The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1903-06-17
A SERMON FOR SUNDAY
AN INTERESTING DISCOURSE EY
DIR. LYMAN ABBOTT.

Subject: The Secret Of Christ1anity-Not
Fine Windows and Music. But aking
the World Wiser and Better-A Chris.
tian's Duty Summed Up in One Law.
New YORK C1TY.-!At the Church of the
Pilgrims. Brooklyn. DR.. Lyman, Abbott
preached Sunday morning on The eecret
Of ,Christanityn He took n ior MS MS text Tex
in the city of David. Saviour, which Is
Christ the Lord" and said: =,
In the Anplo-Saxon version of the New
Testament the word Saviour y, is ren,
dered for the Anglo Saxon word "helper."
You know also that the word Christ, ls
not proner name. but title equivalent
to "The Messah"-the Lord.
Every great movement has at the hear
of it some secret, which if we can discover
it. will disclose to Ms the secret OF that
. great movement. What is the secret at
the heart of Christianity, which has made
it the great power that it is? In asking
YOU to consider this question you will I'M
derstand, of course, that l am not under
taking in half an hour to answer the entire
question: I am only going to try in that
half hour to indicate the essence OF Chris
| tianitvAthe secret Of its vitality. The
Jewish people were in more than one sense
"a peculiar people" Among other things
in this: That their faces were turned to-
ward the future. All other nations look
peculiar people" looked forward for theirs
They believed that a time was. coming
/ when there would he peace instead of war
and for themselves prosperity instead OF
! universal poverty. They believed that this
great time would come through their own
nation and that Jerusalem would become
| the holv city and the mistress of the world
And their prophets even pointed forward
| to this divine consolation. and they indl-
Gated that it would come through some de-
| livercr. Sometimes they regarded the ma
| ton itself as that deliverer: sometimes n
succession of nrophets: sometimes single
| prophet; sometimes a single man. as king
! or prince. as teacher. as priest, as
'Man Of Sorrows and acquainted with
! grief" However different or incongruous
or inconsistent those nrophesies might be,
| they pointed the minds of the neople for
ward to great delivery and delivered. So
the shepherds perfectly well understood
the angels when they said: "The deliverer
has come, the helper is here, Yon will find
Him er1dled in the manger" When Jesus
began His ministry His first sermon; or
which we have record. was preached In
the synagogue at Nazareth. He went into
|. the synagogue. roll was open before Him
and He read one Of the prophecies Of the
great de'iverer who was coming and then
said: This dav is this Scripture fulfilled in
your ears. I have come. am hat dellv-
erer." Having begun His ministry in this
way He went ont to he hel1'r and ted
the hungry, taught the ignorant and healed
the sick and disnensed the gospel. OF hope.
il this was the Messiah, for things went on
much the same and no great thing seemed
to be ACCOMPLISHED. sent Him message
saying: cart Thou the Messiah" and
Christ said to the messengers. "Wait here.
| see what you will see and then 90 and tell
YOUR master" The waited and saw, and
then Christ told them: "Go your way and
tell ,Tohn what things We have seen and
heard how that the blind see, the lame
walk the lepers are cleansed. the deaf hear:
the dead are raised, to the poor the gospel
is preached"
No man can undertake to help his fellow
men really sincerely. on large scale, with
out coming in contact with men who do
not want the help. those who are making
something out Of the misfortunes of their
fellow men. Christ came in contact with
such. and thew leagued themselves together
to destroy Him. He was arrested and
brought before the Jewish tribunal and
asked, care You the Messiah" And un-
der solemn oath He said. "I am" PLATE
said. care Yon king" He said. ri am"
To both the Jewish tribunal and the Ro-
man He said. "I am," and for that He was
condemned to die and for it He died
dissipated They said. owe thought He
was to be the great deliverer. but evidently
He was not" Rumors Of His ascension be-
gan to circulate, and. little by little they
became convinced. and then they said,
"Ah. He is the deliverer. after all" If you
will turn to the Book of Acts and read one
of the sermons there Won will see that was
the burden Of all the apostolic ministry.
No new theology. ethic or law. Then mes
sages were all the same: '"The deliverer is
come: He is here: the deliverance has be-
gun"
In the first century rule was By absolute
despotism. Gradually government has been
transformed. until now it is completely es-
tablished. and there is no government in
Europe west of Russia that does not at
least recognize the fact that government is
not for the government, but for the gov
erned All industry was servile. Half the
| Roman population were slaves. and the
other half were on the edge of fAmine and
only kept alive by the largess of others.
Wherever Christianity has gone the chain
has dropped from the slave and labor has
Deell eHlaHcIDdleu. IHere were lO ScHOOIs
in Rome and none among the Jews, except
those connected with the synagogue, but
wherever Christianity has gone it has es-
tablished schools and wealth has been diff
fused among the people. This is called an
ace of concentrated wealth. That is not 80.
There never was an age, and that is espe-
cally true Of America, when wealth was
more distributed. There are charities
everywhere. The church has also changed
the conception Of punis hment. so that pun
ishment has become reformatory. The OBJ
iect of the old pagan religion was not to
helm man; it was to appease the wrath of
God or to purchase the favor of corrllDti-
bic God Christianity has altered all that
with various degrees of success. The church
of Christ is engaged in the work of lifting
the burdens of men, in inspiring them with
courage and nobler purposes. Christianity
is not a mere sum of doctrines: new
method of worship or new law of morals.
1t is great historical movement.
Flowing down through the centuries with
ever widening and decpening current, bless
ing eve1y land it has touched and carving
with it some measure of helpfu!ncss. Chris
tianitv has done, through the centuries,
what Christ did in those four short years
it has helped the helpless, fed the hungry.
taught the ignorant, given courage to the
despairing and bi gu yht glad tidings to the
Door. The secret of Christianity. then. is
helpfulness. This it is that distinguishes
the theology of the Christian religion from
the theology of all other religions. 1t is
new doctrine respecting God-not absolute
ly so. but still new contrasted with the
teachings of other religions. Everywhere
on the globe men believe in the aid of
God and in the power of God. The dis
tinction between the Jewish religion and
Paganism was. not that one called God
Jehovah and the other Baal. 1t was that
one worshiped justice and the other
power The message of the Pagan religion