The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1904-12-01
A SERMON FOR SUNDAY
IAN ELOQUENT DISCOURSE ENTITLED.
/ "FREEDoM IN CHRIST"
sThe Rev. Edward Hunting Rudd Shows
How Faith Unfolds eItself in Many
Forms Of Christian Experience-Re-
n

n
Forms OF Christian Experience-Re-
pentance, Growth and Service.
BROOKLYN, n. Y.-The Rev. Edward
Hunting Rudd, pastor of the First Con-
gregational Church, Dedham, Mass,
Fpgeached Sunday morning in the 1omp-
kins Avenue Congregational Church to
flarge audience. His subject was Free
dom in Christ - and the text was from
received Him to them gave He the right
to become children of God, even to them
sthat believe on His name, who were born
not of blood nor of the will Of the hesh
.nor of the will of man, but Of God" Mr..
3Rudd said:
Can I do as please? Or must I will to
Sdo as another pleases? Am free agent
sor are limitations placed upon me! Is lb-
Serty unrestrained freedom, or am l the
more truly free when my actions and
words are controlled by divine laws, i'm
essansd posed winsiy asiy upon man by his own en-
To answer these questions intelligently,
clearly and helpfully takes US at once into
that field of Christian sociology and OF the
sinterTelation of man with man and OF man
with his God which so engages the atten-
ton of men everywhere to-day. The pace
and duty of the church is very clear. 1t
! IS to show men in the spirit OF candor, OF
sympathy, of open mindedness, OF toler-
ance, that the word of God gives us great
elemental teachings by a master thinker
and reasoner, who was divine and who
claims the right to influence men. The SO,
called great problems of labor and capital
will find permanent solution only by
the arbitrament of the Man of Gahlee:
But it is your duty and mine to remind
ourselves and others that according as we
square ourselves with the requirements OF
God in Christ shall the problems OF hfe
( be met and be grappied and worth while
results be achieved.
We are here to-day to ask entrance into
the light. We are here to know more
truth, so that truth may make. us free:
We long to know how to be happily and
contentediy free. To have our freedom
SO used that everywhere men shall recog-
<sessing it withius, we shall together make
men strong. Bearing one another,s bur
edens We shall surely fulfill in part the law
sof Christ. The gospel of st. John, SIM
pie vet profound, shows US how to gain
freedom in Christ It reminds US what is
so necessary to recall in this easy going.
non-thinking age, viz, that in no real and
permanent sense are men children OF God
until Christ has made them such by vital
union with Him. That we have no right
Sto can ourselves children until God Him.
self transfers that right to US by an act OF
win and obedience on our part, so recog-
nized by Christ, who has in the very pro-
cess Of our obedience done His part. To
Selainr the friendship of another is not to
possess it, To say of Christ and our rela-
5tons to Him, as we say Of some we'll
known people, "0h, yes, i know Him well;
He is warm personal. friend. when IN
reality little more than formal introduc-
ton has been given, is in essence to know
Only about Him. and that in. formal
sense, instead of being diyinely cornmls.'
TO be achild of God" and an heir with
Christ to eternal life. Manifestly, then,
Z this IS an important. matter to US all
even to the careless, thoughtless ones who
make up part of every audience. Have
we any right to call ourselves children
of Gode"s And if we have, what has God,
by His regenerating spirit, done in us?
y II was our New England poet, Lowell,
who said:
The thing we long for-tha. we are
For one transcendent moment
But even the poet fails to be true to
FACT unless We have such definite, genu-
inc xaith in Gods power and Willingness
to give us Himself and to makeu us sons
r.and daughters of the living God, that we
receive Him and by that act avail of Him
ent moment. but for all the moments for
i fte rest ;of time and in thstsaet we are:
born Of God, and by that act we are
given the right to become-aye, tn he be-
gotten as children of God.
Almost Immediately in this sublime.
scholarly and heart searching gospel OF
John, that great disciple, speaking the
/ words of Christ Himself, begins by divid-
ING mankind into the same two divisions
which are represented in this audience,
and in every audience. viz, those who
have received Him and those who, though
they were His own by creation, received
! Him not, by .. regenerating faith. And /
want Just now, if possible, to avoid abb
phraseoiogv, and to ciothe these burning
issues in simple, clear Bible language, bat
none the less to remind ourselves that
many of US are longing to get out into the
open sky, in some of the old fashloned,
necessary doctrines of the word of God:
We have gotten some of the choicest and
most essential statements of divine truth
beclouded, and we are not quite sure
where we are. May Gods spirit erlight-
en- and aliay doubt and uncertainty on
/: these truths this day, I'd align Us all
IN the comforting Stfcngtn OF Ills own
.sonship. And I frankly believe. my broth
ter man, we cannot be satisfied in this sub.
lime hour by turning to the poets, much as
they viii uplifts and rest Us. Even though
you turn to Emerson, who has been so eS-
alted and almost dei6ed by some N New
England Unitarianism and ask him about
man, and in one place he will tell you:
"a man is the whole encyclopedia of facts.
'Fhe creation of thousand forests Is IN
enc acorn, and Egypt. Greece. Rome,
Saul, Britain, America, lie folded already
ia the first man" Yes, potentiahty. hes
enfo,ded, but naught else can bring it to
surface and to living power save the touch
of Christ the Redeemer of Manhood. Nor
docs the statement of Carlyle satisfy me.
for you recall in hissc essay, on character
istics." he says: Man stands in the cer-
ne of nature; his fraction Of time encir-
sied by eternity, his hand5readth o! space
encircled by ininitude.' I say this can
not satisfy yon. for you long to know how
YOU can best live and expand, while you
are in this centre OF nature" and where
and how you are to spend eternity. And
YOU turn to that beautifully human and
real poet. Robert Burns, and remember
with him "That mans man for a that"
and here you feel that you may be argu-
sir,o IN CIRCLE and If Burns had only