The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1892-04-11

change. The sun never seemed 40 bright.
as the music pealed forth in Easter anthem.
The flowers seemed to glow with rarer
beauty and throw off q lovelier odOr as the
strains of music rivaled the melody of run
ming water. Christ had risen. and the dark
hour of trial had given place to the day OF
glad triumph"
Sermon by n New Pastor.
Rev. G.. A. Christensen, rector-elect of st.
PANTS Episcopal Church, preached to the
congregation of that church yesterday
morning and evening. At the evening
service he took as his text the nineteenth
and part of the twentieth verse of the
nineteenth chapter of the Gospel of John:
And PLATE wrote title and put it on the CROSS.
anu the writing was: Jesus of Nazareth, King OF
the Jews. And 1t was written in Hebrew, and
In Greek, and in Latin.
THE incident of which the text forms q
part is a striking illustration of the power
of great crises and events to command the
whole of the three-fold nature of man
his soul. mind or will and heart. Before
this awful and most stupendous of all crises
and events, the crucifixion of Christ man
gives absolute and complete homage.
There never was any event In the worlds
history where that homage or submission
was SO absolute and complete. We must
remember this was the turning point In
history. Every sharp contest of truth
with error. every fight against sin, every
struggle against seltishness was only pre-
lude to that awful moment when the Son
OF man, nailed To the cross. hurled sin
away.
THE inscription was written in three
languages, and these represented every
power and force which had been making
history In the past. and was then making
it in the present Every stream seemed TO
converge In that one point. and there. upon
that summit of Calvary, was the meeting
point of everything in this world. past,
present and future. Christ there stood as
the only perfect and complete representa-
tive of mankind the world has ever seen In
will, mind, soul. The inscription was
written in Greek. That was the language
of thought aud culture Behind this su bile
Greek tongue was the intellect OF Christ,
and that was an excellence Tor which
Christ was. prominent. L do not
mean to say the Greeks had no heart no
Will. but that intellect was the GROWING
glory OF Greece. The art of Greece did not
take its form In cOlOrs upon the canvas.
but by the cold chisel upon the marble.
The second language was Hebrew. ,Pales-
tine was the land where the flowers OF SEN
timent and emotion bloomed most lnxuri-
antly. You will find in the book of Job as
much intellectually as in writings of
Plato or Socrates, and no nation can be
said to be without warriors whose annals
contain names like Joshua and Gideon. But
the jews prominence was IN his emotional
nature. All the problems of theology, all
the strivings of thinkers. all the great
questions of the ages were being answered
In the incarnation of the Son of God. From
that cross went forth the everlasting edict
Il am the truth, the living truth. the way
guage of the heart. There was the great
est mind. the greatest heart on
that cross. Christ was king OF
s hS @nS and And Nd mans was Wnsn
in Latin. Rome was the nation of accom-
plishment. not of thought or of feeling. but
of force lndOmitable WILL glorious achieve
ment. In our American life whenever We
want to find q word to express energy OF
anything which requires the idea OF brav-
cry we GO back to that source for the
word. Mr. Seward at the beginning of the
war hesitated long time for q word to
got the word irrepressible. If Rome
should be asked to show a man she would
not show a Plato or David. but would
point to Caesar The Latin language on
that cross meant there was an omnIpotent
will, the power that had in itself the fac
ulty to lay down his life and take 1t up
again. There was the Lord. the ruler of
the Will of man.
The greatest man in Hebrew annals was
David. He shed tears enough to empty
any other mans heart-tears of agony. re-
penteDce, sorrow, joy-but when his heart
broke he died. He lacked intellectual bal
ance, o firm, strong will to keep his brave
man needs the intellect to formulate a
great desire or purpose. and needs the will
to carry it into effect The Greek snprem-
acy built upon mind, and the Roman
We zee how utterly imperfect is
any development which does not
only include the intellect and will. but also
the heart. Once and once only In the
ecce homo-behold the man! There He is
lifted mp to draw all men to Him. There
upon that undisputed throne He reigns for
ever. Beside Christ the soul of Plato, of
David and of Caesar are oil of them moth
ing but magnificent fragments. The will
is the echo of the will of God; His emotion,
His tears. are the beating of the heart of
God; and the mind Is the expression of the
thought of God proclaiming the truth.
showing the truth. Let us look at Him
and learn from Him to get rid of the par
tialness and fragmentariness which sin
makes in our natures and learn from Him
holiness. to worship Him in our bodies and
spirits, both of which are HIS"
Christ's Relations to His Family.
The Rev. T. n. Todd. of Elizabethtown,
preached last night at the Seventh Presby-
terrain Church. The text was taken from
Matthew. second chapter. and consisted of
the last two verses. in which Christ de-
cIared His relations to His mother. broth
establishment of better fraternity
among mankind than brotherhood, as q
substitute for which familyhood was Of
fered. Christ while busily engaged, had
been interrupted By HIS mother and
brothers. who desired Him to desIst from
the work. as it was bringing down upon
Him the wrath of the people, and
formed the beginning of those disturbances
which later on eliminated in the crucifix-
ion. The idea was brought out BY the
preacher that ChrIst's refusal to desst was
no evidence of family reputation, and that
q mans great love for his family could in
no way weaken his love for his fellows:
that it would rather strengthen it.
The success of the lsraelltes was held as
o result of their great love for their parents
and family. The sermon on the whole drew
on the larger charities and made the estab-
lishinent of O better church fraternity neces-
sary.