The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1903-12-30
WHATTHINK YEOFCHRIST?
A Brilliant Sunday Sermon By Rev.
Charles n. Parkhurst.
Why So Mssy People CT Tied Of Benz
christians.

II. Il
other things:
Christ means to you something; what ID
Christ Himself asks this of His dsciples
1t is the first Christian catechism. Brief,
hut nevertheless it is catechism. and l.
tods warrant Tor our asking doctrinal
questions, and His warrant, too, for our
being prepared to frame some sort of an
snswer to them.
Christs inquiry here means that He ex.
poets His disciples to have convictions
convictions in regard to Himself at any
iate-and definite enough for them to be
abe to state them. Such convictions NAV
be more correct may be less so, but an i'm.
perfect opinion is better than none, and no
opinion ends in being perfect that did not
begin by being imperfect. and sound con.
ylctlon Is b.undcr convicted and converted
Everything human begins in mistake.
Error is the .oamy soil OIt of which truth
Aegetates and blossoms. The history of
philosophy, science and theology illustrates
this principe with a distinct cogency that
is unanswerab.e. So that we need not be
too much afraid OF being in error provided
on y we cling to our error with a tenacity
that is not Simply tenacious, but that i
a,so honest and intelligent.
What think We of Christ? His appeal
here is to man considered as an animal who
thinks, who has ideas. ideas of his own,
takes impressions from what is shown him
told to him, acted out before him, and i'm.
pressions that so groove themselves into
his substance as to take defined shape and
shape that is fairly permanent. Just as
OBJECTS make an image of themselves in the
eye, SO facts, events, truths, make an i'm.
age OF themselves in the mind-that is,
they do if the mind is an alert mind, sensi.
tive, responsive. A man can, of course,
look without seeing anything SO he can
~ ar without learning anything; live in the
rnIls a,ln nj
from them without carrying upon his soul
any OF their imprint. An OK can look to.
wa"d the west at o'c.ock in the afternoon
without observing any sunset; there Is
good deal of the bovine still in most of us
that call ourselves human, and that is why
we beho.d so little OF what is really visible
and why we garner so little of the fruit
that falls into our laps. A duck can GO
through the water and still come out dry
A boy can go through college without any
of the, college going through him. Judas
walked three years with Jesus and finished
by being devil
What think We of Christ? He wants t.
find out from His disciples, then, what i'm
preston of Himself He has left with them
what stamp He has put upon them. Whai
they think of Him will be only another
name for the record of Himself that Hi
teachings and demeanor have left printed
upon their intellgences. i am trying tt
that He was trying to get hold of wa,
iomething definitely traceab'e to the
working influence upon them of His OWE
presence and activity. He is not interest
ed to know what they imagine Him to be
nor what they logically inier He may be
nor what some one has told them that He
is. He has been for some time demonstrat
ing Himself to them by word, act and
spirit, and if they are not altogether like
the duck in the water or the OK before the
sunset, as presumably they are not thi:
demonstration of Himself to them has in
some way tod upon them, It has lodged
something within them, and He want,
them to give name to it. Their opinion
OF Him was something that He had HIM
se.f been the means OF making to grow w
in them without their consciously having
any part in the matter themselves. 1t was
not something they had borrowed from
somewhere nor something that they hac
personally striven to acquire.
Opinion. then, ii it is anything more
than mere quotation, copy of what some
one else h9 thought, is one of the things
that grows The influence that starts the
conviction i'll, if it continues to operate
20 on ado to that convictions strength
and inter Y. As illustrative OF this com
pare the leeb!eness and timorousness oi
the convictions of the disciples when they
began to believe in Jesus with what those
convictions were when at the end of their
course they laid down their lives in mar
tyrdom. That is the natural course oi
things. 1t is natural for a flower to con
tnue to grow if it stands in the same sun
shine and rain as that which first made il
begin to grow. If flower comes up Out
of the ground, grows for a day and then
suddenly stops growing and remains as il
is, YOU know something is the matter
air too cod or the soil too dry. 1t is moi
natural for it not to go on improving upon
itsef. adding to itself.
il is a sorry condition, then, that paI
- in, that Christian believer ia in, when
he says that he has the same opinion OF
Christ that he had year ago. 1t te::.s
sad story of the way the year has beer
ing itself around your treliis clothes itsel,
in no more leaves and puts forth no more
blossoms this summer than it did last sum
mer, the season must have been an infehci
thus one for plant life or there il some
thing serious the matter with the vine.
l have in this been speaking broadly q,
conviction in general. but OF course the
reference specifically intended is to reig
ious conviction, and more specifically still
TO the conviction contemplated when the
question was asked, ."What think ye o.
Christi" We doubtless all Of us hav,
some conviction respecting Him; that is
we nD us possess among our other com
od nd be e'ongings-ether ont on tn,
tab,t tucked away in some drawer oi
c'osel .,r stored in the garret among othei
s.isused furniture or obsolete brc-a brac-
some thing. which we called land proper,
ca y belief in Christ. an opinion about
Him. conviction concerning Him. w,
are willing to assume, too, that it may b,
a verv valid conviction. sound, yea. thor
onghy in the terms Of Scripture. Yes. bni
granting all that. is there any of to-day,
sap in 1t or is 1t an antiquity?
IT means great deal tn say Of a man's
Christian conviction that il il a living con
yiction. that it is going on to-day main
tainine continuous life. freshly ministerec
20 and daily supDlied by communica ton,
from the same divine source that frat mi
tiated it. A dead conviction we have W te
lug around-a conviction that Ia alive take,
ais around, II means a continuous sense
OF the realty Of that to which our convic
tion fastens. 1t brings everything dowt
80 date and sets it out in front of us
Memory does not have to be appealed to
10 recall it. nor books. manuscripts. cate
ehisms rummaged through in order to an
therticate II. IT Is an imbedded impu.st
ti..t keeps pushing and that goes on push
Ing with an ever accelerated pace and
widening energy while we stand nea,
enough to Him whom we believe in to have
His presence made ever more immediate
10 ua. His realty more real to us. II IL
tor that reason that some believers can be
licve very nicely and vet behave very bad
lty between being orthodox and being vii
lannon's, only in order that that may b,
possible the orthodoxy in question must b,
a dead orthodoxy. last wears leaf though
still glued to this years tree.
When Christ taught us to pray Give III
this day our daily bread" He probably
meant us to understand that in the spirit
Ill =.