The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1896-03-21
JESUS.
BY REV. JAMES GoRTON.
AKRON, o.

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JESUS was the great God posses sed
soul. But that is only another way
Of saying that he was the great love
possessed and righteousness-pos
sessed soul. It is this that made him
at once so tender and 80 courageous,
so merciful and so just, ESQ sympa-
thetic and so severe.
He was a God intoxicated soul.
Call it incarnation" if you will. 1t
means the same thing. 1t is no great
thing to say and to believe that Jesus
is God. 1t depends on what kind of
God he is.
A great God possessed, God-intox-
icated man, is greater than the small
God in whom most people have be-
lieved, and still believe. And so my
man, Christ Jesus, may be greater
than your God, Christ Jesus.
1t is as it seems to us in perfectly
natural way that Jesus was, or be-
came, so divine, so God possessed,
God-incarnated. Faith in Jesus is
of no value if it does not take the
form of faith in ourselves; faith in
man, to become God like in the same
way Jesus did. Faith in God is good;
faith in Jesus is good, but they are
good Tor nothing, they are positive
evil, if they mean no faith in man.
Faith in the,goodness of all the good
and in the wisdom of all the wise and
the power and possibility of all men
to become good and wise, in other
words, great faith in man, in what he
has achieved and in what he may
achieve, is the greatest faith in Jesus
and in God. 1t was his boundless
confidence in the revelation of his
own God illuminated spirit that has
made him the supreme power for
love, for service, for righteousness
among men. 1t was also his faith in
man, in the capability of all men, of
becoming like himself that has made
him power for moral progress and
human redemption; for did he not
say, even to his own disciples, "the
things that | do shall ye do, and
greater things than these shall ye do
because l go unto my Father" Was
it not also said of Jesus, He became
perfect through suffering?" That is,
he was not perfect to begin with;
otherwise he could not have become
perfect. But he became perfect, or
was developed, disciplined and per
fected through trial, suffering and
sorrow, just as all other men are.
Was it not also said of him that he
"grew in wisdom and in stature and
in favor with God and mani" And
what is this but saying that bodily
and spiritually he was subject to the
same law of growth and development
as all other men? The New Tesla
ment conception of Jesus is pre-em
inently human. He is limited and
finite. He is never clothed with the
attributes of absolute Deity.
The faith in the divinity of Jesus
that does not believe also in the
inherent divinity of all men, that does
not believe in the natural, inherent,
Godlike intellectual and moral pow
ers and possibilities of all men, is a
poor, weak faith; is damaging, IRA.
tional and perishing faith; nay, it is
the mightiest unbelief in God him
self.
l may profoundly believe in the
divinity of Jesus, as being supremely
possessed of God, without at all be-
lieving that Jesus is the infinite God
himself. The latter would be con-
trary to all the teachings of Jesus
himself, and would be idolatrous,
not to say blasphemous. may go
much further, and believe that all
men are divine in their endowments.
and simply by right use and develop
ment, animated and illumined by
that infinite Spirit that is always
present and ready to help, every man
and all men may become truly divine,
truly Godlike and Christlike in con-
duct and character.
l believe, therefore, and in this
great and rational sense most pro-
fouudly, in the divinity of Jesus and
in the divinity of all men.
The old or medieval idea about
Jesus seems to be that he is the
second person in triune God. He