The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1895-04-08
VASJESUS GOD OR MAN /?
The Rev. Charles Vail breaches
Against the Divinity of
the Savior.

81 invite your candid consideration of
the question, Was Jesus God or Man?'
The impression seems to be quite conn
mon that to regard Jesus as not God,
| but as a man, is to- degrade and dis
| homo him. I think ON the contrary that
it is to dft him into true and really great
er honor For did you ever think of it,
a God punched and compressed into the
! limits of our finite humanity, becomes
thereby of necessity a very meagre and
| small being. Jesus, born as a babe, and
| growing In knowledge as you and / do;
| after he was a man. sometimes disap-
pointed; trying to accomplish ends, and
again and again failing, declaring that
there were things that he did not know,
furnishes a picture of a God so meagre,
| so inadequate, so like the little gods that
the heather believed i'm, that we instinc-
lively push it aside, and demand for our
Worship something infinitely higher
| lifted wholly out of the category of this
! ~finiteness.
Jesus as a man omman the honor
and homage of all the world. None can
look upon him without feeling the beauty,
the greatness, the essential dfvineless OF
his life. But clothe him in the garments
| of Deity and how quickly does this great
ness d~isappeari Thus, however good
your intention, you really mock him.
How much greater is the honor done him
by pushing aside all this childish folly;
this ecclesiastical, and Theological fiction
/ of the ages, and letting him stand UP
in the strength of ibis winning grace
and high manhood.
HE thus comes into closer relation
with humanity, and is far more helpful
to us as an example, as a guide. as an
inspirer in life. How can a Deity be an
an example to US? We are not Deities.
| God cannot sin: how then can Gods ex-
ample of sinlessness help us in our sim?
his example of resisting the temple help
us in our temptation? But a man who
has been tempted as We are, who has
suffered as we suffer. and yet has over
| come. and out of 1T all has risen up into
| obedience and purity and peace, such q
one can be an example. an inspiration
to us all.
WHAT CALM REASON TEACHES.
NOW. let us ask, wha does calm, UNI
| BIASED reason have to say apo the sub
ject. judging on general principles and
| from the nature of the case. If we could
only strip ourselves of our conventional
habits of thought. and the influence Of
early education, l appfehend We should
require but a very short time to arrive
at a conclusion. Familiarity with an idea
has a great power TO blind US TO ITS alb
surdity and inherent incredlbility. 81 1T
is with this idea of the infinite and eter-
| mai God. who inhabits all worlds, whom
the heaven of heavens cannot contain,
coming to- this little world OF ours, being
born as a babe and dying upon the cross.
Surely it would seem as If tine very state
ment of the idea would, to any rational
mind. carry its own refutaftson. And IT
does carry it's own REPUTATION, instantly
whenever we see 1T in any form in which
we can judge of it without bias, as for
example, when we see essentially the
same thing in connection with other
religions, outside our own.
go back to the days of the old
lRRsonmniaan d Emp1 nsng an abe you E hrrp 1sla is to be
gods. and worshipping them. Go among
the various people of Central Asia
ind there today, thousands w~orshipping
sgorsnip J Jesus. Go among. the Brahmins
of India, and they .a wzii l. tel ny you wa 1rdt G 6Gst
sit ~ was in their Hindoo Krishna. Go to
Thiebet and there e you goa. will I,.d told Il hat Ut
snecial incarnation OF Sod
No EVIDENCE AT ALL.
aDo You pc belds 4sbev t NE nre ps9plett to You yon
,saro1y i evidence. as it seems to them,
d dea ca at ali. Now turn round and pre-,
sent to them y ar,,S CLAIMS y,h haa II VET
YOU accept 1T. What is the explanation?
Each has been educated from chiEhood
into his beMef, a., ana w SO ne he VOC COMES Ies
3 see fhe same thing in a different
sTess and under other circumstances, aus
q-nreasonableness at once comes 70 view.
of the Bible, showing. that ut nowhere
s,esJxs of Jesus as God, that Jesus MIN
self made no sucn claanl' toan no axaT :, ~
a,ntb SECULAR and sacred history, show
me that THE early church did mot re-
gard Jesus as COO. AND IL INA "a + he Wys Sif
TaoAPlartonisrn of Alexandria, c1lIMn-
ating in the Council of Nicata. ContlIfu-
~ IT lha We. already called attention to the
fact ,t1at the ideas of gods, i~ncarnating
themselves in human forms, and OF men
becoming gods, are on 51rs new the fae&S oriental lie
rrorid from the earliest times, has been
mi OF such ideas. The Egyptians be
1,nyea form and dwelt among them.
Tbba Chinese believe Lao-tze existed from
ali eternity, but descended ito eaTnh was
! born Of aa q virgin and hy ,ssee a Ra'''t to M Heaven
tsodilv Vishnm of India was believed to
Iagasbeen incarnated nine times Buddtla
yfsmas of Tlabet. In the Greek ana
6 1h,,sa world in the midst of which
Gbrigtianaty mad its birth and early det
yeloprnent, we find the same enous'i'
everywhAAfN AGE OF DEITIEs.
..Glf the Roman Emperors were raasea
- nennie fully believed in the duvlnity
9ns flR,i5,,s Caesar. Marcus Aurelius was
Oh 1n5rshSryped in the time of Daocieti-
SUI from Caesar ITO Constantine, sixty
ally. were deiied. Here then we nave
rIot,1re of the Thought of the age, ana
~ reiigioCs beliefs. i'm which Jesus ap-
,,eared. What is more na,tlral man ~
p 80, an, age Jesus. too. should haEe peen
suN sslas5 Ar age that could deity Grecian
neniSsu and Roman Enlperors, why
= not deity Jesus? Am age that
slni,id hsIsave in determinations OF gods In
Goulu Z for.ns. as in Buddha, .Lao-tze,
inl FL Ky;ejh1ia. and a host OF others,
UUshat more natural thing thar baat tney
ss,na,1d leg,rne to think the same or Jesus:
"AlI religious doctrines gre lloT Tx1hoI
less the outcome on neil asT. God
doctrine concerning Jesus and lla o G1d
cg = sta ace IN which Christianity was
! 4bsanS this doctrine that Jesus was
p = We deny the Deity of Jesus BUT
49, man words are too poor TO e1-
g = the grandeur of his mature; as a
man ne is the most real ana 5flnuenu.al
thaTaeter. The real Work OF Jesus Was
~ ravea1 God. But alas! that men IN
their mistaken zeal snouid HAVE ial1so i~A
1--WE saw do not worship Jesus, IN order
that we may more emphatlcaIly say;
tsMuYnrshan him whom Jesus w~orshtpped
and "a ,leht men everywhere ITO join MIN
4, uorshfpning, as His Father in Heaven:
STre1,derlv let us love Jesus, sincerely let
ne hnnor him, gladly and gratefully, let
tr,,ths that fell from his lips. But let
~ 10. follow in the path OF he ancient
nsaan world and defy the man We
ppn,Id bonlor. Rather let us be his 80
tmsya aasS mobile disciples that In. all our
srorshin We shall be pointed by Hum