The herald., 1896-01-13
YESTERDAY At THE CHURCHES
Some of the Many Sermons That
Were Delivered
CHRIST'S OBEDIENCE TO GOD
Subject Of the Rev. j. S. Thomson at
Unity
First Methodist Episcopal Services-Church Of
the New Era-.Y. W. c. A. Meeting.
The Universalists--Notes

At the Church of the Unity yesterday
the pastor, ]. S. Thomson, delivered a ser
mon on Christ's Obedience to God, from
the words: "Not my will, but thine, be
done. Luke, % :42. In part he said:
All the laws of the universe are divine
because God established them. No law oi
life was ever made by Satan. God made
the laws of sin, shame, suffering and hell
and he also made the laws of virtue, re-
ligion, innocence, joy and heaven. 1t is
false to say that we can break or destroy
any law of God. We may disobey laws or
remove ourselves from their influences.
We can leave an unhealthy place for a
healthy one. We can forsake the laws of
ignorance for those of education. No man
can live without keeping or disobeying
some laws of life. If we keep the laws of
temperance we must disobey the laws of
intemperance. If we keep the laws of
health we must disobey the laws of disease.
If we be impure then we disobey the laws
of purity. Even Satan has to carry ont his
evil designs by keeping some of Gods
laws. The man who shoots his neighbor
dead keeps the laws of optics. muscles,
nerves. explosion and many others in his
evil act.
Since virtue and vice have their respect
i've laws, the question is, which set of laws
will we keep? We have freedom to choose
what laws we will obey or disobey. In
spired teachers of all ages and the ex-
periences of mankind declare that it is
Gods will that we keep the laws of virtue
and religion. The dwellers in heaven keep
the laws of religion and morality. They
must have freedom of choice; for, il not,
they are no higher in the scale of moral life
than the brutes. which are guided by in
stincts alone. They are surely corscien-
) tious beings; and, as such, they must have
the freedom to choose virtue or vice. ''Thy
will be done on earth as it is in heaven"
says the Lords prayer; and this implies
that rhe angels do Gods will and refuse to
do the will of Satan. According to the
epistles of Peter and Jude, Satan and his
fellow rebels were cast out of heaven into
sin in heaven and to yield to the laws of
vice. But it Is not possible to stay In
heaven or to enter heaven if the love of sin
be in the soul.
No law known to US is bad; for no law
works against onr highest interests when
we study it's influences. Failure, pain,
misery, sorrow, are blessings in disguise.
They teach us to reform, as the parable of
the prodigal son shows us. 1t is the will of
our Father in heaven that we should keep
the laws OF virtue and escape the sufferings
which disobedience to those laws brings to
the sinner. The laws which God wills us
to keep bring us blessings, as we see in the
case of the prodgal's brother who stayed
at home. Obedience gives us discipline,
which is the medium through which power
is given to the soul for the disciplined soul
Is qualified to be trusted with power and to
exercise authority and to command. Christ
received all power in heaven and on earth
to carry out his enterprise of teaching, in
spring and saving the human race, be-
cause he was worthy to be entrusted,
Temptation, suffering, patience, made that
glorious character which God delights to
honor. We obey superiors, but not equals
and interiors in any department of life.
We obey parents, teachers, magistrates.
Christ obeyed his parents and teachers.
Christ obeyed God as his superior. He al
ways acknowledged God as his father, su-
perior and master.
God did not obey Christ; nor did Christ
make any laws for God or man to obey.
He revealed the will of God, the laws of
heaven. the conditions Of progress in the
ways of virtue and religion. The four
gospels represent Christ as inferior and
subordinate to God. Christ derives His
power and mission and life from God; and
He renders him perfect obedience. Christ
Himself declared many times and emphat-
ically that He was Gods son and servant,
and that He was responsible to God for
His acts in this life. In His character as
the obedient servant of God, He is our ex-
ample and inspirer.
The last word of science is obedience to
the laws of nature. We cannot do any,
thing in nature without obedience to her
laws. The last word of Christ in the Gar
den of Gethsemane was obedience to God
He expired after rendering to God the
Qrandest and divinest obedience on earth.
In the hardest of all temptations, in the
darkest hour of His life, in the loneliest
moment of His earthly existence He said !:
s'Not my will, but Thine be DONE" That
was no sham obedience. 1t demanded the
agony of his soul. Christ's desire was to
escape the necessity of drinking the bitter
est cup; but. in his position at that time,
Gods will commanded him to drink it.
There were two wills in this case-God's
will and Christ's will, and the irnperishable
glory of Christ's heroism was the submits
sion of his will to the will of his Heavenly
Father.
In the agony of Gethsemane, obedience
assumed the glories of heaven, her native
land. She thrilled the spirits of angels !:
she won the praise of the eternal God: she
has summoned the soldiers of the cross a
thousand times to death and victory: and.
bad as Christendom may have become.
she can yet call to her standard millions of
Christ's brothers and sisters who "Iive as
seeing him who is invisible.'' Our educa-
tional establishments must never forget to
teach obedience. discipline and heroism,
Without these civilization is false, hollow
and rotten.