The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-12-18
SERMON PREACHED BY BISHOP KINSOLVING
 AT CONSECRATION OF BISHOP BECKWIIH

For I have gfven you an example that ye should do as have done to you, Veri- ly, verify I say unto you: the servant IS not greater than his Lord; neither ne that is sent greater than He that sent him. If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them. St John xiii. 10, lS. l7.
 When the apostle exclaimed. Great IS the mystery of Godliness.' he immeoi- ately specifies as an illustration or ms statement, God manifest in the nesn.
 And in the Litany of our Book of common Prayer, we have the same idea express ed when we plead with Christ. our good Lord, to deliver us by the mystery of Ills Holy Incarnation" Nor is 1t to be won dered at that the Bible and Prayer Book
 sASlR sII--sy such language to this tran
 scendent truth; for the incarnation A sa-
 iced a mystery. "the mystery or mys-
 yeries' Kenosis is a term familiar 10
 students in theology. Its English equiva-
 lent is well expressed by the woros' SSH
 humiliation of the Eternal Son. Ana Tn
 order that we may realize the mystery or
 this self humiliation, Yet us consider TOT
 a moment the pre-existent state of Christ,
 the manner of being He was prior to His
 incarnation. We need go no further than
 examine the portions of Scripture select
 ed for the epistle and gospel for Christ mas day, If we are in search Of an an
 swer to the question. Who was Christ! or was He at all previous to His appear ance in time? In the epistle we are taught how that He did indeed exist long before His manifestation on earth. He was before the fathers and prophets' the appointed heir of all things; the one by whom ''the worlds were made. lie was the emanation of the glory or Goo; the express image of Gods person. All hy the word Of HIS power. He was exalted high above the highest angelic beings in infinite superi- ority of nature And the Gospel carrying on the same idea reaches out Into stiil deeper abysses of infinitude and eternity and tells us how that in the absolute be- ginning of all creation was The word and The Word was with God, and The Word was God, and ascrioes to Him sucn attributes of Deity as eternity, creative power and inherent life. So that we nave before us an eternally existent being, CO equal and co-eternal with God the fatn. CT. the God and Maker of Heaven and earth.
 Yet this Being, such a Being as this en- l tered into the sphere of sense and time He folded around Him and made Ills own a created form. He contracted Him | self within the limits of human pooy and human soul, and united eternal Goo' l head with human nature, so that the tWe were henceforth never to be disJolned He who filled all things and dwelt IT | light inaccessible. yelled His God neao | in a vesture of flesh and shut up His igh'
 in the narrow mechanism of a human
 soul, so that the eternal God coulo DC touched and handled and gazed upon, and 1 the Sun of Righteousness could only shine
 as reflected with dimmed and feeble rays l through an ordinary and in most respects | from It's earthly side commonplace | human life.
 And what is true with reference to the | incarnation viewed as a dogmatic con | ception is also true when we consider many of the special experiences whicf
 our Lord underwent while here upor l earth. What can be more dif1cult 10 un l derstand for instance, than the ekperl l ence of such Being, when we. behole | Him as this thirteenth chapter Of St
 Johns gospel presents Him to us. In the | third verse the narrative says, And Je
 sus, knowing that the Father had giver | all things into His hands and that H' was come from God and went to God | Then transpires this strange, this mar l velous scene. He rose from supper, ant | laid aside His garments, and took towe and girded Himself. and kneeling at thu feet of His bewildered disciples. in th utmost depths of self-humiliatlon. He pc | gan to wash their feet and wipe then 1 with the towel wherewith He was girded 1 His dear voice whispering in accents gen | tie and pleading: Know ye what 1 haV' | done to you? Ye call me Master and Lort l and ye say well, for so I am. If then l your Lord and Master have washed youl
 feet. ye also ought to wash one another l feet For I have given you an example | that ye should do as I have done to you
 Verify, verify I say unto you the servan | Is not greater than his Lord, neither h' | that is sent greater than he that sen
 him. If ye know these things happy ar' | ye if ye do them"
 An; well. my dear brethren in the Lorc | of course we cannot pretend to solve thu | mystery of such a sublime example o | divine condescension. Questions arise 1T | the mind with reference to which we car l only give an approximate answer. Wt l can see into the mystery only up to 8
 certain point beyond which reverence ant l humility and our necessary ignorance
 will not allow us to go. But because VI cannot understand all; because we art unable to explain in full either the na | ture of Christ's incarnation or the vari | ous facts which arose in consequence o # this is no reason for supposing tha we cannot appreciate the significance o | a great deal. or that we are not in DO
 sition to perceive all that Is of mos