The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-05-24
REV. PLATO DURHAM.
His Sermon Sunday Night Before y
Nj. c. \. of n. and NJ.
College.

Sunday night Rev. Plato Durham,
of Trinity college, preached at Eden
ton Street church, before the Y. Nj. G.
\. of the A. and NJ. college. a tre-
mendous crowd filled all the seats
downstairs and the greater part of the
galleries.
Special music was rendered, solos
being sung by Miss Nina Green and
Prof. Jackson.
Prof. Durham took as his text: III
be lifted up from the earth, | win
draw all men unto me-.
At this day said Prof Durham,
there is a serious challenge to the state
ment that Jesus Christ is the Lord and
Master of men. That question comes
very often To college men, because
they have heard the voices OF the great
spirits of the world. That question
comes, too, because we live in day
of great religious unrest Science has
reVolutionized the thinking OF the
world Our horizon has expanded al
most infinitely in this century How
about the other religions of the world
How about Buddah, for instance? And
then the religious leaders themselves
are in a period of unrest. And then
the world to which those words were
spoken was vastly different from the
world of today.
In North Carolina we stand in a
sometimes in the history of the world
when the growth of ages seems to be
attained in a single generation. When
ever the growing intelligence ana
broadening grasp of men comes into
contact with a hard and fast religion
that does not itself grow that religion
is ever shattered. The mighty spirit
of Luther burst the bonds of the Ro-
man church at one bound Look at
ntylD md
Jesus Christ, because the chu;ch would
not yield to the demands of growing
men.
Is our faith and our creed broad
enough to hold the men of North
Carolina? Notice the condition put by
Jesus Christ, eff l be lifted up Have
we lifted up Jesus Christ in North
Carolina? Jesus had not been dead
century before his religion was re-
duced to creed, a recitation of facts.
Was that fair fulfilment of the condi-
ton? A creed was never intended to
take the place of the life of Jesus
Christ We have taken cosmology,
metaphysics and held them up to men
in place of the quivering life of the
Saviour. Our Master himself never
saw fit to enter the realm of science
or of metaphysics. And yet people
fall back from Christ because they
can't accept certain metaphysical facts
about the creation of the earth.
We have also incorporated into the
religion of Christ certain doctrines OF
the philosophy of the time in which
he lived The Greek apologists at
tempted to explain his religion by
some OF their philosophical theories.
But there is nothing of the kind in his
statements. He did not teach any
critical theory.
The power that is to dominate the
brain and the heart of this universe
is to know what Jesus taught. The
one thing of which Christians seem TO
be most ignorant is the teaching OF
Christ There are one or two churches
into the ministry of which man can
get without answering a single ques-
ton as to the teaching or the life OF
Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ must be born and in
carnated into the lives of his follow
ers in order to be lifted up God lifted
Christ up by a process of incarnation
A boy was enthused by the story of
Admiral Dewey's return, but was UNI
moved by the story of the cross. That
was because that boys father had
been a soldier and he knew his feel
ings. but he had never seen an incar-
nate Christ But Prof. Durham said
he had seen Christ incarnate I'm wo-
man speaking in the slums OF New
York. and her hearers were moved TO
tears and penitence, because there was
Jesus lifted up before them.