Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1897-01-28
CHRIST'S WAY.
His High Standard OF Conduct-H1s Atsa-
tude Toward Sinners.

ulVlne character OF Cnr1StS teachlngS
is that they do not, like pagan sys-
TENS, become obsolete. The progress
| of the world has not made them appear
| untitled to any stage of moral and in
tellectual development, however adj
vanced. Nineteen centuries have shown;
| no moral defect in them: and the creeda
which men have drawn, as the express
sion of those teachings, may have grad
ually become outworn, the teachings
themselves stand more firmly than ever.
The best of mankind have not yet come
TO the point where they can say: 'We
have passed beyond this doctrine of
the Great Teacher; we have improved
upon that doctrine; some of His say
ings can no longer be reconciled with
sound moral views" The defects and
| inconsistencies and unsoundness of the
teachings of Confucius, of Buddha, of
Mohammed, of Zoroaster are so obvious
that they do not need to be argued:
| they are self-evident to the enlightened.
| Their standards are far below the ideal.
But it is not so with Christ's stand
ard. We have no broader or deeper
| humanity than He showed to the world
ages and ages ago; we have no loftier
aspirations, no higher ideal than We
get from His system. In fact, we have
not measured up to the stature of the
full manhood which He portrayed. We
have left far behind us the other great
teachers of the past; but we know that
we have still to learn of Him, and it
does not appear that the world will ever
outgrow the Divine Teacher. He will
always be the one supreme teacher,
and men will always be learning of
| Him.
One thing we need to learn more per-
fectly of Him is how to treat trans
gressors. 1t is very difficult for robust
| Christian moralists not to deal with the
unrepentant in censorious spirit. We
| are inclined to measure this class of men
and women with our moral yardsticr
and to upbraid them. We feel a moral
| repulsion when we come in contact
| with the wicked, the vicious, which we
take no pains to hide. We remind them
that they are moral lepers; we paint
their sins in vivid terms; we show
them how great is the condemnation
into which they have fallen.
This was not Christ's attitude. And
| yet to whom could sin be more repulsive
| than to Him? Who could have so Just
| and keen sense of the difference be-
| tween holiness and sinfulness as He
| who was tempted but knew no SIM
| He was always so gentle with sinners
| His denunciationS were for those who
| professed to be righteous and were not.
He told the self-righteous scribes and
| Pharisees that publicans and harlots
would go into the kingdom of Heaven
| before them. They needed to have
their hypocrisy brought home to them.
But He had soft, soothing words for
| the woman (which was sinner" who
| came to Him while He was at dinner in
| the Pharisee's house. She came to
| anoint Him with precious ointment,
| and, greatly to the establishment of
His host, He did not rebulle or repulse
| her. The host wondered that He who
| had wrought miracles and seemed to be
a prophet did not recognize "what man
ner of woman this is" Surely, he
| thought, He does not know her, or He
| would not allow her to touch him; and
how can He be a prophet? That touch
| to the Pharisee was defilement. The
| woman was a sinner, an outcast, and
was as filth to the self-righteous man.
The Master was not blind. He saw
| all that the Pharisee saw; but He saw
much more He saw an immortal soul,
| stained deeply with sin, but still Of
| infinite value; and his whole thought
was to save it. He defended the act
! of the woman against the implication
of the host, and this must have seemed
| exceeding strange to the hospitable
| Pharisee. The Master seemed to put
| him in the wrong, and the woman, vile
| woman that she was, in the right. We
| may be sure, however, that Christ did
| not palliate or excuse her sinfulness. 2
| He saw in her ministration the manifes- 4
| tation of a love which had in it the pos
| sibility of better and higher things. I
| He commended her for her faith and 4
| love and told her to go her way in peace; 4
| her sins were forgiven.
How gentle He was with her, and with
| others like her; how patient, how kind,
how careful! He wanted to call her
| back. Her salvation could not have
been accomplished by condemning her
ness goes long way with erring souls.
| Personal contact is necessary to reach
| and move them. Christ ate with pub
| lcans and sinners and astonished the
| Pharisees. He told them that He did
| it because He had come to save the
| wicked, not the righteous; and He ex-
horted them to go and learn the mean
ing of the passage in Hosea: II will
have mercy and not sacrifice" He came
| on an errand of mercy; not to condemn
not to denounce, not to kill, but te
save. We need to learn this as much az
the Pharisees. We are severe, often un
relenting critics. We shall be more sue
cessful if we study Cbrist's way and &C
to work in His spirit. = n. Y. indie
pendent.
| Religious Aims.
The paramount aim of religion is no
| to prepare for Heaven, but to make Thu