The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-12-27
CALLED " WONDERFUL,
REV. A. b. MELDRUM breaches AN
INTERESTING CHRISTMAS SER
MON ON THE SUBJECT.
SON OF MAN AND HIS MISSION
Comes the Main, Idea Wonder
full! Wonderful!

! byterian church yesterday morning.
The speaker took for the text Of his
| discourse Isaiah tx, 6: "And His name
shall be called wonderful" He spoke
in part as follows:
| Through the vista of nearly one thousand
| years the prophet beholds the advent of one
! in whose coming the prayers OF forty centu-
| ries should be answered. We cannot read the
| Old Testament scriptures with any degree OF
attention without realizing that the genera
| tions were centralized in one idea. FROM
| Adam to Abraham, from Abraham to David,
| from David to the carrying away into BaD-
| yion, from Babylon until Herod relgned IN
| Judea, there is a life far below the surface
| Ever and anon from behind the prophetlc
| veil or through it there glows the image OF
man, stranger to everybody yet frienoly
| to ALL marvellous image, so tndIstlnct. yet
so positive; so gentle yet carrying aWtul
power, as the summer cloud carries light
| ming: very near. yet distant as the unseen
Cod In coming along the Biblical line, we
feel this, that almost any moment man
might stand up in the very likeness and
majesty of God. As we read on, strange,
fascinating spell binds us, until having passed
the prophecies, we come to the star, the Vir-
gin and the child. That child has been the
mystery Of all our reading. There in infant
life lies the explanation, itself g. mystery OF
all the tumultuous events and hopeful prom
Uses, which made up the sum total Of
prophetic history. He 1t is, and no other OF
whom the prophet in anticipation and under
the direct inspiration of God, exclaims. Unto
us child is born unto us son Is given, anu
His name shall be called wonderful.
1t is indeed most fitting that at this season
of the year, when all of Christendom looks
| back-even as Isaiah looked forward-to the
advent of Him, in whom centers nope ana
faith and love, that we allow our minds to
dwell definitely upon that wondrous personal
ity. Let US, therefore. endeavor to contem-
plate Him as He Is set before US in the in
spired records, and as He has manifested
Himself In history For wonderful lDQe0Q
must He be from whose lowly birth in the
manager Of Bethlehem chronology now IS
reckoned. Wonderful indeed must be He
who has so permeated history with HIS own
personal force that to leave Him out OF reck-
oning would be to destroy history Itself. Won
derful indeed must be He, whose personal IN.
fiuence has augmented with the passage OF
centuries, and who sways mems hearts ana
minds today with Incompatible and peerless
supremacy. There three aspects to which
I especially direct your attention at this time
in which If we thoughtfully contemplate
Christ we must find that there is but one
name that becomes Him. One name alone
that can but express our feelings towards
Him. and that is Wonderful"
His personal character was wonderful. If
there is any one thing in the Bible which
comes to the world with all the glory OF
new discovery, as original as 1t is peculiar
it is the idea of immaculate virtue as en-
bodied in the life and character of Jesus
Christ No character was ever drawn In
bo.der clearer lines No person in history
stands forth more prominently to every eye
Our idea of Socrates. or Caesar. or Napoleon,
or Wellington, for dist1nctness or outline or
vivdness of impression cannot be compared
with that of Jesus 1t is as transparent as
| the light 1t Is as unique as 1t Is transparent
| 1t is as radiant with moral beauty and subilni-
ity as 1t is original. We cannot travel with
Him for a single day without feeling i'm
| pressed with the conviction that we are in
the company of an extraordinary personage
We are struck with the remarkable dignity
1 ht,,,, In
| manding and universal motive appears in all
He does, in all He says, in all He suffers
The glory of God in the moral, spiritual and
eternal good of mankind absorbs Him wholly
Not an action, not word, not pang, not
a privation through His whole life that does
not subserve the dominion of truth and the
highest good Of man. Slngle-nanded anu
alone He stands forward before the world to
elevate and sustain, by the energy Of His own
wisdom, by the purity OF His own life, a
standard for dishonored virtue and outraged
truth and forsaken godliness while He
Himself presents the living image and per
feet model of all He enforces upon others. We
read indeed of great characters of history,
but they were great only in some one depart
ment They were great philosophers. heroes
philanthropists, poets, or Kings. or con-
out weaknesses, errors or defects. None are
great in all qualities Persecution fronts Him
at every step, and at every turn as He goes
forward Treachery delivers Him over to the
enemy. Death with all the lingering fortunes
| of crucifxion stares Him in the face but
| still He presses on until His last words OF
| prayer for His murderers seal the perfect.
