The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-01-04
PREACHES FIRST SERMON.
REE EDR.LW.SNEATH ANNOUNCES INTENTIONS TO CONGREGATION.


 Grand Avenue Congregational Church Has New Pastor-ssrmon Deals With Personality and Influence of christ pr. sheath Outlines Policy and View of Daties to Church.
 The first sermon of Rev. Dr. l. W. Sheath to the congregation of the Grand avenue Congregational church as their pastor was preached yesterday. The subject was .The Greatest in the Great est Sphere" and Dr. Sheath treated of the significance and influence of Christ's example as a humanizing force.
 The text chosen was: Corinthian ii, 2. Tor I determined not to know any, thing among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucifed."
 On this Dr. Sheath spoke as follows:
 At the beginning of the new year and at the beginning of this new pastorate, let us take our place before the match less character of the ages. Travellers 
 towering mountain have differing views from different positions. It is the same mountain seen from different angles. We have often stood in the presence of the towering figure of his- tory and have had inspiring views of our Christ. Let us take our place again. It may be an old view which greets us, but let us hope that it shall be in a new light or at least with new inspir- ation.
 Jesus Christ is the supreme person. age in the loftiest realm of life or as President King has happily expressed it, Jesus Christ is the greatest in the greatest sphere" He Is the greatest in the realm of characteristic spiritual realm. Man is the highest in creation Jesus is the greatest man. He is also the noblest man. He is character pre- eminent. He not only knew the prom lem of the race, its contest with sin, it's struggles, its discouragements but he also lived the life which is possible to man, and lived it perfectly. He was fairer than the children of men" "He was the fairest among ten thousand; the altogether lovely The highest ex- pectation of the human mind is an ul- timately perfected humanity Jesus lived, concrete example of that ex- pectation. He was transcendent in the realm of character. He is the one man of the ages.
 He is not only the one man, but the universal man. He was a genuine Jew. All the noblest peculiar characteristics of the Jewish people were embodied in Him. The Jew is easily discernible. He is a unique person. Jesus would have been readily recognized as son of Abraham. And yet here is the marvel. The moment we view Jesus in His character we forget His race-connec- ton. To the Greek, with his critical, aesthetic culture He became a Greek; to the Roman Roman; to the Eng 1ishman He becomes an Englishman, and to the American an American. He is the universal man. Wonder sun Is everybody's sun; wonder ocean is every body's ocean. Jesus is everybody s Christ He satisfies the need of every living soul. He meets the demand of the profoundest wisdom, while the most illiterate bow before Him and call Him Lord The most moral find in Him their ideal, while the lowest in sin look up from their humble pits and see in Him that which in their inmost lrife they long to be. And I contend that any man with open vision and candid mind will find in Jesus that which satis- fiess the need of his deepest yearning. He is the universal man and will meet the universal need.
 Because of what Jesus is accounts for the magic of His name.
 Here is name that is above every name The name was despised by the Jew, abhorred by the Roman because He was a Jew--that name is honored, revered and loved by millions to-day. It has the magic power which is born of a character back of it. You can account for Christianity's progress through the exaltation and glorification of this name. The name Christian was first as- stunned at Antioch and from there went forth the great foreign mission move ment to proclaim this name in all the earth Wherever that name has been proclaimed it's power has been realized Darwin found great fault with the Lon- don Missionary society for sending a missionary to the Fuegians. He declar- ed 1t waste Of time. money and life Unquestionably in Darwin's day this was the lowest and most degraded race known But Darwin saw in later days excellent reasons to change his opinion and he did He acknowledged his error and as proof sent his check to the so. ciety for the work of the mission.
 Darwin forgot the pit from which he himself had been dug. I venture that there are none here this morning ol Anglo-Saxon origin, but, if possible tc trace it, would find their ancestry seat. ed about a fire, eating the roasted arm of human victim and drinking the blood of another out of the skull Of third. And what has brought this transformation? How come you int the light of this twentieth century civ. ilization, with all its privileges ant blessings? It is through the magic O the name of Jesus, as proclaimed by tn, missionaries from Rome, on the shore. of England and the north of Europe And that which the name could ac complish then 1t can to-day.
 Wherever it is proclaimed it ha, power. A minister of the Presbyterian church is addressing body of laborins men who are purposed to go out on { strike. He is not cordially received but when he speaks of Jesus the nam, od x1,itI, ov11Itont rar1o,,oa e,