The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-07-24

the promised land Christ was to have no direct phy scal contact in the consumma- tion of the worlds salvation.
 Christ Never Visited India.
 All India was yet to give up its widow burning and the tossing of It's helpless girl infants into the Ganges to be eaten bv crocodies and the heather worships of idols but Christ was not, in body, able as man to set foot on the soil of h. da. William Carey and Alexander Duff and Bishop Thoburn were to do that Af- rica. with its murder and raplne and can nibalistic orgies. was to tuild it's altars to the worship of the true God" but Christ, as a physical man, was never to penetrate Into those dark missionary fields. Livingstone, Taylor and a Hart zell were to do that. Europe at that time shaking under the tread of the Roman leglons; North and South Amer ica utterly unknown to civilizations; the islands of the sea. most of them unvislt- ed-all are yet to bow to Christ and come under the reign of love and gentlencss and purity and truth. These are to be won through the instrumentality of men. Men energized by the Holy Spirit are to gain the whole world for him. Truly. as we look at such a conquest and compare 1t with the work that he accomplished in Palestine we see what he meant when he said, Greater things than these shall
 
 quest of the world, but as a man he never went away from the Palestine hills He grew up in Nazareth. He Journeyod from Nazareth a few times to Jerusalem There at the Davdic capital he was at last led as q guilty criminal out to the Calvary heights to lgnominiously die. To his followers he left the stupendous task of evangelizing the world. promising that he would be with them to the end and that through his power they should be able to win more souls than he had done
 But though we have been praising mans greater works we would have you bear well in mind this one tremen- dous fact No work of man is truly greater than Christs work, because all of mans greater works ore the outcome Of Jesus work. If YOU read He verse in which my text is found you will iinl the whole trend of the thought in the ora word because" He shall do greater works than these because l go to my Fa- ther." Because Christ is in God and God Is In us Is the reason man Is able to accomplish greater works than did Christ
 Never be deluded by the idea that man in his own strength Is able to do any. thing apart from God. This idea seems to be running riot among many weak brains. A short tima ago l stood upon one of the Pasadena hills and looked off up- On the mighty peak of Mount Lowe lft- ing itself above the clouds There in the valley at my feet were the California orange groves and the flower gardens and the trees which have made this land famous all around the world Do you see that little hill yonder?" said n gem tleman by my side. Yes" I answered. That hill" said he. Hooks much lower than we are" "It certainly does" I re- piled. That hill must be at least three hundred feet below us" But 1t is not, he answered. That hill seems lower be- cause wonder lofty mountain is back of 1t. Water from that hill flows down to this hill That hill wonder is much higher than we are" So some people standing upon mans greater works" seem to think mans throne Is higher than chrIst's throne. But 1t is not. Only as Christ's life In It's influence touches our lives are we able to do the greater works" which are given man to do
 Elevatlng Power of Christianity
 "Oh, mo-" says some one that can not be. Some of the greatest inventors. some of the greatest statesmen, some of the greatest American men have been agnos- ties and did not believe in Christ at all How then could they get their power from God?" By the law of association. The influence of Christianity Is an eleyat- ing, civili2ing, inspiring power. Even those who are personally strangers to 1t are affected by the atmosphere 1t pro-