The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1904-10-12
COMFORTING CERTAINTIES
"A Brilliant Sunday Sermon By Rev. DR..
Robert Bruce.
Words Addressed to Ncodemus-1hc Person
That the verities Of Our Faith
Cluster About.

Greenwood Baptist Church, preached on
"Comforting Certainties.' The text was
know" DR.. Hull said in the course of HE
sermon -,
These words were addressed to Nicode.
mus. He was an earnest. honest, yet timid
inquirer after truth. He had come to
Jesus under cover Of the darkness. AS an
official of the Jewish Sanhedrim, he did
not dare to be seen talking with the Naza'
rene Teacher. Yet he is convinced in his
own mind that Jesus is a prophet and
that. too, prophet sent Of God. This
much he confesses to the Christ. Then be.
gins the wonderfully instructive interview
from which the text is taken. This inter
view is evidently only an outline, but the
outline is marvelously suggestive. Nico.
demus was good man. He was religious
man. He conformed to all the religious
forms and ceremonies of his nation. His
outward department was bameless and
his standing in the community was honor.
able But he was not a spiritual man. He
was not what we would call to-day a con.
yerted man. To him Jesus thrice used the
solemn double Amen, amen, j say unto
thee"
Nicodemus could not understand what
Jesus meant by being born again He was
unable to see what that new spiritual life
was of which he himself was lacking. Then
it is that the third double amen OF Jesus
introduces the words of the text ''Veriy,
verify say unto thee, we speak that we
do know and testify that we have seen"
In this utterance Jesus uses the word
"we" not simply as the plural Of majesty,
but connecting Himself with all His disci.
pies, so that it is perfectly proper and
right for us to-day to use His words and
say: "Ne speak that we do know" Chris.
tians are competent witnesses to the Ger.
tainties of religion. While in sense it
may be said that 'the Bible and the Bible
alone is the religion of Protestants," yet in
the fuller sense our religion is life.
Christ is Christianity. His life in Himself
And in His disciples is the spirit and the
power OF true religion. We have something
more than opinion; something better than
creeds; we have as one Of the eternal veri.
ties Jesus Christ as the manifestation of
God. 1t has been well said that "Christ
either deceived mankind by conscious
fraud or He was Himself deluded and de.
ceived, or He was divine. There is no get
ting out of this trilemma 1t is inexor.
able" He stood before the men who knew
Him best and said: 'He that hath seen Me
hath seen the Father" and again declared
to them: 81 and Ny Father are one." This
was tremendous assumption and awful
blasphemy if it was not the truth. That
1t is the truth the course of time and the
course of Christianity both abundantly de-
clare.
The verities of our precious faith cluster
about a person. This person was God,
manifest in the flesh, and for all the cen.
turies since Bethlehem the nobest wisest
and holiest have bowed before Him, rever.
emily exclaiming. "My Lord and my God"
IT matters not from what point we view
Him, Jesus stands before the world as
more than man. 1t is said of a safe and
perfect arch that it must meet two require.
ments. Its feet must not slip and its mid
die must not bend. Jesus Christ is the arch
connecting humanity and divinity. The
weight of the centuries of Christianity rest
on that arch and they rest there safely, for
"Jesus is God; there never was a time
when He was not;
Boundless, eternal, merciful, the word,
the Sire begot;
Backward our thoughts through ages
stretch, onward through realms of
bliss,
For there are two eternities and both
alike are His"
Another of the certantes is that the
Christian life is divine life. This was
new thought to Nicodemus. 1t is a new
thought to many, to-day; 1t was not a
figure of speech, but plain statement of
fact, when Jesus insisted that it was neces-
sary to be born again in order to enter
heaven. Those of Nicodemus time would
have said it was necessary to reform, to
deal honestly, to behave kindly, to live up.
rightly. So many say to-day. and If by. all
this they mean uprightness in its perfect
iOTIl tuty dTt TlIHL. DuL ITO man nuS ever
lived who LAS been thus upright "All
have sinned and come short of the glory of
God" The history of mankind shows that
we must not seek holiness in order to God,
but God in order to holiness. Christ must
come into the soul of man with His divine
life, and then, and not till then, are we in
harmony with the divine holiness.
When that life comes in then there d
manifested the "expulsive power of a new
affection" better still, the expulsve power
of new. life; Nothing less than life can
account for the change in men. Nothing
but life can exert the power which the CEN
turies OF Christianity have manifested. In
physics We affirm confidently that every eff
feet must have an adequate cause. This
also is true in the realm of spirituality. IL
prosecutors are changed into preachers. if
those once thoroughly depraved have been
nodded into recognized saints if the dregs
OF society have been transformed into un-
paralleled martyrs for the truth, If common
people have been fashioned into those of
whom the world was not worthy-we ask
what cause or what power is adequate for
such marvellous alterations. We know
these changes. 1t is folly to say we do not
know the power.
Twice each day our city is washed by a
mighty ebb and flow of tides that sweep in
and out, despite all the winds that blow
Your child recognizes the fact, but he is
puzzled to think that the pale, silent moon,
those resistless floods. The child is puz-
zled, but when your philosopher explains
TO you that the moon does this by attrac-
tlon OF gravitation, and you ask him to ex-
plain to you this attraction Of gravitation,
then he, too, is puzzled. Yet he knows the
power, knows it SO well he can measure it
and use it. So, too, with Christianity, and
Its power. We can recognize its force and
use 1t, but its secret is the secret of life.
Like all force, in its origin it is a mystery.
Iennyson says:
We have but faith we cannot know,
For knowledge is of things we see."
This is not quite true. knowledge is of
things we feel, as well as of things we see.
Many things we know that we cannot see.
We never saw a pain, but we should call
him fool who should say we never felt or
knew a pain. We know the power of the
Christ life m the believer, because we have
felt 1t, and sometimes when this Christ life
IN us has its perfect freedom we are able
70 say with PAUL. II can do all things in
Christ who strengtheneth me-"
Ihls certainty concerning the power OF
the Christ life can be attained by all who
will fulfill the conditions. There must be
surrender to Christ and a trust in Christ.
You cannot have the sunbeam without the
sun; You cannot have the power of Christ
without the Christ Himself. The apostle
says; Christ is in you the hope of glory"
and 1t is certainly true that Christ must
centre Of our certitude is Christ Himself.
We know Him. We know His power 1t
has been exercised upon W. and in U.s. Like
the once blind beggar, we exclaim: Zone
tang know, whereas, was blind, now
eee." There was no note of uncertainty