The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-04-26

liz anu HillnE IL fuI OF himself. AHldEiut
for one moment that God desires TO reveal
himself to the human race; how can he
make that revelation except in the terms
has done. He who. in olden time spoke
through prophets: He who. from the Begin
ming was the word. when the race was
velopment. for that later discourse, entered
INTO one human life and filled 1t full OF
himself ns : that by looking at at th nat IA IRE eve we
is in the world. This is what the
author OF the e2lstle 70 the aeoreTs de
snoken unto the saISsrs IN he prophets by
divers portions and In divers manners, hath
at the end OF these days spoken unto us III
His Son.. whom He appointed heir of all
things. through whom also He made the
world First In fragments. first in partial
~utterances, first in speech here and speech
there little parts of himself which men
could begin to comprehend, in single letters
which men must learn-for they must under
stand the alphabet before they could under
stand the ramma OF d~ivin.ty-then at last
He comes and fills One with himself and
makes that One stand out in human life as
a revelation and disclosure OF himself Con-
ment itself characterizes this Christ-what
1t says of Him.. He is the Son OF God that
is. He is one all whose life Is brooded by.
begotten from, proceeds from the Father.
Some of your life does and some of your
life does not. We walk the world like Siam
csc twins. Joined together, now speaking the
world. the flesh and the devil. We are sew
enth OF Romans. all OF us-flesh and spirit
and sons OF God strangely commingied. He
was the only beg0tten Son OF God because
all His life flowed from the divine fountain
f~ulIness OF the Godhead bodily He was one
into whom the holy afluence Of the divine
natqre was poured; that He might set it
Christ walking the earth, the tabernacle.
the God dwelling in Him and revealing him.
self through Christ. He was God manifest
Ia ahA AAnA NJ d - a@1r n
manifestation of God as is possible in a hui
man life. Jesus Christ did not manifest all
the qualities Of God. There is greater power
of God manifest In the earthquake and the
tornado than there was manifested I'm Christ.
There Is greater mechanical wisdom and
skill manifested In the flower than there was
manifested In anything that Christ wrought.
But the love, the patience, the fidelity, the
truth, the long suffering. the heart of the In
fruition and its manifestation in this one in
comparable life-God manifesting himself in
a human life and in human relations. He
scope TO yonder star, and someone says:
What are you looking at? and you say: Il
see Saturn and his rings You are mis-
you see an image of Saturn and his rings,
and IL you could get near enough to see
Saturn and his rings you could not see
them into the retfna Of your eye. The
picture must be brought down. diminished.
n order r that hat , you may behold behold It; Jesus
~
within the horizon Of humanity, God made
small. that We nay look at Him; adumbrat-
taking little steps by our side, says DIR. Park
hurst. that We may walk with Him. God
is always manifesting himself. and He is
manifesting himself by successive manifesto
then in an inspired race: last Of all, in one
man whom He fills full Of himself.
SUPREME PRODUCT OF EVOLUTION.
Now, perhaps. you will ask me a ques-
tion-or would if you were free to ask in
this church assembly-does the divinity in
Christ then, differ in kind or only in degree
from the divinity in men? There are>differ-
ences in degree so great that they become
equivalent to a difference in kind, but with
this qualification I answer, unreservedly,
the difference is in degree and not in kind.
There are not two kinds of divinity, and
cannot be. The divinity in man is not diff
ferent in kind from the divinity in God.
III II ls, then there are two kinds of diVin-
ity; and two kinds Of divinity means two
Patience is divine, hope is divine, love is
divine, purity Is divine, Righteousness is
divine. h is the message of Paul but
this, that these are the qualities that are
TO be in US: that We are to have the pa
thence OF Christ; that we are to have the
righteousness of God; that we are to be
qualities in us are to be transcripts, refec-
lions. repetitions of the divine qualities in
the everlasting Father. IL we believe that
evolution Is Gods method of manifesting
himself, then we need not be afraid to
say that Jesus Christ Is the supreme prod
uct OF evolution in human history, mean
ing thereby that Jesus Christ is the su-
preme manifestation of God in human his
tory, for the whole of human history is the
manifestation of God. and Jesus Christ is
the supreme manifestation which history
affords of the divine.
Does. then, evolution end in the cradle
or at the cross? No. For Jesus Christ did
not come into the world merely to be a spec
tacle, merely TO show us who and what God
Is, and then depart and leave US what we
were before. L an the door, He says. A
door is to push open and go through. He is
the door: through Him Goo enters into hui
mantty; He is the door; through Him hu-
manity enters into God; and He has come
some knowledge and apprehension of the
divine nature, coming 10 understand what
divine purity, divine truth. divine love. di-
vine hope, divine sympathy. divine justice
are, may the better enter into that life and
be- ourselves filed with all the fu,lness of
God. For consider. there is not. I think,
one epithet-I cannot recall one-applied to
Jesus Christ In the New Testament which
in a modified form is not also appiied to the
disciples of Christ. He Is the light Of the
world. We are the lights in the world. He
Is the image of God. We are made in Gods
image. and we have despoiled ourselves of
that image. He is the brightness of Gods
glory: and we are ourselves to show forth
the glory OF God. He is King of Kings; and
we are kings. He is the great High Priest;
ana we are priests he Is the only be-
gotten Son of God; and we are sons of God.
He is'flled with all the fullness Of the God
head bodily: and we are inspired to pray
that we, too, may be filled with all the full
ness of God. And the contamination of evolu-
ton, the consummationsof redemption-call IL
what you will-the whole of this long pro-
cess Of divine manifestation. which began
in the day when the morning stars sang
together. will not be until what Christ was.
the whole human race becomes, until the
incarnation so spreads out from the one man
of Nazareth, nat Ii fills the whole human
race and all humanity becomes an incarna-
ton of the divine, the Infinite and AL loving
Spirit.
LIES ONE OBJECT.
Let me ask you once more to take for
this evening my point OF view. All of life
has for its object a divine purpose. That
divine purpose is the creation CT moral be-
ings. thinking. feeling, willing akin to God.
to whom. God may manifest himself. From
the very dawning days of creation down to
the last act in the great drama, when the
curtain shall be rolled away and every knee
shall bow and every tongue shall confess
and from all the redeemed OF the earth
there shall rise the great new song-from
the beginning to the end the object of the
whole long drama of human history has
been that God might rear to himself a
family Of His children. If He is to do this,
He must do IL by revealing himself to his
children and reproducing himself in His