The Newtown bee., 1896-04-03

Let us apply all that we have been saying of this general principle of the attractive characteristics of Jesus Christ to the scharacter, the cOnsOlati0ns and the truth of Jesus, and see if it does not make what we may call the mysticism of these sayings of Jesus in these last hours with his disciples more clear to us.
 Here before us stands the character of Jes us; it is perfect, perfectly human, a perfect manifestation of God and of what God in his idea of man means man to be; and man Confronted with this ideal, so high, so infinitely higher than any of the human ideals about him which he has passed uumoved as they called to follow them--so impossible did even these lower standards of high liv- ing seem to him in his weakness-rises to follow Jesus, weak and sinful and lost tho he be, and strives to attain this character go far above hIm. r. is almost pathetic, l think, this clingjng with which sinful world holds on to the sinlessness of Jesus
 I5 is j'yful to see how generation Ei'cr generation, humanity out of all it's siuiulutss aUd weakness ri es to follow Chri-r, seckipg to attain his character, to find him where he is. Not once in all tbeae ages that have come and gone since his divine feet pressed the streets of Jerusalem, and men have been con- stantly follow ing him, has any human soul come where he is. Yet not one soul is there who having once set out on this divine quest will ever give it up.
 The more these souls struggle to come where Jesus is, the more sure a,e they that they never can be where he is. The more surely they know that his character i> unAttainable, the more surely are they forced, drawn and in spired to be like him. Not yet among all the ranks of Chii>tians who have followed ,Ie, us to seek bim where he is. has one dared to claim that he has at- tained the character of Jr,us Christ; not once in all the army If iItfl~I- and uubciirV, IS who have doubted. mAllgurd mi understood and mi interpreted Jesus. 1 has an intdel arisen so arrogant as to say, "l am as god as Jesus Christ" Never in character has man vet come
 where he i, yet forever must humanity seek the attainment of the character.
 And how is it with the consolation of Jesu-? r. is my invaiiahie experirrce
 that tLe human heart in sorrow seeks l GUd.
 "IIearts that the preacher could not touch, By wayside graves are raised; And lips cry God be mcrciful" 1 That ne'er cried, God be Draiseduu
 The heart seeks Christ, brggirg to have 1 it sorrow taken away. What does Ies- 1 us do for the poor suffering soul? i Docs he net say, canuut Ike vcur sor-
 ID" away without taking the love out of l your heart. 90 bound together are your
 love aud your sorrow. Will yru part
 "ih yrur love? Aud you meet the man
 who has fled to Jesus a~ ~king to have his sorrow removed, and you ask. Has l God taken away your sorrow :" ard he
 answers you, "No; the sorrow is still
 there; that could not give it up; it js
 part of the love l bear my friend; but
 Jesus has filled and inspired gpny sorrow
 with his peace, so that I no longer ask for its removal, but for q stror ge, full 1 tiimeut of his comfort" How is if with
 you who for year DOW have been in l deep sorrow; you came to Jesus to seek 1 hun where he was that he might take your sorrow away; did he take it away l No, you say. "Then he did not an- | < MI E-C,yI
 s"er; "for how else have l borne the ! long year: He has given me peace and strength in the midst Of sorrow, and aItho have not come completely where
 He is, still seek him.
 And last let us apply our tests to the texts of Jesus. The greatest word that
 Jesus evor said of himself WAS II am the VIu h." Not in distractions, but in the living Christ vas the Truth; to
 bo sought, and in following Jesus man rises to seek the Truth; but does he come mpletely to it: Always seeking
 to be where Jesus is, does he ever come completely there?
 A the Christian scholar: "You have spent thirty or forty years now. you say. in this study of Christianity ; now surely you mutt know the whole truth of that religion"
 'No," he tells you, ''never did feel that knew so little. Never before did l realiza as l realize tonight that am but child picking up pebbles Of truth on the shores of it's infinite ocean; never before did the truth appear to me so deep, SD vast, so absolutely incompre. hensible."
 "Then,' you say to him, you have found your study unsatisfactory you are ready, surely, after all these years of unsuccess, to give it up?'
 "Never" he cries. "Surely as I real ize the impossibIitv of attaining what l seek, 90 must 1 seek it the more Never did heart aLd soul so crave to give itself to the seeking of truth; never did everything besides in the world seem SO worthless; never did the truth so SD pear to be the only thing worth the fer ing of my life as now, when | feel that the truth l seek is infinite and vast. and that l can never attain to it. must seek u "A"aySi atuo AnoW tnaG where It Is there I shall never come"
 There is the inspiration of the truth of God A problem in geometry master 1 look through~and through if, and soon have learned all there is to know about 1t; it ceases to inte. est me; it no longer draws me on; throw it aside; but the truth of God, my dear friends, forever and forever do we seek it, never do we come where it is, and that is it's inspir