The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1894-12-22

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port were beginning to twinkle. So
Jesus came to those who stood sor-
rowing on the shore, gazing with
straining eyes into the shadows
among which their beloved had set
sail, and pointed them to Gods har-
Dor lights shining in the distance, in
viting to the Eternal haven!
II. The SECOND ELEMENT IN HIS saw
ING WORK is HIS REVELATION OF HUMAN
NATURE.
There are other questions that con-
Germ us; that each one must ask him
self in his own deepest moments.
l. What am l myself to be and do?
Why am / here? What is the object
of lifes
We look about us, and while we
see many excellent specimens OF hu-
mainly, how incomplete is the best
we know! How poor and shabby the
vast majority of the lives we see!
How far from what they should be,
are the relations that obtain between
man and mani How much of saw
ageness and brutality survive! How
much of the animal is left! The
world seems sometimes like strife
of swine for the best place at the
trough strife in which the weak
est are trampled into the mire.
2. Is this the best that human ma
ture is capable of? Is it always to
be so? Is there no higher outcome?
Who shall give answer? Here, again,
Jesus comes to our rescue revealing
the capacities Of human nature and
the possibility of their development
How the sight of one man standing
apart in the crowd, one strong man
who seems able to bear the burden
and stand the storm, one man who is
strong where others are weak, COM
posed where they are distracted, full
of hope where they are disheartened,
courageous where they are cowardly,
how such one makes us think bet
ter of ourselves and of every body
else!
do not wonder that we have made
no greater progress when we have
been taught for two thousand years
that we are corrupt and depraved;
that we are bound in sin and are
helpless for good. The Church has
aimed to create a sense of sin; he
aimed to produce. a sense of worth.
He did not underestimate the sin, he
did not palliate the guilt, but he
taught every man that he was son
of God, and an heir of eternal life.
We are not saved by denunciation,
we are not saved by being discourag
ed and disheartened, we are only
saved by the assurance that we are
worth saving.
In his own character, Jesus contra
diets the dark accounts of human ma
ture. Here is this tree of humanity.
Priests, scribes, theologians, gather
about it, saying, at is of no account;
cut it down, why cumbereth it the
ground ?'-when this consummate
fruitage ripens on the topmost Dough.
We must judge the capabilities of the
tree by the best that can be pro-
duced.
At a recent county fair in New
England there was continual crowd
around an agricultural exhibit, which
excited a great deal of admiration
and was the occasion of many re-
marks. The exhibit was marked,
RAISED on an Abandoned Farm"
The articles shown were grown upon
a farm in rough hill town, which its
original owner had found an undesi-
rable piece of property, and had
practically deserted. The exhibit in
cluded many varieties of vegetable
and grain. The people kept the pro-
prietor of the abandoned farm busy
explaining how he produced such
wonderful results. His reply was
that he took delight in farming and
did the best he could. Well, here is
this abandoned territory of humanity,
given over to the dominion of Satan,
barren for aught save the rank
growths and thick weeds of sin; but
Jesus shows us, in his own life, what
marvellous results may be achieved,
what harvests of righteousness and
beauty may spring up and ripen on
this abandoned farm" The hope of
such development as he illustrates
is in itself an incentive that goes far
to save us from our sins; the sunlight
that CLEANS upon the hilltops beck
ons us from the swamps and miasma
below. There is meaning in all
this for you and for me. When dan
ger and confusion come to the land,