Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1899-12-21
Church Column

Church Column.
The topic for the Y. P. S. c. L. for
Dec. "a, is "Our Royal Neighbor.
Leader, Helen Brooker.
1t is important that the common
brotherhood of the human family
should be clearly recognized, but
taken by itself that is only a half
truth. There can be no common
brotherhood without common faith
erhood. All men are brothers be-
cause all men are descended from
Adam, ..the son Of God. Luke 1888;
and Acts II, &C. But man soon be-
came a prodigal son; he repudiated
the authority and spurned the love OF
his father, God, and wandered Off
spiritually into far country. The
impulse Of his carnal nature and the
desires and imaginations Of his heart
became deprayed. Then God sent
His only begotten Son to effect re-
Cancellation to reconcile the prodigals
to their Father and make them willing
to submit to His authority. "God
was in Christ reconciling the word
unto Himself, not imputing unto men
their trespasses.
And this restoration OF our true
relationship to God involves the res
toration of our true relationship to
each other. Once more we became
brothers, but now by much strong
er bond of brotherhood. For now we
enter into new spiritual relationship
to each other in Christ, our Elder
Brother. 1t is through Him and
through Him only that we can learn
to understand and to accept cordially
the extent of our obligations TO our
brothermen. The Babe of Bethlehem
is the link that will at last bind all
true men and women into brother
hood and sisterhood in which every
one shall love his neighbor .as him.
SELF because all shall love God with
heart, soul, mind and strength.
Man can only enter into right rela-
tions with his fellow man in proper
tion as he first enters into right rela-
tions with God through Jesus Christ.
Herein is love, John says, God loved
us. That is to say the prime mani
festation and source of all love be-
tween man and man, is to be found in
Gods love for us. 1t was not in us
to love God if He had not shown us
what love was and made us feel CRATE
full.
Similarly it was not in man to love
his fellows before he had learned to
love by experiencing the love of God,
which love received its most perfect
and most easily understand express
sion in the gift of His son.
So we may truly say, Herein lies
the brotherhood Of man in that all
men have common Brother in Jesus
Christ. Brotherhood implies all that
is meant by liberty, equality, frater-
nifty, and it is the only means by
which these conditions can be at
tanned. The angels in proclaiming
the birth of Jesus proclaimed also
''peace on earth
They meant, no doubt, that God and
mankind were to be reconciled through
their new Brother, but they meant
also that men were to be reconciled
to one another were to become broth
ers The two kinds of brotherhood
are inseparable One of the ways of
realizing the greatness of house is
to realize the greatness of its founder.
This is especially true of the house of
Christ, both because of his greatness,
and because more~j han in any other
case, the founder makes His influence
felt continually upon tho house.
Now for picture of Christ's great
ness you can have nothing more force
full than our first topic selection:
Christ is "heir to all things" He Gre
ated and upholds all things by his
word; He is the brightness Of God s
glory and "the express image Of his
person and His throne sis forever and
ever His is surely royalty to con-
template with awe, and yet with it all
His is brotherhood that should be
very near and very dear.
There will be a Christmas cantata
given by the children of the Congre-
gational Sunday school in the City
| hall.