Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-08-28
TALKED OF HIMSELF.
The Self-Assertion of the Savior One
of His Marked Traits.
AGAINST TIE GENERAL RULE.
The Wisest Men and Holiest Are Usually
Silent Is to Themselves
no LOGIC FOR THE HIGHER TRUTHS
lwnrrrEN FOR rHs prsrArcH.I !

stand For people who are truly wise
know too much to set very great value upol
themselves The discovery of truth is also
q discovery of ignorance. Learning is like
climbing, every step up widens out the
prospect The more we know, the more do
We become aware of the vastness of the un-
known; until the wisest man, who know,
the most, confesses that he is little child
picking up handfuls of pebbles on the beach
| of the great ocean. People who know a
great deal do not say much about them.
| selves.
The saints, too, are silent about them.
selves, or speak only to lament their own
sinfulnesa Sanctity and humility always
| 60 together. For saint is not only one
who is living better life than all the rest
of us, but who has higher ideal of life.
He sees more clearly than we do what life
might be, If one were able to live it rightly.
And he is not content, as we are, to folio W
lower ideals. He aims at perfection. That
| makes necessary constant contrast be-
tween his life and the perfect life. And
nothing humbles one like that. People
who are pretty we'll satisfied with them
selves, who do not hesitate to claim, in
deed, that they are living fairly good life,
show by that condition of mind that they
have but low ideal.
People who Want to See.
Our Lord said in the same conversation in
which He called Himself the Good Shepherd,
that He had come into the world for Judg-
ment that they which see not might see, and
that they which see might be made blind.
The contrast is between the people who
know themselves detective in spiritual sight
and the people who think that they see ali
that anybody needs to see. The blind peo-
pie want to see, and they win the blessing
which God grants to that desire; but the
people who think that they see everything
are left a. they are One of the elements OF
the Christian lie, then, is a recognition of
our own defective sight. The saint knows
that he is blind, and blind man does not
talk much about the things which he sees.
He is properly silent about himself
All high attainment, indeed, whether in
wisdom or in sanctity, is like the letting in
Of light. When the shutters are closed and
the room is dark, it may be full of disorder.
but the disorder does not show. But let
the light in, and every speck of dust is
visible. The saint and the sage see them
selves too plsinly to be bosstluL We will
not find them talking much about them
selves
= Yet Jesus Christ talked often about Him
self, directed mems attention toward Him.
self. made claims to wisdom and to saner
tity which have absolutely no parallel in
the biographies of good men ever or any
where. /, He says, am the door of the
sheep. All that ever came before Me are
thieves and robbers Again He said, which
of you convinceth Me OF sin? Everybody
knows how He made Himself, as the
Hebrews said, equal with God. He should
be worshiped even as the Father Is wor-
shipped. He permitted one of His disciples
to fall at His feet and salute Him with the
words, ':My Lord and my God"
Considered Him b asphemer.
z Christ's self-assertidn is persistent 1aud
obtrusive. There is no escaping it, nor
sottening the force and emphasis of it, nor
awav. He was considered by
the orthodox Of Hid day to be blasphemer,
and was. in fact, condemned and given over
to execution on charge of blasphemy.
The gospels are hard reading to people
who see in Jesus Christ only q saint or q
sage. Christ was the wisest man who ever
lived. We have the witness OF 10 very re-
centuries to that. He 10 still
wiser than we are. All our learning can
find no flaw in His teaching Even to-day |
we are wise, not only in spiritual things,
but in the science of human society; not |
only in the kingdom otheaven, which is fn- |
ture and up above, but in the kingdom OF |
heaven for whose coming we pray right |
now and here; not only In the church, but
in the shop and in the State; we are wise in |
as we have learned His truth |
He Is still in advance of u.s.
And Jesus Christ was the holiest man
that ever lived. The world is all the time
growing better, and so, more able to per-
seive and understand spiritual truth. We |
ought to know more about God to-day, and |
10 be living closer to God, than any people
u all history. Yet Jesus Christ is still the |
deal saint And even now, after all these
centuries of growth, we account ourselves
Is approved of God in proportion as we ap-
,roach to the life that was lived by "a Syrian
peasant 200 years ago
contradicts the Unyaring Tradition.
And We are confronted by the singular
,arodox that the wisest of men and the
loliest of men contradicted the otherwise
tradition of all wisdom and all
anctity He spoke much of Himself To
Is who believe that He was the manifesto
ion of God; that He spoke the truth when
He made Himself equal with God; all this
Q plain and no paradox. But to other peo-
lie It's one Of the insoluble enigmaa
We take this word which Jesus spoke,
4 am the Good Shepherd" as being .
evelatlon, not only of the mission of
Tesus of Nazareth, but of the nature of
Tod. For Jesus, as We believe, is the re-
esler of God. And when we would think
he truest aud highest thoughts about God
hat are possible to US We think about Jesus
,hrist. The best that we can conceive of
rod is that God is like Christ God is the
iood Shepherd. We, then, are the sheep.
md God knows His sheep, and is known
9th of Gods knowledge of us and of our
OF God.
God knows US Is the Good Shepherd
nows His sheep. That is, He knows us
and He knows us to care for
Calling His sheep by Name.
Our Lord says that the Good Shepherd
alleth His sheep by name He knows the
neep one from another. To us the sheen
re all alike. The only way that they can
. distinguished individually is by putting
,me kind of a mark upon them. They
'ust be branded. But the shepherd In the
i'll pastures of Judea; abiding In the fields
eeping watch over His flock, knows His
leep with personal knowledge. They
ave names, and He knows each sheep BY ..
anne
Christ knows us individually. Sometimes
seems impossible. Such distance there ..
between the divine and the humanl God
SO great and we are 80 obscure and SMALL
70 look out into the night sky and there
% the numberless multitudes OF stars, and
lis star on which We live is one of the least
them all And over them all is God.