, who presses forward into the
church, and ON the other hand there Is hum
Bile, ditfident man, whose life is pure and whose
devotion TO God is undoubted, who shrinks from
the bonds of churches, because he fears being
discredit 10 the name. The church is visible.
organized Christianity, the more or less perfect
falfllment of the plans OF the founder. As an
architects plans. the theoretically perfect and
beautiful are only partially realized by the some
what faulty stones that enter into the building,
80 the church is a struggle after Chrsrs Christi
anity. so then, men must look beyond the exter-
nal church, and remember that il is only IN
image of the invisible, and an image liable -
distortion at that
We by no means claim TO have g monopoly of
Christianity in the church. SO when you hear q
man say, you often viii, that he is as
good as the church members, that may
very well be. 30 much the worse for the
church members, and also much the worse
for the man who, with his superior character,
stands apart from the church and gives 10
benefit of himself. Such conduct is not beflt-
ting such man. The aim of the Lord Jesus
Christ is 10 make the church grow until il has
all OF Christianity in it and ali that Is not Chris
tianity outside H.
Neither is a creed Christianity. A creed would
never have been formed unless the life OF God in
the world bad Led men to gay what they think Of