St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-04-09

| Oh tno .tHeCtfOuS-Ea itu AStuS
TO Christ - A Reproductive
Work.
Rev. J. Wesley Hill. noted and elo-
Quent divine OF Helena. Mont. preached
at Oxford NJ. f.. church yesterday the
opening sermon Of a weeks revival
meeting. His theme was Christian
/ Achievement"
Text: ''He that believeth on me, the
works that do SHALL he do also; and
greater works Chan these shall he do.
because go unto my Father
These are itliea words of Christ. Let
us not stagger at them or modify them
by limiting them to another age or to
other people. They were uttered by
Christ when the shadows of Calvary
and Gethsemane were upon Him. They
have withslood all the attacks of the
higher critics and still belong to tine
church as legacy Of Christian posi-
bility. through faith i'll Christ.
Christ relied upon two lines of evil
! dence to SubStan tate Ills claims, His
works and His words. 70 these He
added the one of the text, namely. that
believers in Him shall have power to
perform not only the works that He
wrought, but greater works than these.
Miracle working power existed i'll the
early church,; it existed so long as the
world needed special evidence cor
roborating the divinity Of the gospel.
The time comes, in the history Of every
case, when the evidence is all in and
the case made up. God is not to be kept
i'll the witness-boX forever. He has filed
His affidavit once, for all time, to the
divinity of His Son. =. The sacred canon
is complete, and the case has been
given to the jury.
Christ did not come to establish a-ma-
terial but a spiritual Kingdom He said:
''The Kingdom Of God is within you"
and again, 1.-The kingdom of God cometh
not by observation" he touches this
fact i'll the text when He declares,
Greater works than these shall he do,
because go-to my Father"
The ascension OF Christ meant the
end of the senSuouS. We no longer
heed the divinely-inhabited cloud; the
unseen has been uSiered in, crowned
by the diSpensatIUn OF the Holy Ghost.
PentecoSt substitutes Bethany; a COLI
verted Peter Is better than resur-
reeted Lazarus. We now look toward
the Unseen for the exhibition of the
highest power.
Science reaches her true glory in deal
ing with the intangible, and so Chris
tianity is glOritied in uShering in the in
visible agencies of the Eternal. The
true field of Christian achievement Is
not in the material, but the spiritual.
We are to take this gospel TO a dead and
decayIng humanity and hold UP its Won
derful truth until the Sheeted dead hear
tile voice of lite and leap into the life
and consciousness of the sons OF God.
We are to take this gospel into the
realm of the mind: we are to present it i'll
the spirit of love; we cannot compel
men to think correctly. The thumb
screw and the gibbet are of no service
to an intellectual Christianity. We
cannot make Christians by using the
anvil or the wise; we appeal to the rea
son; we echo and re-echo the question
OF the ages. '.NViiat think we OF Christi"
We present argument. we array evi :
dence, and wien we have broken the
spell upon the intellect and iiiumina ted
ii with the light OF heaven we have
accomplished greater work than
walking upon the waters or multiplying
loaves and fishes.
We must also present this gospel to
the will. which is in a state of anarchy
and moral revolt. Men are not saved be-
cause they will not be saved. Saliva
ton is contingent upon human co-opera-
ton. The will is SO sublime as to be
terrible. 1t marshais the faculties,
builds tie character and fixes the deS-
= htAn t.as,..
i'll hell God will not drag us to the
cross; He will not invade with His omui-
potence the charmed circle of the will :;
He only enters where He is invited.
We are also to take this gospel into
the world of the affections.
Faith leads to Christ; faith links us to
the GUdhefd, and brings us i'll contact
with all the treasures OF immensely. We
are not to believe in a priest or
, preacher or philosophy. 1t is not nee
essary that we believe all that comes 10
us through creed or legend OF tradition.
Christ says, 'He that believeth in HE"
But before such faith materialiSm
vaiIlShes, pantheism is overthroWn, and
unitarianism goes down into the dust,
while The soul holds communion with
the Father. has fellowship with tine Son
and receives power and comfort from
liiO lAOig pilUot'
The work Of the Christian achiever is
reproductive. 1t is imInortaiiZed through
all the ages. The material works of
Christ were limited to the aye in which
He lived. He Gained the sea, but it
ragged again; He multiplied loaves and
fishes, but that miracle ended there; He
healed the arm of the paralytic. but that
arm was soon paralyzed by death; He
turned water into wine, but that wine is
no more; He commanded Lazarus into
consciousness. but Lazarus was soon
clothed in burial robes. Not so with
Christian achievement. 1t works upon
spirit. and spirit is immortal. 1t touches
thought. and that is the kingliest thing
i'll the universe. 1t plays upon the keys
of the volition, and that music will swell
forever. 1t untwines the tendrils of the
heart from the things Of time and sense,
and trellises them TO the skies.
We know not when the glad hour
shall come, but some blight day or some
dark night the shout OF universal victory
will arise. The shadows of the night
will whlten into the lilies of the morn
ing. and the morning will redden into
the rose of triumph, and the shout will
roll forth along the paths of space, "The