The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1894-04-23

Out Cl1S SpeC1dl f1OuT Is come III OIucl
that the Son of man may be glorified."
One sees the movement of all ages to
bring in this hour in order to display
the glory of the Son of God. So those
steps up into infinity that the thought
of man cannot follow in Paul's prayer
for the Ephesians and us: "Strength-
ened with might by his Spirit in the
inner man; that Christ may dwell in
your hearts by faith; in order that ye,
being rooted.and grounded in love, may
| be able to comprehend with all
saints what is the breadth, and length,
and depth, and height; and to know the
love of Christ which passeth know1-
edge-al1 this in order that we might
be filled with all the fu11ness of God. ="
The first steps must be taken or the
last never can be.
Paul says that he keeps his body I'M
der; but the word he uses is that he
gives it black eye in the hand to hand
fight. Long before Schiller expressed
it Paul knew ''that the truly excellent
character is made up of strictness to-
ward oneself and mildness toward 9TH
ers." He longs to be released from sin
as one would long to be unclaimed
from dead body. We read, "Strive
to enter into the straight gate.'' But
Christ said, "agonize." The tremen-
dous struggle where one man is crushed
or killed is the background for the word
So in Hebrews the writer says, "Where-
fore, seeing we are compassed about
with-so great a cloud of witnesses, let
! us run the race" Every reader sees
force in the expression. But the stu
dent secs atvast arena, with tens of
| thousas of witnesses in the eager
cloud, n4ohtArof training, prizes of ex-
ceeding honor, recklessness of life,
struggle that wrecks many a body, but
thunderous applause and lifelong hon
or for the winner. So he girds every
power, tramples on the bats of pleas
ing i'll, and tremendously runs.
In his devotion to his Master Paul
writes himself down as the slave of the
| Lord Jesus. That means, not only
readiness to serve him, but readiness
to serve his friends. Ourselves your
slaves for Jesus's sake. 1t means
readiness not only to serve, but to be
sold or be killed for the Masters sake.
We are killed all the day long. Such
devotion can come only from having
the same spirit and ends of life typifed
in the holy communion, by having the
same flesh and blood.
Different men understand according
to their several understandings accord
ing to their habit or ability of mind
Sometimes words are heaped up like
converged and accumulated waves, as
if ther9 were too much meaning for
any possible expression: "The eyes of
your understanding being enlightened,
that we may know what is the riches of
the glory of Gods inheritance in the
saints" 1t takes away ones breath to
think that God should have riches of
glory in us as our inheritance.
We thiak of baptism as a symbol
of cleansing. But how far beyond that
conception goes the Scripture express
sion: He shall baptise you with fire and
thoroughly cleanse. Water reaches the
outside merely, but we see the metal
made liquid as the fierce fire goes
through and through, reaching every
inner particle and testing it whether it
be dross to be consumed or metal to be
tire-c1eaned, so that it can never be
soiled. Here is symbol of searching
ness, of continuousness, and of power
Whayt,l;x le.s might in a great. confia-
gratiofv It is so terrible that the world
and ali things therein seem ready to be
burned up. Such baptism of fire is
also a baptism of power. 1t falls on
the subject only to consume the dross,
the evil, and hence the weakness. If
we live thousand years we shall new
er overestinate the intensity of mean
ing God puts in his symbol-the .bap-
tisrn of fire. In such fecundity Of ex-
preston it is no wonder that we find
more apt phrases for inscriptions than
we are able to invent. In Boston Com
mon, ON the pedestal of the discoverer
of anesthetics, is the inscription, 'Nei-
Their shall there be any more pain"
Over the post office at Hong Kong,
where one comes with consuming de- |
sire to hear from home, he reads, GAS |
cool waters to a thirsty SOUL so is good |
news from a far country" A loving
sister pNt monument over the grave |
of soldier who died in Andersonvil1e |
prison of slow hunger and consuming !
thirst under a burning sun. On it she |
had graved, ''They shall hunger no |
more; neither thirst any more; neither
shall the sun light on them, nor any
heat" Such a sentiment can make
death a boon.
Our Old Testament opens sublimely:
''In the beginning God created the
heavens ana the edrtn. ." L MS is ODV1-
ous1y the beginning of creation. But
John goes far back of this: 'In the be-
ginning was" This goes back of all
creation, for all things were made by a
being in absolute continuous being and
power before any of all the things
were. Genesis begins at creation in
time and comes down forward along
the ages. John begins at the same
point and goes backward along the
eternities. But what name shall he
give to this being? Shall he take Vul-
can the maker, Jove the thunderer, or
Chron his father? That would be to
muddY dis clear stream with all heath
en- bef5ulments. Shall he take Jeho-
yah? No. He says, I'm the begin
ming was the Logos"-the Word.
What does it mean? 1t means a spok-
en- embodiment of mental conception
or idea; a saying of God or man; de-
cree with all royal authority behind it,
a commandment, as the ten are called
the decalogue; continuous discourse, as
his word was with power; signifying
inward thought expressed, as it also
signifies the faculty of reasoning.