The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1904-10-06
A SERMON FOR SUNDAY
4 STRONG DISCOURSE ENTITLEo,i
"cOMfoRTlNC cERTAiNTlES."
The Rev. DIR. Robert Bruce Hu1l's Talk
on the Words Addressed to Nicode,nus
The Person That tho verities Of Our
Precious Faith Cluster About.

The Rev. DIR. Robert Bruce Hu1l's Talk
on the Words Addressed to Nicodemu Us
The Person That the verities Of Our
Precious Faith Cluster About.
BROOKLYN. n. Y.-Sunday morning the
Rev. DR.. Robert Bruce Hull N,sspaster of
Comforting Csrtainties." The text was
from John iii:ll: ''We speak that we do
know DR.. Hull said in ths course1of his
sTheseewords were addressed to Nicodg,
mus. He was an earnest honest, yetstinaid
INQUIRER after truth. He had come to
Jesus under cover of the darkness. As an
official of the Jewish Sanhedrim, he Ord
not dare TO be seen talking with the Nara
rene Teacher. Yet he is convincef In hls
own mind that Jesus is prophet and
that, too, a prophet sent OF God This
much he eonfesses 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 7marvelousiy suggestive. Nico-
demus was good man. He was religious
man., He confermed to all the religious
forms and ceremonies Of his nation. His
outward department was blameless and
his standing in the community was honor
able. But he was not spiritual man. He
was not what,we would call to-day a con-
verted man. To him Jesus thrice used the
solemn double "Amen, amen, 1 say unto
thee"i -
Nicode7rus could not understand what
Jesus meant by being born again. He was
unable to see what that new spiritual lie
was .of~which he himself was lacking: Their.
introduces the words of the text: "Ferlly,
verify, + say unto.fhee, we speak that We
do know and testify that we have seen.
In this utterance Jesus uses the word
eve" not simply as the plural Of majesty,
but connecting Himself with all His disci.
pies, so thai it is perfectly proper and
right for us to-day to use His words and
say: eve speak that we do know" Chris
}tians are competent witnesses to the Ger
tainties of religion. While in a sense it
may be said that "the Bible and the Bible
alone is the religion of Protestants," yet IN
the fuller sense our religion ls a. lite:
Christ is Christianity. His hfe 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. It has been well said that Christ
either deceived mankind by conscious
fraud or He was Himself deluded and de-
ceiyed. or He was divine. There is no get
ting out of this trilemma. 1t ls lnexor-
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: ct and My Father are one" This
was tremendous assumption and awful
blasphemy if it was not the truth. That
it is the truth the course of time and the
course of Christianity both abundantiy de-
clare.
The verities of our precious faith cluster
about person. This person was GOD,
manifest in the flesh, and for all the CEN
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. It is said of safe and
perfect arch that it must meet two require
nlents. 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 . time
when He was not;
Boundless. eternal, msrciful, the word,
Backward. our thoughts through ages
stretch, onward through realms Of
bliss,
!. For there are two eternities and both
alike are His"
. Another of the certainties is that the
Christian life is divine life. This was
new thought to Nicodemus. It is Z new
thought to many to-day. ID was not
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 II by an
form they are right. But no man has 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 is
manifested the "expulsive power OF new
affection" better still, the expulsive power
of a new life. Nothing less than life can
account for the change in men. Nothing
but life can exert the power which the CEN
turfes Of Christianity have manifested. In
physics we affirm confidently that every ef-
feet must have an adequate cause: This
also is true in the realm of spirituality. IF
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. It is folly to say we do not
know the power.
Twice each day our city is washed, by .
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.
serene amid the clouds, is the cause of
those resist!ess foods. The child is .puz-
zled, but when your philosopher explains
to you that the moon does this by attrac-
ton of gravitation, and you ask him to e.
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 an1
use it, but its secret is the secret of life.
IL .L4.~,,