The Monmouth inquirer., 1893-01-19
THE ENTIRE Mt GOSPEL.
REV. THOMAS DIXON ON OUR DUTIES
IN POLITICS AND RELIGION.

A Plain Spoken Preacher on Tammany
HaIl-The Gospel Gives Directions for
Both Worlds and Cure for All Evils
Preach Christ and Him Crucified.
NEW York, -~-..- X Before the reg
ular sermon OF Ine day Rev. Thomas
Dixon, Jr., reviewed the position of
Tammany Hall in the present political
campaign in fearless and very vigorous
language.
For determined not to know anything
among you. save Jesus Christ and him cruel
5fed.-I Cor. Ii, 2.
For it was the good pleasure of the Father
that in him should all the fullness dwell; and
Through him to reconcile all things unto him
self, having made peace through the blood Of
his cross; through him, / say, whether things
upon the earth, or things in the heavens
1y19.20.
At all our summer gatherings where
questions of the day are discussed in re
lation to the church, there is the ever
present speaker with the perennial COM
monplace, that the solution of all our
difficulties, religious, social and political,
is to sspreach the Gospel" But sad to
relate, the men who insist with greatest
vehemence on this remedy are the last
men in the world to define for us what
is the gospel | wonder if the men who
use it have any real conception of the
depth, Of the height, Of the breadth of
the meaning of the Gospel of Christ, him
crucifed | fear that il many of our
churches really knew what the gospel
lis, many Of the brethren would be at a
loss for issues over which to wrangle.
I saw the other day where church
demanded the resignation of its pastor
because he wore a mustache. They
wished beardless man to preach the
Gospel, and their idea of the Gospel was
that 1nustache would seriously inter-
fere with its proclamation. What was
their conception of the Gospel? To
preach Christ, yes; but what is it to
preach Christ? To preach the Gospel,
yes; but what is the Gospel? Back Of
this parrot echo, preach the Gospel, SO
glibly given, there is a real voice, and
it is the cry of the great heart of hui
manity for real truth. It would be
dangerous thing for any of our churches
to really and truly enter upon the proc
lamation of the Gospel in its fullness.
Some of our buildings, / fear, would be
certain to topple and fall, shaken by the
echoes of such q gospel.
What does 1t really mean today to
preach Jesus Christ and him c1ucifeds
First-It means to proclaim salvation
for the lost. 1t means to proclaim it as
the courier proclaims the message given
him by his superior commander. 1t is
a message of glad tidings. 1t is IA
message of eternal import: and we are
commissioned to go-go into all the
world and make this glad proclamation.
The preacher of Christ must go with an
enthusiasm that will turn the world up
side down If he go as the apostle of old
went 1t means salvation for the lost
and outcast world. It means good news
for the DOOR Jesus preached salvation
to the thief, and the harlot, and the
lapsed world. The gospel of Christ
means the pressing into the life of all
classes and all peoples the glorious proc
lamation of life and light. The church
that really breaches the Gospel of Christ
cannot be mere social clatb. 1t must
be militant organization seeking to
save bue WOIlu.
SMASHED THEoLoGIEs.
Second-To preach Christ and him
crucifed is to tell the world all that
God is. Ia him dwelleth the fullness of
the Godhead bodily. They said to
Christ, e5how us the Father" You
remember his reply: .sHave been so
long a time with you-have you not seen
the Father? He that hath seen me hath
seen the Father" To preach Christ is
therefore to proclaim to the world the
fullness of God. AS Christ did and
thought, so God is. To fully interpret
Christ to the world is tosweep the whole
range OF Gods nature. Is to preach the
God of pity as he weeps beside the grave.
Is to preach God tender and consider
ate even OF the embarrassment of host
css at marriage feast. Is to preach u
God of compassion and tenderness,
healing the multitude Of their diseases.
Is to preach that God is so tender and
close to the race, that he loves little
ehiIdren, takes them into his arms, loves
to sit and talk with his disciples. Is to
proclaim that God looks upon the great
multitudes with compassion, as upon
sheep driven without shepherd, and
that his great heart goes out to them in
love. Is to preach God who was so
full of love that he gave himself that
men might live. To preach Christ is
therefore to preach that God is love,
ahat he so loved the world that he gave
himself To really preach Christ and
him crucifed, today, would be to smash
surcurrent theologies, Reconstruct them,
make them center in the cross. Would
be to rebuild theology until the justice
Of the throne and the love of the GROSS
are one, and there is real atonement.
Would be to so reconstruct theology as
that Christ would be made the revela-
tion of God rather than proclamation
from God. To preach Christ, him cru
aified, is to sweep the whole range of
fhe nature Of God and his attributes. If
Christ were less than God there is no
meaning to the record of the New Testa-
Inant