The record-union., 1898-06-05

OT ueSiIcS ~ We true, every one
who is pure or desires to be pure; every
one who is purposed to make his or her
| life as rich and full of goodness as is
lpossible-every such person will link
themselves to Jesus. Just as every
one who desires to excel in music will
avail themselves of the best teacher
of music, as every one who purposes
to attain excellence in art will put their
| life under its inspiring influence of the
great masters in art, so very one who
| is intent on living the life God intend
ed him to live will link his life with
Jesus and learn of Him. Every one
that is Of the truth will hear His voice
and frame their life by His. He who is
ambitious for supreme excellence in
character will not, cannot, live his life
apart from the inspiration of Jesus. IL
want to be man." said Charles Kings
ley, ''and therefore l must be Chris
tian." | want to read the heavens,
says the astronomer and. therefore l
must use the great telescope 1 want
to fill out my life to the full, and
! therefore l must come into fellowship
with Jesus Christ.
j l wish we could all see more clearly
than we do that religion as Jesus
taught 1t, is simply the completing, the
rounding out OF our God-given natures
Religion is natural to man. 1t belongs
to man as health belongs to him, as
Intelligence belongs to him, as affec-
ton belongs to him. Sin is not natural
to man any more than disease is nat
ural. Imbecility and idiocy are not
| mans natural state. They are alb
normal, unnatural conditions. What
these are to the mind sin is to the
soul. Holiness is mans natural state.
AS. health is native to the BODY. as in
| telligence is native to the mind so
holiness is native to the soul Religion
belongs to man. I argue that truthful
ness and purity and reverence and Wor-
ship and communion with God and all
the noble qualities that Christ develops
in US, are part and parcel Of the hu-
manity that we received from God
when we received our being. We do
not become something different from
ourselves by becoming Christians. We
simply become ourselves completed.
Heaven is simply human society in it's
completed condition. 1t is rightly de-
lVeloped men and women living in right
relations with one another and with
| God. Heaven is mans normal oondi-
tlon. We are not the children of the
devil. We do not belong to his realm.
we are the children of God. Jesus the
Son OF God, is our elder brother. and
the more nearly We become like Him
the more We become what we were Gre
ated TO become
Inc young eagle in breaking it's shell
anu coming out into the sunlight. in
leaVlng It's nest and soaring to the
mountain nights, enters on the life that
nature intended it to live. 1t was not
made for the shell. 1t was made for
| the mountains sun-lt crest The
acorn in bursting it's covering and
PIshlng up through the dark earth, up
INTO the clear nights, and spreading it's
great arms out to every corner of the
compass, is simply living out the life
nature intended it to live. And when
man, made in the image of God and re-
deemed by the Son Of God, breaks away
from the sins that thwart and blight
and dwarf him, and by union with Je-
sus Christ develops those qualities of
character that link him with God and
nj him for companionship with God
| When man rises into the realm of faith
| and reverence and worship and COM
munion with God, he is simply living
out the God-nature within him and
reaching those nights of glory, honor
immortality eternal life, for which he
was originally created Jesus came
| that we might have life and have il
mere abundantly- The Christian life
/ IS the natural life of man, for it is life
| at the highest. Listen to this, from q
| man Who had gotten up near to the
SUBMITS: Il am crucified with Christ
nevertheless L live; yet not l but
Christ Hveth in me, and the life which
L now live in the flesh 1 live by faith
| or the Son of God, who loved me and
gave Himself for me- That was one
| or the strongest, truest, noblest lives
| that was ever lived 1t was strong
and true and noble because its ideal
was the Christ-ideal. The only ideal
| of life worthy Of man, the only ideal
| that will awaken and develop mans
| highest possibilities is the ideal we see
realized in the life and character Of Je-
| sus. No poet or artist has ever con-
ceived or dreamed of a more symmet-
rical or beautiful life This is the life
We are called to initiate and reproduce.
To come to our true selves we must
come to Him. What the vine is to the
branch, what the fountain is to the
stream, what the sun is to the flower.
that Jesus is to our humanity. We will
attain unto our full stature only as we
are united to Him. Christianity is com
| pleted manhood. We have not vet at
tanned; we are going on to perfection.
| We are not crowned, but we see Jesus
| crowned, and the crowned Christ is
| type and prophecy of what we shall
be when grace has done it's perfect
work. The goal of the Gospel is per
| fected manhood We shall all come
|. into the unity of the faith and of the
knowledge of the Son of God. un,o
| perfect man, unto the measure of the
| stature of the fullness of Christ
! Do you not see by our study of these
words of Jesus-every one that is of the
| truth heareth my voice-that they are
| the statement of an eternal principle? :?
The laws of life laid down by Jesus are
| the laws that ought to govern all men
| Phillips Brooks said he wanted to live
such a life that if every man in the
world was living it the world would be
| regenerated and saved. Do you not
see that if all men lived as Jesus
| Christ bids US live, the world would be
regenerated and saved? And you can
not imagine 1T being saved in any other
| way. The obligation to obey the laws
of Christ grows out of the nature of
the laws themselves. No man is ex-
| empt or can be exempt from the prin-
ciples Jesus taught, for what He taught
| is eternally and universally true. Go
where you will, you cannot be exempt
| from the law of gravitation. 1t pre-
walls in Saturn and Mars as truly as
! here. When Jesus states a law or