El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1898-12-14
FULNEss OF CHRlsT's DIVINITY
Sermon BY Rev. w. o. MilliCdn Last
Sunday.

At the First Baptist church Sunday
morning Rev. w. o. Millicsn preach
ed the first OF three sermons from the
text, "And Of. his fulness have all we
received" John I:16- The following
Is q part of the sermon: On the truth
fulness of the fulness of Jesus Christ as
taught in the scriptures. and mans
vital relation to him, depends the des-
tiny of the human soul. That these
claims are true is the unanimous ver-
dict of the leading thinkers OF every
decade for nearly two thousand years.
II their verdict be true then the Christ
ian has indie happy lot. For of
his fuiness have all we recelved;" first,
of his divinity; second of his humanity;
third, of his post mOrtem fulness, his
resurrection aud glOrihcation. Today
we shall notice only the frss of these.
Christ was not only full of divinity,
but divinity himself. John has just
been telling of his co-existence with
God before Abraham was, l am,
Said Jesus to the Jews. Twice God
spoke from the skies declaring. that
Jesus was his "well beloved" his
''only begotten son." And Paul tells
the Godhead bodily" Taking these
statements to be true, we note that his
divinity was three fold, divine nature,
divine power, divine knowledge.
What an inspiration the thought
should afford us, that of his fulness in
all these things have we received.
First, of his divine nature. The re-
fundamental. He enters into this re-
lation by birth; ''Ye must be born
again" It ia therefore family re-
lation, relation of blood. Hence
Peter tells us that on realizing the
''exceeding great and precious pro-
misses" made to us; we become partak-
ers of the divine nature.
Herein lies the first advantage in
Christianity and it's superiority over all
other systems of religions. 1t gives US
a cody, q divine nature, nature like
that of our Lord aud Master. Nor is
this merely the teaching of the
scriptures, it has abundant veri6cation
in the experiences of men. 1 know an
ex-oficer in the civil war who for fifty
years gave his whole life and energy
to the things of this world. He cared
nothing for religion; and only went to
church out of respect to his noble
family and church going community.
His house was the home of the bsnque-
ter, the politician, the gambler and the
infidel. But one evening he WAS per-
suaded to 90 to church and while there
he sought and found salvation. His
conversion was regarded as a veritable
miracle in the community. And so it
was. For he became a religious en-
thusiast. He walked the streets in the
interest of his Lord. Hence forth his
house was the home of the ministers
and Of the poor. And concerning the
church he would truly say:
"For her my tears shall fall,
For her my prayers ascend,
For her my cares and tolls be given
Till tolls and cares shall end
Thus 1 might cite you many instan
ces where the Holy Spirit has taken
hold Of corrupt, condemned human ma
ture. lifted it up and joined to Divinity
himself; insomuch that the participant
in this new life can say, 1.-THE things 1
once listed 1 now love, and the things
l once loved I now hate"
But Jesus had divine power also. All
of his miracles go to show this. Now
it may seem an extravsgant expression
but it is nevertheless true that we are
ma rtakers with him of his divine DOW