The Portland daily press., 1896-05-25
NEW JERUSALEM CHURCH.
Sermon by Rev. A. Jno. CIeare of Toron'
to.

Rev. A. Jno. Cleare of Toronto, offlci-
ated at the New Jerusalem church yester-
day and preached very able sermon
from the text: 'fHe saved others-Him.
self He cannot save" speaking substan.
italy as follows: .
"He saved others; Himself He cannot
saye.' At first this seems to be only q
cruel jest; but it Is in the Divine Word,
which has gathered up its literal sense
from human histories or passionate greed
seeds gather the material which is to
body forth the fragrant and beautiful
souls they hold, from all the impurities
that truck through the soils.
The Lord mRketh tho wrath of man
to praise Him. The incarnation ia toe
commonly thought of as an isolated
eyent-at least, as having no connection
with other Divine process ultimated be-
1ure this, and as being necessitated only
by the accident of mans denline. In
reality 1t is the elimination of all thai
has ultimated the infinite love and WIS
dom in the creation of finite worlds and
minds, x When We
think of creation We must have an In
Unite beginning-an unsouHd cause.
science and theology, as we'll RS 6ne very
constitution Of our minds. are equally
imperative on this point. Tben creation
has been but process of Efuiting what
was infinite.
Every finite thing exists by perpetual
reconstruction, by an incessant feeding
and farming. Every atom, whether in
the rock or in the most ETHEREAL cloud, is
he in a constant swirl by the influx
OF forces which maintain the rock or
cloud at the cost OF an equivalent OF
"eternal vigilance" Every organism
from the poorest weed to the most deli
cate orchid, from the mouse to the man,
lives, grows organizes, vegetables, digests,
assinn Hates, thinks or loves, by one con-
tinued twin process of Disqualification
and rebuilding.
The finite lives by receiving, by being
fed, the infinite lives by giving. The
infinite life Is centrifugal force, from
centre to circumference; finite life is a
centripstal force, all it's activities ex-
tr l,e Religion in
PRODUCES a new motive. Ethical culture
demands the disposition of these forces
of human nature in manner opposed
to all their natural proolivities.
Freely ye have received freely give.
Do unto Others as ye would they should
do unto you" These, besides the Ten
Commandments and the spirit of the en-
tire word, demand just what 1t is not
natural to give.
Z But man is more than nAtule could
supply or span. He is the one result of
creation. Suns and planets. with all the
enginery that moves the whole to God "a
measure, are but Instruments. All the
teeming life and interplay of forces of
the spiritual and natural worlds thread
the way to him in the path of Divine
life. He is organized of substances OF
every degree and kingdom in the spirit
ual and natural worlds-a receptacle of
the Divine life on every plane of its
creative manifestation. He is the one
universe. Heaven and earth ara part a,
through both of which he towers
Is was as a man, and through human
reoeptacles that the Divine descent and
full m anifestation we're made.
In Jesus Christ were united the infinite
and the finite, the Divine and the hu-
man. The s..descent Of Jehovah Was
through these vehicles and reoeptaolss
of the nature derived from Mary-who
was neither immaculate nor infinite,
through the spiritual envelopings which
were also Divine of the Lord as received
by her angles Through all these, over
coming the limitations which the best
in human nature sought to impose
upon the Divine love, overcoming that
with which even the best angelic love
Of man sought to Impede aud notify this
all-requiring Divine love-which mus
give itself absolute. 1t gave itself tt
be the life of others; it saved others; in
could not save that in the finite hum ar
sought to Withhold or modify it.