The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1891-12-20
LYMAN ABBOTTS BELIEF.
The Distinguished Clergyman Arrests State
ments Attributed to Him.

New York Sun.
The Rev. DR.. Lyman Abbott declares
that erroneous reports of recent address
of his before the Unitarian Club In Boston
have appeared in some of the newspapers
in this city. The passage in his address
which has attracted most attention has
been thus reported: I'VE believe in pun
ishment which has for its end REDEEM ption.
We do not believe In the divinity of Christ,
but in man divine through Cod"
DR.. Abbott repudiates this report. He
said In conversation yesterday:
1T IS fortunate that my speech In Boston
was taken down by stenographer, AND it
will be published soon in full in the
Christian Register. the Unitarian organ.
have looked over the slips of my address
sent to mo In advance by the editor. These
confirm my recollection that i said the
very opposite to what am reported to have
said. said in substance that did believe
in the divinity of Jesus Christ and that
He Is God manifested in the flesh. This
weeks Christian Union contains one of
my editorials OIL the same subject as my
BOstOn address. and In 1t declare my faith
In and distinctly recognize the divinity of
Jesus Christ. l am very rapid speaker,
and the reporters were at fault. My view
of Christ is the New Testament view,
which represents Jesus Christ as God man.
ifested in the flesh. God is infinite and
man is finite: God is perfectly pure. and
man impure. God has entered into human
life in the man jesus. perfectly pure and
siniess man, filling that man with himself
in order that He may show mankind what
come through Jesus Christ. This
Is the creed of 1886: we be-
lieve in Jesus Christ. His only Son.
our Lord. who IS one substance with the
Father by whom all things are made
signed this creed when il was adopted. l
believed 1t then, and believe il now. i
held that all men are made in Gods image;
that however much they may have desc
Grated that image, they still bear il. L
hold as q necessary consequence that when
God takes on human. as believe He did in
Jesus Christ, He takes on q nature which Is
not foreign TO Him, but which is akin
to Him. When q man by Gods love is
brought TO his true self he will be. in the
words Of Scripture, a partaker OF the Di.
vine nature"
In his pulpit yesterday morning, DIR.
Abbott preached on Gods manifestation
of himself in Jesus. In the course of IL
be said
God, desiring to show himself to hu-
mainly. entered into human life. became
subject to human conditions. sharing the
ignorance. the weakness and the want of
humanity. He entered into and was Id en- IT,
fed with that one human life. Do say,
other menf No. BntI do say that in their
essential qualities God and man are identi-
cal, and Cod entered into humanity that
He might show to humanity what He Is.
do say, not that Jesus CHRIST was man
like other men, but that other mon may be-
come like Jesus Christ.
Christ is my master. / acknowledge no
other master. l wish to follow where he
| leads. 1 gladly believe whatever He says.
II believe in the divinity our Lord Jesus
Christ. 1t 10 tho center of my faith, as lie
| 10 the center and the source of my life But
| do not believe in the MEDIEVAL formuls
that Jesus Christ is God and man mysteri-
| ously joined together. because to believe
| that would be to leave me both without an
| ideal of man which might follow and a
manifestation Of God TO which / might
cliuyn