The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1897-05-04

| if is that John goes back to find out the
! divine origin. Hence the difference be
! tween him and the other writers. They
| are concerned with miracles. John goes
| to the very cradle and says here, in the
| birth of God, you have the explanation
Of all things.
words are also the medium through
| which God reveals himself to others.
| John does not say word, but the word.
1.-The word of God becoming flesh was
not process of forcing He didn't ham
| mer it into men. 1t was by a divine evo-
| luton that Christ slid into humanity and
locked himself up in it, and God was still
God, and God was humanity. Since
| human flesh has assumed such a high
| mission in becoming God it becomes us
| to stand in awe in the presence of such
| structure.
"All men are agreed on divine exist
| ence. There may be such a thing as an
| honest atheist, though / doubt it, but If
| there is, l think when the time comes
| God will save him just as he saves other
| idiots"
1.-THE man Syho can't see in this world
| the evidences Of God, whose mind can't
trace out through cause and effect and
in the grandeur of heaven and power of
earth, great creative being, is to be
pitied. Men have tried to come into the
very heart Of the Diety and have failed.
Moses was in the smoking mount trying
to find out God Who is the God and
what is he? This is the one problem of
| the human mind. 1t has come to us
| through the centuries, and it is ours to-
| day. When you undertake to unfold
God you have undertaken something you
we'll never accomplish. And when it is
all ended you have only pile Of rocks
| and glittering stars-a cold glittering
power that you have turned loose and
cannot control. 1t doesn't belong to
science to find the God. When you find
him you find something you don't want.
| The efforts of science in this direction
lead to infidelity. Who is God? Jesus
Christ is the only answer. He SPAWNED
the great distance between God and man.
He came hot from the Godhead. He
came and spoke to men-plunged himself
| full Orbed into the world and said: ANY
| man that has seen me has seen the Faith
err What very different God you've
got now. Here is personality for you.
The greatest thing in God is not power.
| Power, dazzling glory, infinite authority
he has, and yet here is Jesus Christ-God
unfolding himself in a manger, walking
| barefoot and hungry along the highway.
1t is love and truth and friendship.
These are the greatest things.
Il don't hesitate to say that the God
| Of the Old Testament was an unap-
proachable God. But humanity wanted a
| God upon whose bosom it might lay it's
| aching head and to whom it might take
its troubles. A God to whom the leper
cast out and dying without friends and
| without help might go. Make me Clean
he cried, and Christ, taking his hands, alb
solutely bathed them in his soft palms and
| he was clean. He stood upon the mount
| and with his fingers wrote in the hard
| rocks his thou shafts and thou shalt
| nots.' But l see another sight. He
stands upon the mountain over Jerusalem
| and weeps over it's sins. His bosom
| throbs with tears. oh, Jerusalem, Je-
rusalem, how often would l have gath
cred thee under my wing, and We would
not This is the God we want.
Not only is Christ a revelation Of
God, but he is revelation Of man in
himself. After the question. What is
(GOd! comes the question, what is man:
There was never n man on earth who
loved his fellow man that didn't love God
too. There was never a cruel blood
thirsty man but that he hated God. /
| never heard man complain that the
world has gone to the devil and then pro-
fess piety that haven't put him down as
the biggest fraud in the nineteenth CEN
fury.
1.-THE great drawback to the progress
Of mankind has been mans lack Of con-
fidence in man-mans inhumanity to
/ Wa hnvn f1ln1 IaproI;n.y
place in the record of disgrace. We have
been slaves, we have furnished food for
wild animals in the amphitheatres of
heather kings, and the crocodiles of the
Oranges have long Toasted on infants Of
fered up to propitiate heather idols.
There has been no end to the manner in
which men have tortured their fellow men
and then mortified their own flesh. In
sack cloth and ashes and with starved
body they repented. But there came
time when the God in man said, Stand
Iup'-tired of talking to man in the dust.
Even in our own theology we have de-
graded ourselves. In song we put our
selves down as worm of the dust. The
only dignity given humanity was by
| Christ. There was no man too low for
his notice. He went up and down the
L Il
not quench; a bruised reed shall not be
broken gather up the fragments From
this man Jesus sprang all brotherliness.
all philanthropy. If you will ask me
what is behind the Odd Fellows and all
similar organizations, I'll tell you it's IA
larger vision of humanity. 1t sprang
from this new revelation Christ made of
humanity.
Ever since that day he took the baby
from its mothers arms new life and
a new glory has sprung upon humanity
Where is your hero? Moses? At a
critical moment he fell. Elijah? He as
cended to great heights, but he, too, fell.
Abraham or David? They, too, failed
and sinned, and you are disappointed Just
as you are about to crown them. Then
comes the lowly Nazarine despised, spit
upon, undaunted and true ever. Put him
in Gethsemane and there's the same
grand spirit of forgiveness and love- Put
him in Pilots D8lace and piya hin, ,