The Washington times. (Washington [D.C.]) 1901-1902, 1901-08-12


Dr. ]. A. Roudthaler. of the Fullerton
Avenue Church, Chicago. conducted the
services at the Church of the Covenant
yesterday The text of his sermon was
taken from Romans xiii:14 Put We on
the Lord Jesus Christ" He handled it in
most interesting manner. Some Of the
ideas advanced being decidedly original.
His sermon made decided impression on
the congregation He said in part:
1.-The gospel of Jesus Christ is not pri-
marily a book or a message. nor is 1t a
formula of belief, nor II code of morals,
nor a bunch of definitions about things,
nor q parable or a story. First of ALL and
above all. it is a life of the Divine among
men, We have not defined the whole Cos
pei when we point to the four evangelists
in the New Testament, and say that 1t is
all there. Only in a limited sense is that
true. for the life they record is per-
petual life among men and in men. You
cannot say you have read the gospel when
you began with Matthew and read
through to the last chapter of John.
There are volumes of 1t in the life of to-
day that are not put in print and bound
up in a book. The accent is in every di-
vine word that is spoken in your hear
ing.
Let us read in the large gospel of to-
day. whatever in the hospital relieves
pain or cures. has the divine truth; what
ever among men is cooperative in mu-
tual helpfulness and support is breath
of the divine; whatever in the homes is
tender in love. quiet and restful. is the
breath of Bethany Christ Whatever lifts
your own spirit into the divine atmos-
phere of forgiveness, is the perpetuation
of the gospel. Whatever makes you a
fair man and a just man in the Christ's
measure, is the gospel of his righteous
ness. Whatever overcomes temptation
is the gospel of the Wilderness beyond
Jordan.
Men are always putting distance be-
tween God and humanity, and God is al
WAYS eliminating that distance in Christ.
who unites the divine and the human in
an actual life lived here. Then men say,
o, yes, what has Christ done. being raised
so far above humanity that he cannot
be attained But the Epistles are always
saying, Christ in yOu.' put We on the
Lord Jesus Christ That does not mean
the miracles that are attributed to
him. The Epistles do not ask that. 1t
does not mean repeat the details of his
Palestine, We in America. Two thousand
years have made a vast difference in all
conditions and circumstances of the out
ward life. You cannot squeeze the world
back into the little strip of country be-
tween the Mediterranean and the Jer-
dan. But you can put the spirit OF the
sermon breathed on the Mount into the
city.
hp do halt n
the Christianity of a book. but they do
believe in the Christianity of their
mothers, and they are not analytical at
all They may smile in kindly way
about her superstitions. but -rhey do not
smile at her character, her disposition,
her great love for them. that breathes
her goodness and pureness into them. The
impress of the personality is the most in
delble of all Impressions. We forget a
book, but the living breath of a charac-
ter is immortal in us.
THE gospel of Jesus Christ is saving
because it is the living experience of a
man among men Outward conditions
may change, but man continues TO love
and to hate, to enjoy and TO suffer, to be
glad and to be sorry. A book can at best
be but a dictation, but a life shares the
common love and hatred, the common
enjoyment and suffering. Jesus Christ
loved the world and hated its Pharisees
and hypocrites. He was happy enough
TO want his disciples to share his JOY, and
his soul was sorrowful even unto death.
In the end he did not say receive the rec
ord Of my life as book, but receive the
spirit of my life as your life, receive We
the Holy Spirit.
Again, if the gospel were a formula
of belief, Christianity would be a theory.
If l were of an inventive mind of suii-
Gent power l could sit in my study and
work out theory about things and bring
1t to you here on Sunday morning. Then
if had the power Of an orator / could
so defend 1t and impress 1t as 20 con-
vince you. or at least carry you with me
in mental acquiesence. But when you
went away you would in the end have to
prove the truth or fallacy OF my system
by practical life.
From the negative side we have a no.
torious instance of the effect of a life
upon a theory. In the utter ruin that one
man has made of a movement that was
having a phenomenal growth inspired by
his theories OF social life, Prof. Heron
has been preaching and lecturing all
through the country, a theory of Chris
tian socialism that has captivated thou
sands. He has been hailed as new
prophet, the oracle of a new era of uni
down under the weight OF his contradic-
tory life. All his structures. anathemas,
and fifty arguments against wealth are
Is so much chaff before the winds, be-
cause wealth has captured him, and he
has stopped to do an unmanly thing under
its power. All his fine theoretical moral
ity is torn into shreads and trampled in
the dust by his own breakdown in the
common ethics of a husbands duty. 1t
is true both in a positive and negative
sense that the life is a final test of every
theory. There is no criticism that
sharpness and tremendousness or Judg-
ment is equal to the criticism of life.
What can stand that test can stand every
assault of time and eternity.
Il think We may err in idealiZinR Christ
too much. that is. We may put him far
above all human attainment that there
Is no reasonable impulse left to reach
him and love him. and. in SO doing. we
destroy the first great object Of his mis-
sion to prove the possibility OF the union
of the divine and the human. IL is pos
sible to make Jesus Christ too much a
god, and nos enough the divine man, who
lived his divinity among men as an evil
dence that God can dwell and work and
mingle in men. IL is quite right to pay
divine honors to Christ in worship, in
hymns, In expressions of prayer. ana
formulas Of belief. Students do well to
speculate on the measure of the divine
and human natures in Christ But what
the world needs for its salvation. and
what man needs for his comfort and peace
and forgiveness. Is the conviction that
the divinity in Christ could be- and is
able of becoming partaker OF the divine
nature.
our preaching must not send people
away with the thought that Jesus Christ
Is unattainable. but that he is obtainable.
That 1t is possible for humanity to reach
him, not only in worship and apprecia-
ton, but in actual fact-in spirit-that he
can be put on in everyday life Preach
n n VA with b.a