St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1896-01-31

Gus thing for the sinful character.
That tableaux of Eden teaches a
fundamental truth. 1t is dangerous
for the sinful heart to taste OF the
fruit Of the tree of knowledge.
knowledge to such may only re-
veal the source of indulgence and
multiply the appetites TO be fed.
Christianity has sometimes incurred
odium because OF this fact. Tn.
friendly critics have said that Chris
tan missions gave the primitive peo-
Piles new vices. This perhaps has
been true sometimes, when mere edu-
cation has been allowed to precede
spiritual quickening. To food
sinful soul with knowledge is some.
times only to food it with death.
The purest barbarians are the most
ignorant. The blacklist pictures of
vice lie out under the blazing light of
the worlds best culture. Those
whose art and literature eclipse all
the centuries, also eclipse all the CEN
turtles with their vice. The orgies Of
Rome can hardly be equalled in all
the pages Of human history. No!
No! to be converted is not to be edu-
Gated and developed merely. These
may accompany or follow CONVEX
sion, but they precede it at great
risk.
The word rendered here CONVEX
sion, means literally ito be turned"
changed. Tyndal and Coverdale
and Cramner translate the passage,
Except ye turn"
1t is implied, as we have before
said, that man is wrong, the whole
direction of his life wrong. His very
trend must be changed, his char
acter transformed, a new direction
given, new quality impaired, in
deed, a new germ implanted. This
done, then education may come like
the sunlight of heaven upon the flow.
ers. warming and wooing and filling
with beauty and strength.
The change of conversion is well
figured by the the words of Jesus in
our text. The disciples came to him
full Of ambition, seeking the highest
places. He said to them: This is all
wrong. Your very spirit and aim is
wrong. Turn about; be converted;
60 the othersw way; not up as the
world reck ons, but down; not press
ing into high places, but away from
them take the lowest seats; ask for
the humblest positions. Seek not
place but quality; not glory but use.
fulness. Don't try to climb along
the rugged way of human ambition.
Go down. down. Amid the shadows
of humiliation you will find the door
of heaven. To him that denies and
humbles himself it will open, and
through earthly debasement he shall
find entrance and eternal exaltation.
Now, this change of the flow of the
soul from seeking after position to
the seeking after humble spheres of
usefulness, is what Christ calls con-
version.
Nor let it be thought for moment
that by thus plucking human ambi-
ton from the bosom and planting
in its stead these humber aims, you
are thereby robbing it of strength
and nobility and lowering its tone.
The man will not be less manly and
spirited. 1t is not going down ex.
cept according to the false standards
OF the worlG. 1t is heavens way of
going up. 1t is heaven-born ambi-
ton TO seek not to overtop men, but
to get down beside them, yea, under
them, that you may lift them up.
How grandly did Jesus illustrate his
own thought. Girding himself with
towel, the Son of the Highest stopped
to wash the humble feet of men. And
through humble and still humber
ministries, feeding the hungry, heal
ing the sick, cleansing the vile.
Through hunger and WEAKNESS, blood
sweatings, night,long agonies, mock
ing. scourging and a cruci6xion.
Along this downward line. he that
was born king, went up to his
coronation at the right hand of God.
And whose follows him in his hui
initiation shall follow him also in his
exaltation.