The herald., 1894-06-18

Unity Church.
The pastor, j. 8. Thomson, delivered
a sermon upon the Two Nations of
Christ, from the text, There Is One God,
and One Mediator Between God and
Men, the Man Christ Jesua. Timothy
2:2.
human being has five natures
mineral, vegetable, animal, human and
angelic. Christ had all the natures.
Life is known to US as senses, emotions,
instincts, reason, conscience. spirit, will.
Gan we, constituted as we are, conceive
OF any other nature? God 10 infinite in
ell his attributes. and man is finite
but we cannot think OF nature, or
department of life in the divine being,
which is not fnitely in man. We can
think OF God, Christ, the angels, the un-
seen worlds, only by means of the mem
tai faculties which we possess. II Christ
has nature different in kind from our
nature, what 10 it? God is spirit, the
angels are spirits, human beings
are spirits, Christ is o spirit. If the
spiritual nature is not the divine nature,
what 10 the divine nature? Can any
nature be higher, grander, diviner
that the spiritual nature? If divinity
Is greater than spirituality, then divin-
ity is greater than God; but Christ said
God is spirit, the highest and best de-
finition OF deity. We apply the term
divine" to what 10 connected with the
spiritual world. The difference be-
tween Christ and Peter is difference
of degree, not OF kind; for then, Christ
would not be Peters brother. So if
Gods being 10 different in kind from
h. l.. To- 81 IT, 90
our spirits; and, therefore, we are his
Gods difference in degree from US
in degree from us is beyond our knowl-
strument for manifesting spiritual
forces and, consequently, it is said the
spirit was not given to him "by meas-
ure." He had q carte blanche for spirit
usl power. Christ never said he was
God (; but he did say he was q God. and
for this assertion the Jews deemed him
blasphemer. They said they would
stone him because that "thou being a
man makest myself God" He justi-
fed his assertion from the Sind Psalm.
We see in this connection that the
phrase "the Son of God" and the phrase
"a God" the same thing to Christ
and We can see. also, that eminent per-
sonages were called Gods in the
Bible. Spirits that have been In the
unseen worlds for millions of
ages must be like Gods.
Christ had 6 human nature; bat, X
human nature be totally deprsved, then
his human nature was depraved, for he
surely received human nature from his
mother. 1t is just as true that Christ
manifested the goodness and love of
human nature az that he revealed the
love and mercy Of God. Human nature
attained in him lite divinest expression.
In the days of Christ the Roman world
had many deified men. Buddha, Her
cules, Esculapius and Roman emperors
were deifed. Alexander the Great
posed as a god. Paul and Bsrnabas
were believed to be gods at Lystrs, and
the people of that place could hardly be
restrained from offering sacrifices
to them; and Paul at Melita
was called god. People with
such views on embracing Christianity
would naturally demand that Christ
must receive the honors of dedication.
So the divine Christ, who was the
image OF Gods spiritual life, was de-
graded to the level of a deified man.
Better, infinitely better, to accept Paul's
declaration in the text that Christ is
the mediator between God and men, the
man Christ Jesus.