The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-01-16
CHRIST THE LIGHT OF MEN.
EMPHASIZING SE RlION BYREV. PRO- LESSOR GEORGE B. STEPHENS, D. D.


 Christ's Universal Mission-He Came No
 to Few, But to AII-The Larger Concep
 tion of Christ by the Apostles Paul and
 John.
 Rev. Professor George B. Stevens. D. D., of the Yale divinity school, preached 8 most excellent sermon at the Church of the Redeemer Sunday morning before a large congregation. His subject was "Christ the Light of Men," and the text was John IA and 9; Tn Him was life; and the life was the light of men. There was the true, even the light which llghteth every man coming into the world" His discourse was in part as followsi
 Tn these two verses taken together we have the idea that Christ is a source of light to men universally-that, in some way and in some degree, God re- veals Himself through Christ to man. kind.
 "It is evident that if we adopt this idea of the Apostle John, we must great ly enlarge our conception of Christ be- yond that ordinarily attained. We must not limit our idea of His person and look to the few years during which Jesus lived in human form among men. Nor must we be content to expand this notion merely by adding to it the Thought of a continued spiritual pres ence and activity of Christ in the world since His ascension. We must carry our conception of Christ and His work back into the ages previous to His in- carnation, and extend it not to the Jew ish nation alone, but to mankind uni versally.
 Tt is significant that this larger con- ception of Christ is presented to us by the two master spirits of the Apostolic age, John and Paul. This were the two men of that time who-so far as we can judge-had penetrated most deeply into the heart of the gospel and had at tained the noblest conception of salva- tion and redemption through Christ. Let us now consider the practical religious significance of Christ's uni- versal relations and activity. should say, first of all, that, as compared with any narrower idea, it implies worthier thought of God. The time was when it was believed that God restricted His grace to a comparatively small portion of mankind, and that Christ's saving work was intended to provide salvation only for this limited number. To the Jews alone, of all ancient peoples, He was supposed to have revealed His will and His love. Tn later ages, His com passion had broken over the bounda- ries of race, but He had still chosen out, for no reason connected with what men might do or be, certain requisite number of individuals whom He would save, while the great mass of man. kind were left in the natural darkness and sin in which they had been born into the world. This is the doctrine of election which our fathers sincerely be- leve5 and which still stands, in the boldest possible form, in many of the creeds of modern Protestant Christen- dom. By most minds now-a-days it is felt that this view makes the favor of God too arbitrary. If it is said that these are the reasons why God enlight- ems and saves some while He passes by others, it has to be admitted that they cannot be comprehended or even imag- ined by the human mind-which in- wolves the hopeless effort to deny these reasons to thought and then to save them to reality
 We are rather accustomed to think in better accord with the passages | which have reviewed-that God as the | absolutely good-the eternal sun of love and truth the source of all light pours down upon the whole world of souls His benificent rays-illuminating | in different ways and degrees all who | omen their hearts to His influence. All | the ways in which the universal spirit touches and quickens the human spirit |