The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-09-14


that of all the powers ever in this world
with an influence over the mind of human
ity Christ's power is easily supreme. Con-
sidered solely on it's intellectual side 1 do
not know of any thought that has ever
been given to the world that has anected
the thinking of all ages in way at all
comparable with the thought of Jesus
Christ.
Living but three brief years in public
and but short thirty three years in all,
and posterity inheriting but a few frag-
ments of His thinking at the most. we find
1t utterly impossible. in our search for the
truth about what is admittedly the most
important part of our being. the spiritual,
to go either back TO the centuries before
Christ or into the centuries since HIS pirtn
and death, or to venture into the centuries
that we are rushing toward, without being
compelled, either willingly or reluctantly,
to refer all our thinking to one Man OF Naz-
areth.
Jesus Christ is inevitably the pivotal
mind of the worlds religious thinking to-
day. This is all the more wonderful when
we admit that Christ was not a philosopher
in the technical sense of the term; that His
thought, as we have it. is not regular,
orderly system OF philosophy. There are
very few personalities that can so radically
control and shape the thinking of mankind.
You can count your two hands-and
have fingers to spare-those minds that
have made a truly new and indelible and
irrefutably true impress on the thought OF
the world. AS time strings the centuries
on His girdle they nearly all have the same
I general luster. Only far apart we catch
| new radiance in some one. And amid these
very few, those antedating the Nazarene
are eclipsed by Him; those succeeding Him
catch their color from His. Let none think
that 1 am importing this intellectual mean
| ing into the term Master, for the word in
| the text is Christ's own word, and that is
| Teacher.
Christ is the Master because His thought
| is dynamic, is operative. The great paint
| ers are not masters solely because they
| suggest the proper things in drawing and
| color and design, but because, in addition
to this. they personally carry their princi-
| pies into execution. When you look upon
| their paintings you see both the principle
| of their art and the execution of the prin-
ciple they advocated. 1t is so in all direc-
tions where mastery is claimed. The mas
ter musician is not he who can understand
and expound only, but who, with firm and
| plant touch can well execute what he
understands and teaches. We reach here
the second indispensable element of mas
| tery-it is to be able to do what you claim
the ability to do.
| SUPPORTING THE CLAIM.
| Apply this test to Jesus Christ; does 1t
not support the claim that He is Master?
| He taught that self-control was an indis-
| pensable requisite for character. Then. as
| men listened in charmed wonder to His
words, they saw this teacher of self-control
| go among men who offered Him every
| provocation to retaliate, to lose control of
himself, and without one slip or failure
| exhibit self-control. This teacher from
| Nazareth held men spellbound by His
| teaching of -forgetfulness in behalf of
| others. Then He walked before them, do
| ing, in instances beyond number, what He
| had taught, painting, painting with fatigue,
| exhaustion, poverty, homelessness, and His
| life blood at last for His pigments, the
| principle He had presented. This Jesus set
| men thinking about purity in life and free
dom from sin-thinking on higher levels
| and along loftier lines than men ever had
| before His time; then He lived before them
/ during thirty-three years a life in which
| the hostile and microscopic criticism Of
| twenty centuries has failed to find any flaw
or fault.
So we may run the thought into all the
| elements Of Christs teaching. What He
| expounded He executed. The principles He
| advocated He applied. He lectured not
only, but He lived His lecture He was the
master of thought. and He was the master
in vitalizing His thought This is very
| sure evidence of mastership. ST know how
it ought to be done, but cannot do it." we
say. Then one steps up and does it as it
| should be done, and we say: "Ah, but you
| have mastered it," If this is the test we
continually apply to the multitude of lesser
things in our life, how supreme appears the
mastership of Him who, in this mighty
undertaking of living a rigid life, while
every man repeats Paul's words, 1.-THE good
that would 1 do not; but the evil which
| would not that do''-steps out before the
world and actually so masters the ten
| denotes of the human life which, in common
with us all. He felt the inclination to obey,
| that He actually lives the perfect life-per-
feet beyond the power of man to find
| fault in.
We have seen that mastership consists In
L
| masterful execution, and that this combi-
| nation is found in Jesus Christ in the most
| supreme degree. But there Is another in
| dispensable element in complete masterli-
ness which l am sure has already occurred
| to you, namely, the ability to transmit
ones own personal power. Certainly this
| is the supremest test of mastership; this is
the rarest possession. The great master is
he who knows. who personally can do, and
finally who can personally empower others
| to do.
| WHY HE IS MASTER
| Jesus, the Christ, is master because He
| can and actually does enable every one that
| puts himself under Him to so overcome his
| faults. to so develop his power, be 1t little
| or much. to so conceive and plan and exc
| cute, that the result is amazing to ALL and
/ to none more than to the student himself
Although Christ is Master because of the
| master thought, the master power to de-
| velop His pupils, the astounding fact is that
| He is never any ones master by irresistible
| might. He is not a despot. He does not
| enter any life against its will and crush
| and beat II down into subsection to Him.
This is what some people wish He did do
that He would make them Christians so