The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-07-16
LAST WORDS :
OF CHRIST
His Goodbye To The
Disciples.
SERMON BY MR. K|NCA|D
Jesus Tells of Peace and What it
Would Bring Them in the
End.


preached yesterday at Central Union
church by Rev. w. NJ. Kincaid. The
theme was "Christ's Benediction of
Peace" Text, John 14:27, Peace Il leave
with you; my peace 1 give unto YOU not
the world giveth give 1 unto you"
Lesson. John 14I-27.
This is a kind of Goodbye" which
Christ is here speaking to his disciples
Just as in listening to a piece of music,
one can generally tell when the conclu-
sion is being approached; he can feel the
several parts of the harmony drawing
nearer to each other in that unity of
purpose which betolens the end; so, with
out being at all familiar with the chron-
ology of Christ's life, YOU would easily
detect in the tone and temper of a verse
like this, the fact that there is not
great deal more that is going to be said;
and that the speaker is already anticipat-
ing the time when the final message shall
be conveyed, and when he and those
whom he is addressing shall no longer
stand TO each other in the intimacies of
the spoken relation.
MY peace / give unto you: not as the
world giveth give l unto you" Chrst's
immediate purpose here is not to dis
parage the peace which the world gives.
There is a great deal in life, in its mere
possession, if we are in health and
strength, that works inward quietness
and serenity of mind. Then there is much
in the activities of life that conduces
TO the same end; in life's occupations and
relationships, in ones environment. 1t
does not necessarily follow that because
a man has not the peace which Christ
gives, he Is, therefore, miserable man.
Such a position would not stand the
test of facts. Nor need we so Interpret
the contrast in which the two kinds of
! -, -. NJ,
of Christs teaching always fell the
excellence of what was best, not on the
inferiority of what was less good. That
} is true characteristic of large minded
ness and Representatives. everywhere; 1t
I is so engrossed with what is excellent
I that it has not much disposition to be
concerned with, or annoyed at. that
which is bad, or with that which is good
/ in only a secondary degree. The man
who sees spots on the sun before he rec
ogniZes the splendor of the orb of day,
/ has a bad eye. A critic in any depart
ment of life Is not worthy of your conf
dence, whose attention Is not first caught
! by the excellencies of what he is review
/ ing before it is engaged by its. defects.
/ That criticism has come generally
/ to mean "disparagement' only goes to
show how small and cheap is the mate
rial that is put into the average critic
/, But all that / intended to say was that
! Christ was no faultfinder. Faults were
not what he saw first in men, or felt
most deeply. There Is in man so much
/ that is bad, If the bad had been what
/ caught his eye first, there would have
! been little chance even for the best of
us. SO of the contrast between the peace
which he gives and the peace which has
only earthly grounds upon which to rest,
the delineation of the former was to him
so engrossing that there was little room
I in his thought and little space in his
] teap ri he lot
/ And that is the spirit of the New Tesla
ment all the way through. 1t ranges it
self always on the affirmative side of life.
I Christ came into the world not to con-
denim the world, but to save the world.
| He is here not to refute fallacies, but to
/ disclose the truth; not to vilify the earth,
/ but to uncover the splendor of the heav-
| ems. The Gospel is first, last, and all the
| time, constructive, not destructive; its
principle is not to overcome evil by di-
rect assault upon the evil, but to over
[ come the evil with the good, to destroy
a weed by planting alongside of it a
flower that is vigorous enough to steal
its sap. And this, let me say, is the point
! of our real leverage with men. Condem-
nation is negative; il maddens without
converting. What would you think of a
man that should go down to a mission in
the slums of city and commence to up
braid the drunkards for their drunken
ness, and to depict the wretchedness to
which their intemperate habits had re-
/ duced them? They know all that with
out being told it. Men who are miser-
/ able appreciate the fact without being
| dissertations slung at them on the mis-
| cry of being miserable. 1t Is the beauty
and the joy and the comfort of a sober
life that need to be preached, not the
discomfort and ignominy of a life that
I is imbruted. All the negative and con-
demnatory work that is needed, each
man can be trusted to do for himself il
only our dealing with him is positive, and
our handling of him constructive. A hun
CRY man is more interested in loaf OF
bread than in being told how his tissues
are being destroyed by going without
bread. The strength of the Gospel lies
in what it gives, not in what it takes
away; in what it offers, not in what il
prohibits; in the way it satisfies JUS, not
in any exhibit it makes of mans failure
to find satisfaction elsewhere.
4 Now let us speak together in a very
simple way, about three or four of the
elements of the peace that become the
realized experience of those who have
personally given themselves to Christ
And first, such commitment works
within us intellectual quietude There
Is a mass of reality that comes to histor.
ic expression in the person that for nine.
teen centuries has been known as the
Christ. Now it is hard work thinking
about him; it is a strain to the mind tC
attempt to conceive him. He refuses tC
be Photographed. 1t is bewildering to un
dertake to sift the documentary evidence
respecting him. But Ii Is certainly nc
violence done to one intelligence to rec
ognize the fact that there is somehow
a personal axis, upon which the sphere
OF events for nineteen centuries have re.
volved; personal mind of which the
! transcendent truths of Revelation are
contribution; personal heart from
| which the tender beauty of the Gospel
and the gracious sensibilities that are
everywhere being quickened into life a
Its touch originally sprung. With wha
defniteness that personal somethine
shapes itself to your mind and heart, i
is not germane to our present purpose t
inquire; i simply deny the possibility O
living in intelligent and affectionat.
communion with such a book as the New
Testament. without coming to believe II
Something, that 1t will be the instinc
of your mind to spell with a CAPITAL s
whether your pen does so or not: ;
Something which will blossom out to
ward your regard in forms and tints o
personality, so pronounced and so bright
ly and warmly accessible that not onl,
will your thought come to contemplate i
with respect. but your heart will begin I,
nestle up toward IL with affection. ,