Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1903-01-07

CHRIST THE TOILERs' FRIEND.
By Rev. J. NJ Driver. d. d.
In these strenuous days when it is
alleged that the toiling masses have
practically abandoned Christianity,
and when the cold and harsh. though
brilliant and polished, ut;erances of an
occasional pulpit would almost excuse
such suicidal policy. desire to invite
your attention to the Christ. the author,
the central sun of Christianity itself.
Let us study His anteeedents, His en-
vironment, His spirit, His purpose, II
happily we may learn what Christian
ity really is. The cry should not be back
10 politics, or polemics, on philosophy,
or metaphysics, or rhetoric; not Jack 10
the old creeds. or the old customs, or
the old methods; not back to the dog
mas of the Jews or the Gentiles, of the
Protestants or of the Roman Catholics;
but rather back to the Christ Himself.
Let us have la all our puipits less of
politics, less of vain discussions of
economics, less of ill-grained assaults
vain babblings of oppugnant theoiogi-
ans, who are never quite SO happy as
when fighting over some utterly futile
and puerile hypothesis, and more of the
meek and gladstone and unmurmuring
and all-sympathetic and all-helpfui
Christ. Christ was the embodiment,
the incarnation. of Christianity. What
the world wants, what humanity needs,
what the church must have or perish,
is more and more of the spirit of Christ.
IF any man have not the spirit OF
Christ he is none of His" Restore
Christ to His rightful place in the
preaching of the pulpit, and in the pur-
poses and activities of the pew, and
Christianity will more than repeat her
glorious triumph of the past. In Christ
we see the thought, the passion, the
boundless democracy, the endless and
infinite lovingness of God. He that
hath seen Me hath seen the Father"
Consider His Autecedents.
propose to prove that Jesus of Naz-
areth is the toiling mans and the toll
ing woman changeless and omnipotent
friend, and that to abandon Him for
any cause soever is the maddest folly.
First, consider His antecedents. With
what a wonderful genealogy are we
confronted! ut the front door of the
New Testament. The Old Testament
opens with the book of the generation
of the world, but the New Testament
begins with the book of the generation
of the Maker of the world. Crowned
heads point with pompous pride to
their ancestry. The nobility are diligent
students of the peerage book. In most
countries ancestry decides everything.
And where ancesti y fails artificial rank
| steps in.
| But look at the genealogy of Jesus.
| Behold what honor He placed upon the
humble who could not claim the honors
of primogeniture. Not one of His great
ancestors could claim this distinction.
Even Abraham had older brothers, as
! did also Jacob, Judah, David, Nathan,
Rhesa and others. He descended from
| the heirless members OF His ancestral
halls. You will observe that four wom-
en- are here enthroned. The world does
not count genealogy along maternal
| lines, but Jesus does While man would
| silence woman pass Sale laws and de-
| throne her, withhold the ballot and
thus decitizenize her, make of her first
a darling and then Il drudge, Jesus
| says: Write her name high i'll the fame
| of My family. She is mans equal in
| birth and endowments; in My kingdom
| she shall he mans equal in power POI
sition and prerogatiye. Write her name
F! let it abide forever"
| Again. behold his parentage! Who
| was His father! Tiberius Caesar? Some
| nobleman of high renown? Some prince
of the royal blood? Some publicist of
| mighty fame? Some commercialaire
| with musk laden caravans and with
| gem-laden fleets? Some philosopher
with aIabaster brow 'seSlied DER with
| the pale cast of thought
| And who was His mother? Some
| Persian queen, or Egyptian princess.
or Jaelic goddess of war, or sorceress
Of song. or famous beauty,'or gorgeous
| leader in society, or oracless of Delphic
shrine, or crowned and jeweled seeker
| of wisdom: o. no. they Were simple
/ peasants. The father, according TO the
reckoning of men. was only an appari-
| ton. He came without heraldry, tar
| ried only a little while, without com
| ment, and then dropped out without
notice. The mother was equally hum
BILE. Her entrance upon life and her
exit were unannounced. Reared a me-
chanic. in the home of Il mechanic, in
the midst Of the holneliest poverty. and
from about His twelfth year a father
less lad. Christ is qualified by every
| experience and by every hallowed
memory to be the toilers' changeless
and omnipntent Friend,
Again. observe his birthplace! Here
was the neither depth of poverty. lie
had to share the hospitality of the
muleteer and the donkey driver. witt
mouse and ass and barnyard fowl. y
wisp of straw was His only pillow, q
saddle blanket His only covering. and
grunt and crow and guffaw His only
music Heaven stopped down and
kissed the Bethlehem dunghill and am
gels arenaded the lowliest group in all
the universe. Instead of the bending
arch and the laughing fresco there was
naught but the rude trappings Of q