The advocate., 1894-04-11

Will u6ly JndI Gn6S6 uCCerdQc6S Ire6u
the slaves on British and on American
soil and emancipatedth the Russian serfs?
The literature Of every social reform
movement to-day is permeated with
the spirit of these teachings attributed
to the NaZarene. Wherever these
teachings have gone society has been
humanized and the spirit of democracy
stirs, and modern progress is not found
where these teachings have not gone.
They have amply verified the prophetic
declaration: II came to cast fire on the
earth"-"I came not to send peace, but
a sword"
If | have spoken truly so far, then
these utterances are of the gravest i'm
pOrtance to every one, no matter what
may be his views as to the dOgmaS of
the church, and why, then, shall We
continue to conceal these teachings by
our duarrelS over their authorship? +?
These teachings are true or false in
themselves, no matter who uttered
them. Truth cannot be more than
truth though uttered by God; nor less
that truth though spoken by tiend.
The meaning and the rational char
acter of these ideas must be the same
whether Jesus of Nazareth was God, a
man, or a myth. Let us then ignore
for the present all disputes as to the
personality of the reputed author of
these utterances while we endeaVor to
comprehend the full meaning and bear
ing of the utterances themselves.
FirSt-The first discovery we shall
make will be that these teachings we're
put forth for a purpose; or, If you
please, that Christ had some object in
view in preaching and in sending
others to preach. This sounds. like a
very superfluous statement, but it is
not. The Christian creed assumes that
Christ was not here to do anything, but
only to be killed; and it regards what
He did while waiting to be killed as i'm
portant only as tending to prove that
He was the proper person to be killed
the Son of God. His miracles, His
death, and His reserructiOn are the only
events in His career important to theOl-
ogy, excepting His birth. With His
teachings, theology has nothing what
ever to do; and the gospel of the pulpit
is not the gospel Christ Himself
preached, but a system of dOgmas
which men have affirmed concerning
Christ Himself. But if we read these
narratives, we shall discover that Christ
took a very different view as to the i'm
portance of His preaching. When the
people urged Him to tarry at Caper-
naum, He replied: 81 must preach
the gospel of the kingdom of God to
the other cities also; for therefor was l
sent;" and He accordingly event about
through cities and villages, preaching
and bringing the gospel of the king
dom of God" He was Jealous and
indefatigable agitator. These nara
tives give us glimpses of most active
career. He could not cover the whole
field of Judea rapidly enough to satisfy
His eagerness, and, lamenting that the
laborers were so few, He sent His dis
ciples on preaching tours. To get this
gospel of His preached in all the
world" was His chief purpose and
anxiety. What did He mean should
come of all this preaching? What was
His object? What did He set out to
accomplish? Lawyers make speeches
to win verdicts; political orators to win
votes; with what aim did Christ speak
and send others to speak? What was
to be accomplished by this incessant
campaigning? You may say His OBJ
ject was to get men to reform. True,
but the same question recurs-Why
did He urge men to reform? His moral
precepts are even now very hard to
obey. We Christians do not even at
tempt to obey most of them. To the
war.like Romans and the rebellious
Jews of that time, how pusillanimous
must have sounded the precept as to
turning the other cheek! He must
have given some reason why men