| beautiful and wonderful consistency of life
devoted to God, glory and mans good.
| He was wonderful as a teacher. The testi-
mony Of His enemies was, Never man spaKe
| as this man" The civilization of successive
and ever advancing centuries has produced no
man to speak like this man. Down into the
| depths of His thought we, still go for hidden
treasures of wisdom. Other men, it is true.
| have been teachers as we'll as He. There have
| been prophets sent fof God with great truths
to preach There have been philosophers in
advance OF their age, enunciating principles,
wonderfully grand and wonderfully pure pro-
| found and imperishable truth.
| No wonder Jerusalem was stirred at Ills
| coming and cried out, who is this %
| whence hath this man his wisdom?" us
| not this the carpenters SOM" Can any
good thing come out OF Nazareth?' Naza,
! of philosophy in that despised Galileean
town. How came it about then that this
son of toll. with no ADVANTAGES of learning,
| the profoundest of the worlds teachers.
| struck fearlessly out into the realms Of truth
| truth unguessed as yet by the wisest sages,
truth beautiful as the light. sublime as the
! that takes hold upon eternal things and opens
I'D the volume of immortal destiny, truth
| that dawns upon our night like heavenly
morning and kindles the whole soul in all
| its faculties to a new life; truth that seems
| nv ar. electric power to reach at once distant
| continents and far off ages; truth that has
nations for an audience, and centuries to
| thunder along the hills till they lose them
selves in eternity; truth that does not sleep IN
| the soul like dry logic or fruitless science,
| but Is a. seed, a leaven, life within reno
| waiting the whole nature, casting out devils,
| changing a mans whole being and restoring
| him to himself, to his home, to his God?
| Where among all the sons of genius and of
| a Ona yuh
! words work here transformation? Make fish
| ermen apostles, change the prosecutor into
| the champion of charity and righteousness,
| burn into the hearts OF thousands with such
| intensity that the martyrs flames are I'M
| needed, that in some obscure dwelling sink
| into the soul of tie humble occupant long
centuries after they WERE uttered, making
| men of feeble and gInlettered simplicity and
women of timid andSdependent natures calm
| ly defiant of tyranhic power, mightier in the
strength of their loyafyIAnd love to Jesus
| than all the terrors OF sovereign and intol-
women of the world. whose boast 1t is that
we do your own thfpkingsthat we form your
own opinions, thay We, walk according to
| whenever it is bor@ in Upon you that your
! thoughts opinions Sand judgments are con-
| trary 20 the teachi3gs of the humble teacher
1 of Galilee we know wheteher We acknowledge
Tell me. We men and women Of care and
| trouble and sorrow, why is it that, when
| bowed down under the burdens and griefs
| Of life. and all words of human sympathy
| seem a hypocrisy and a mockery, that the
| words of the gentle teacher of Nazareth
come to your grateful hearts like good news
| from far country, reviving your dropping
| spirits and bracing you with new hope and
| new life? Tell me, We who call Him sim
! ply good man-nay, the best man-tell me
why. after all these ages have passed since
| He lived His life and taught His doctrine,
| that His utterances are more pondered than
| those of aly PHILOSOPHER ~ poet or great man