The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1904-12-23
A SERMON FOR SUNDAY
AN ELOQUENT DISCOURSE ENTITLED.
FREEDOM IN cHRfST."
Che Rev. Edward Hurting Rudd Shows
How Faith Unfolds tItself in Many
Forms of Christian Experience-Re-
pentancc, Growth and Service

tue Rev. Edward Hurting Rudd Shows
How Faith UnfOlds tItseIf in Many
Forms of Christian Experience-Re-
pentancc, Growth and Service.
BROOKLYN, n. Y.-The Rev. Edward
Hunting Rudd, pastor of the First Con-
gregational Church. Dedham, Mass,
preached Sunday morning in the Tomp-
klns Avenue Congregational Church to a
large audience. His subject was Free
dom IN Christ" and the text was from
John H.: Is and IA: "But as many as
received Him to them gave He the right
to become children of God, even to them
that believe on His name, who were born
not OF blood nor of the will of the flesh
nor OF the will of man, but Of God" Mr.
Rudd said:
Can l do as please? Or must I will to
do as another pleases? Am / free agent
or are limitations placed upon me? Is lib
erty unrestrained freedom, or am | the
more truly free when my actions and
words are controlled by divine laws, i'm
posed willingly upon man by his own en-.
lightened self?
To answer these questions inteligently.
clearly and helpfully takes us at once into
that field OF Christian sociology and of the
lnterrelatlon of man with man and OF man
with his God which so engages the atten-
ton of men everywhere to-day. The place
i
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 master thinker
and reasoner, who was divine and who
claims the right to influence men. The So
called great problems of labor and capital
VIII lind permanent solution only by
the arbitrament of the Man of Galilee.
But it is your duty and mHne to remind
and Ofbprs fbot oooOrIivc,
square ourselves with the requirements Of
God in Christ shall the problems of life
be met and be grappled 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
free To have our freedom
so used that everywhere men shall recog-
nize it as the article they wish, and, pos
sesslng 1T with us, we shall together make
men strong. Bearing one another's bur-
dens we shall surely fulfill in part the law
OF Christ. The gospel of st. John, SIM
pie yet profound, shows us how to gain
freedom in Christ. 1t reminds us what is
SO necessary to recall in this easy going,
non-thinklng age, viz, that in no real and |
sense are men children of God /
until Christ has made them such bv vital !
lnion with Him. That we have no right |
70 call ourselves children until God Him.
self transfers that right to us by an act Of
VIII and obedience on our part, SO recog-
llzed by Christ, who has in the very pro-
ess of our obedience done His part. To
lain the friendship of another is not to
possess it. To say of Christ and our rela-
ions to Him, as we say of some we'll
,nown people, ooh, yes, know Him well;
lie is warm personal friend" when in
GaIItV little fhnY1 forr,oo Of ;oEr
ion has been given, is in essence to know
My about Him, and that i'll formal
ense, instead of being divinely commits
Toned by the living holy spirit of God
Q be child of God" and an heir with
;hrist to eternal life. Manfestly, then,
his is an important matter to us all
ven to the careless, thoughtless ones who
lake up a part of every audience. Have
'e any. right to call ourselves children
{ God" And if we have, what has God,
y His regenerating spirit, done in us?
1t was our New England poet, Lowell,
tho said
The thing we long for-that we are
For one transcendent moment.
But even the poet fails to be true to
Ict unless we have such a definite, genu.
lie faith in Gods power and willingness
!yaye us Himself and to make us sons
I'D daughters of the living God, that we
'ceive Him and by that act avail of Him
our Saviour not only for one transcend
lie rest OF time, and in that act we are
'rn of God, and by that act we are
ven the right to become-aye, to be be-
'tten as children of God.
Almost Immediately in this sublime.
holarly and heart searching gospel of
'hn, that great disciple, speaking the
ords Of Christ Himself, begins by divid-
g. mankind into the same two divisions [.
hIch are represented iii this audience,
We received Him and those who, though
ey were, His own by creation, received !
I'm not, by regenerating faith. And l :
mt just now, if possible, to avoid abb !
'use, moss covered theological terms and :
raseology, and to clothe these burning !
ues IN simple, clear Bible language, but !
ne the less to remind ourselves that \
my OF us are longing to get out into the :
en- sky, in some of the old fashioned. !
cessary doctrines of the word of Cod o
have gotten some of The choicest and :,
'st essential statements of divine truth T
eiouded, and we are not quite sure q
ere we are. May Gods spirit enlight- d
and allay doubt and uncertainty on y
use truths this day, i; I'd align us all !,
the comforting strength of His own :,
lshlp. And l frankly believe, my broth. 9
man, we cannot be satisfied in this SUBJ a
e hour by turning to the poets, much as ~ ~
y will uplift and rest us. Even though %
turn to Emerson, who has been so ex- Il
"a and almost deifed by some in New ~ y
gland Unitarianism and ask him about ~ ~
n, and in one place he will tell you: =, =,
man Is the whole encyclopedia of facts. II
creation of thousand forests is in 80
ACORN. and Egypt, Greece, Rome, u
IL Britain, America, lie folded already
the first man." Yes, potentially lies
oided, but naught else can bring it to 70
lace and to living power save the touch ~;
christ the Redeemer of Manhood. Nor 20 20
the statement of Carlyle satisfy me, "a