The times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1882-1897, 1891-05-15

oSANhS oOohhys ~ hito ulllNtTSdl VIeN
that "sOn of man" so glorifed as to thrill
the soul with fresh Joy. No wonder the
picture gives the disciples, as, returning Il
Jerusalem with JOY praising God" and with
brotherly, fraternal gladness, helping one
another. "a ','l tt
Today we need nothing so much as such
a view of man as will turn us from all the
ways of cruelty and the forms of selfishess
and will send us forth In our several spheres
to toll, and teach, with new gladness. help
ing one another.
Brethren:
The crusade of the sword must pass away
All clannfsh creeds must cease,
Mans brotherhood must have its day.
In the reign OF worldwide peace.
Verestchagin's intense and horribly real
istic pictures were produced for peace's sake.
They make war horrible. The intense faces
OF the prisoners at the cannon's mouth wait
ing the touch which is to send them to death
the unrelieved, hopeless scene of the for
gotten soldier make us desire war no more.
Man has made much history to stand
written i'm the blood of his fell0w-men, but
the ascending Christ opens the kingdom of
a peaceful conquest
Brethren of the COmmandery, i'm your
literature, lore and symbols you have the
cruel crusaders of the past brought before
you, but here in the ascension OF our COM
mon Lord and Master you have the one
Crusader; he was his own cross and his own
crown, he was his own sign and his own full
filment. His was the crusade which con-
quered in peace-nO wounded to mourn nor
to die in his path; the victims of his con-
quest we're healed and made to live. He
once was the poor Nazarene, a son of Israel,
of that race who i'm chains and with the lash
on their shoulders, raised the mighty Coils
cum. Yet he conquered the gods who in
spired Horace and Virgil, and sustained
ScipiO on the plains of Carthage. The
scOrn of Tacitus and Lucian could not turn
back the followers of this carpenter of
Judea. He had the truth and the justice
from the infinite mind and his followers
triumphed.
The forum is now field for pasturing
cows, the gods have died and dead Rome
has fallen upon them. The religious cere-
monies of the Nazarene are performed i'm
the capitol near the ruins of the Coliseum,
and the city which gave authority through
its Caesars is conquered by the swordless
Crusader whose followers dwell in peace.
Surely Christ has assembled to be seated
i'm authority, and he directs us away from
the lower toward the higher, away from the
mere earthly toward the heavenly, and from
the formal and material toward the spiritual
and living.
His ascension brings that spiritual illu-
minatiOn which helps us to see the larger
meaning of the mission of man. 1t helps
us to realize the ripper relations of man to
man, and,gazing upon this One elevated and
glorified, the entire race Cesman liili be il
spired by a common ideal, to common
brotherhood.
Two great truths are embodied and illus
trated i'm this picture of the ascending Christ
which account for all we have claimed for
him. How comes it that His swordless
crusade of peace has revolutionzed the
going forth of men? How is it that we re-
ceive from him that spiritual illumination by
which we see the meaning of the larger mis-
sion of man? How comes it that gazing
upon this ascending One all men are inspired
by common ideal to a common brother
hood? We answer:
First, because the ascension of Christ
presents him as the absolute and universal
Messiah, the one supreme, crowned man,
light of all men and Saviour of all men.
Second, because i'm the ascension of Christ,
and i'm that committed to his followers, we
find emphasized the religious unity. of man.
First, when Christ was of the earthly
company he was surrounded by those who
sought personal relations with him for the
sake of personal benefits alone. 81 would
that my sons may sit the one on thy right
hand, the other on thy left hand in thy king
DOM" Such we have today. II will seek
fellowship with Christ because he will save
my poor soul from satan." Many followed
him with very distinct and contracted views
trying to get back their old institutions
and forms, trying to boom their sect or de-
nOminatiOn-'H fOllOweth not us"-let us
forbid him.
Christ is fashioned after the manner OF
the absolute, perfect, universal man, moi
after the concept or form of the class OF
country, and rising away from and above
those who saw him through their own eyes
he now fills all ideals and meets all claims
They on the eastern mountain side may In
the early morning hours think the sun is
made to rise and shine for them alone; but
bye and bye the mighty light of the universe
rises, and directly from above finds the
humblest place in the lowliest valley.
AS the ascended Christ stands now over
the entire world, shining upon universal
man, from His lofty place the rays going
out reveal common interest to all men,
When the few crowded about him, Galile.
ans, Jews and a few Greeks, he was only
viewed as amaster and helper, responding tC
the needs and purposes of his own surround
ings. But now shining down upon us from
his lofty place, in the intellectual world, in
the religious and spiritual world, this nature
of divine depth and breadth meets the wants
of all men. He fulflls all demands and the
awakened nature of universal man responds
to what may be seen i'm Christ. We need
in this day to emphasize this great truth
illustrated in the assembled Son of man
mans religious unity. Man needs not many
gods, man needs not many religions; there
is but one God-there can be but one true
religion; and lifted into view as Christ is
today i'm the intellectual and ethical world
who has found him limited or crcumscribed?
What is mans ethical or religious require
ment that is not met i'm Christ-who and
where are the people or conditions where
Christ will not fit in, as his personality
shows him to be or as his teachings require
man to be?
There is much surface talk of kind,
comparing religions, making Christ and his
religion one of the many founders and sys-
tens i'm the religious history of man.
Take the personality of Christ as pictured
in the Gospels, then take his sermons and
teachings and measure the personality and
teachings of any so claimed mythical found