The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1893-03-24

Jesus taught.
This he taught his followers to seek
first and always until it was come.
But we have used the first three of
the gospels, and thus far said nothing
of the fourth.
There is reason for doing so. If
gospel means good news, and the good
news was that the kingdom of heaven
is at hand, the fourth is not a gospel.
Through all its chapters the kingdom
of heaven, or the kingdom Of God, is
never mentioned.
1t contains no Lords prayer, no
golden rule, no command to love thy
neighbor as thyself, no condemnation
of the pursuit of riches, no word of
sympathy or hope for the poor, no
iisapproval of the lordship and the
hypocrisy of the scribes, and pharisees
and priests, and the elders, with which
Matthew, Mark, and Luke abound
There is nothing in its pages that any
tyrant or extortioner, or priest or
oppressor of mankind, in all the Roman
empire, could object to as against him
According to Matthew, Mark, and
Luke, the teachings of Jesus were out
spoken and plain, so that they could
not be misunderstood, and in them all
there was nothing that priest craft
could use to enslave the minds of men.
But John is mystical from beginning to
end. He opens with the doctrine CT
the word which was '.in the beginning
with God,' a doctrine unknown to
Matthew Mark and Luke.
According to John, the doctrine of
the vicarious atonement is announced
by John the Baptist, and, it is re-
affirmed and maintained, throughout
the book, but Matthew, Mark, and Luke
teach no such doctrine. The incident
of Jesus casting the profit mongers out
of the temple is related but John
softens the den of robbers into a house
of merchandise, thus making the
ofense to consist simply in sacrilege.
The doctrine of the new birth is
introduced, and made the keynote OF
the book, though Matthew, Mark, nor
Luke give no hint of any such teaching.
John says that eternal life depends
on belief in jesus person as a super
natural being; Matthew, Mark and
Luke say nothing of the kind.
Matthew, Mark and Luke represent
Jesus as requiring of his disciples
unlimited devotion, such devotion that
father, or mother, or wife, or children,
or life itself should be disregarded in
comparison with it; but it was devotion
to his work, not to his person, that
Jesus demanded, the work of bringins
the kingdom of heaven on earth. Blu,
John makes the devotion required a
devotion to Jesus person, Jesus himself
having finished his work.
The love and good will which he
enjoins on his disciples, according to
John, is close, communion affair that
does not reach out and yearn for the
welfare of all mankind. "This is nv
commandment, that ye love one another
Greater love hath no man than this
that he lay down his life for his friends
Ye are my friends if ye keep my COM
mandments. The world hateth you as
it hated me-" 81 pray not for the
world, but for those thou hast given
me, neither for these only do 1 pray
but for them also that believe on me
through their word
Yes, the first three gospels antag-
onized the rich and powerful, therefore
Christianity, according to Matthew
Marx, and Luke. would never 90 in the
Roman empire Besides, it was plain,
and simply containing nothing to make
the believer feel the necessity o.
priestly intervention to save him from
the terrors of eternal death hence
priest, could not use it, and eccle-
siasticism, which is older than Chris
tianity, aud older than Moses, could not
be planted on it.
John supplied these defects. His
book is admirably adapted to priestly
uses, The doctrines of the new birth.
of saving faith, required a supernatura
work to be wrought in the terror.
stricken believers, and for these he
must look to priest or despair.
Adding to this the assurance that the
mass of the world we're left out of the
salvation provided, that none could
come to Jesus except the Father draw
him, and that Jesus prayed for none
but those that were given him, the
machinery for terrorizing and enslavine