The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1895-01-17
WORK FOR CHURCHES
THEIR MISSION AND THE SECRET OF
THEIR POWER.

Peace be unto you. As my Father hath sent me,
even 80 send you. And when he had said
this he breathed on them and saith unto
them Receive ye the Holy Ghost. whoscso
ever sins ye remit they are remtted unto
them, and whosesoever sins ye retain they
are retained.-John Xxx, 2l-3.
Christ passed over to his disciples his
own mission. We who profess TO call
ourselves his disciples are to do in our
age what he did in his. We members
of Plymouth church are to do in this
district of Brooklyn what he did in Pal
estine lS centuries ago. Nothing less,
and certainly nothing more. And if we
look at his life and see what he did it
may all be summed up in this-that he
brought to the world revelation Of
Gods love, which he brought by word
and by life. And we are sent into the
world that we may do tho same thing;
that we may carry to men the witness,
inspiring in men the experience, Of the
love of God, by our words, by our deeds,
by all the unconscious outflow of our
own divine life And the secret of
Christ's power is clear to see. He told it
over and over again to his disciples.
"The words that l speak unto you" he
said, II speak not of myself. 1t is the
Father that dwelloth in me who doeth
che works" Then no said to his dis
ciples, IF any man love me, he will
keep my commandments, and and my
Father will come and make our abode
with him. " We will dwell in him. We
will dwell in him as tho Father hath
dwelt in me. And to make this perfect.
ly explicit, after having said, IL and
my Father are ono, he also prayed that
his disciples might be one in him. and
in the Father, as he was one in the Fa-
ther.
This was the secret of Christ power,
then, through all the ages, not that
there was a good man upon the earth
there had been good men before-but
here was a man who, beyond all other
men that ever lived, exemplified, reveal
ed, disclosed the divine life in him,
God himself tabernacling in human
flesh. And then, when about to depart
from the earth, he breathed on men and
said: THE spirit that has been with me
is to be with you. You are to be taber-
nacles " As Paul said, "Ye are the tenn
pies of God, and the spirit of God is to
dwell in you" And the secret of the
power of the disciples and the secret of
the power of the church in all these ages
is this-that, though poorly and imper.
feotly, with many a blemish, with many
failure, in it has been manifested bet
ter than anywhere else the spirit of di-
vine truth and love, because in it more
than anywhere else God himself has
dwelt
The Message.
Now, to the disciples to whom he
gives this commission, to all who do
this work, and whom he endows with
his power, he gives an authority and
responsibility. He says, "Whosesoever
sins ye remit they shall be remitted unto
them; whosesoever sins ye retain they
shall be retained. " We are not to believe
that this commission was given simply
to the l2 disciples, nor to them and
their successors appointed by some hier-
archical method. There is no hint here
or anywhere else in the New Testament
of any successor, absolutely none, and
the very nature and structure of the
commission forbid any such interpreta-
tion. Whomsoever Christ sends out to
do the work which he came to do in the
world, ON him Christ breathes, saying,
Receive ye my spirit, and to that one
Christ gives the power to remit sins and
to retain sins. The commission cannot be
so that We may say that all
Christ's disciples are to do Christ work
in Christ's spirit, all Christ's disciples
are to receive the spirit of God and have
God dwelling i'll them, but only a
pope or bishop or priest ordained by
pope or bishop can remit sins and can
retain sins.
The commission Is jointed together; it
is all one. To whomsoever Christ gives
the first part he gives the last part. The
whole message is this / send you that
are my disciples into the world to repeat
my message and live my life. l give to
you, my disciples, the power of opening
your hearts to receive the spirit of God
that he may dwell in you, and receiving
that endowment Of power and entering
on that mission you are to have the pow
er to remit sins and to retain sins. He
says it to you; he says it to me. What
ever power pope or cardinal or archbish.
op or bishop or ordained priest possesses,
], pastor of Plymouth church. possess;
you, humblest teacher in the Sunday
school, possess; you, mother gathering
your children about your knee under the
roof tree, possess.
If we are to ask. then, what is the
of these sacred and solemn
words, we are not merely to seek, with
a Greek lexicon and dictionary, def
nitions Of the words themselves, for we
are by no means sare that these were
the exact words which Christ uttered.
II this fourth gospel was written by
John, as l believe it was, it was not
written until some so on 20 years after
the words were uttered by Christ. 1t has
been assumed that the apostles had yer.
bal inspiration. so that they could for.
get no word and no letter, but that is
pure assumption. There Is no evidence
Of it. We are to interpret these words
not by dictionary and grammar prima-
rily, though they may help us to under.
stand them, We are to interpret them
by the life of Christ. As we are to see
why Christ was sent into the world and
what was the secret of Christ's power,
30 we are to see in what way did Christ
remit sin and in what way did Christ
retain sin.
A Needful Mission.
And VET there In a sansa In which