The Penn's Grove record., 1904-03-04
A SERMON FOR SUNDAY
AN INTERESTING DISCOURSE BY THE
REV. DR.. H. C. SWENTZEL

Gouged to the Grand Army of SeIf.Re-
speeding WOrkingmen-His Life Con-
dennis the sinfulness of IdIeness.
BROOKLYN, N. Y.-An interesting and
forceful sermon was preached Sunday
morning by Rev. DIR. Henry G. Swentzei,
rector Of st. Luke's Church, Clinton ave-
nue., near Fulton street. The subject was
""The Divine Carpenter" and the text st.
Mark vi:3: "Is not this the carpenter?'
DR.. Swentzel said:
The glorious Son Of Man was a mechanic.
1t is well worth while to consider those
eighteen years which He spent at Nazar-
eth, concerning which we would dearly
love to know so much, but of which it is
possible to learn so little. Whether He
were rich or poor, whether He devoted
Himself exclusively to the exercises of re-
lgion or was occupied with other concerns
as well; whether He were, so to say. a
man among men, or lived a strange weird
life as a recluse in the wilderness-these
are queries upon which we may reflect
with profit.
During the period which began when the
Christ Child went down from among the
doctors in the temple to the Galilean home
to prepare for His public life there is only
one bit of definite information concerning
Him, and that is furnished almost acct
dentally in the text.
AAS ROORlC 0AO q hnOnh I'LL All
along were astonished when they heard
His sayings and saw His mighty works.
The record which He made among them in
bygone years was worthy of Him and
ought to have prepared them to expect
large things of Him sooner OF later, but
they could not forget that He had lived
among them as a common artisan. When
He returns to them with all the fame He
had won and was about to spend a brief
reason with fhnuu in or1or fhof He forp1o-
friends and ~neighbors might not be neg
lected In His ministry, they recall His an
tecedents, and they ask with mingled won
der and scorn, us not this the c~arpenter?"
The question establishes the fact that
Jesus had been known as a village carpen-
ter. From the days Of youth until He set
out to do the stupendous work for which
He was sent, He accepted the trade of His
reputed father and was occupied largely
with its ordinary employment. lie be-
Eonged to the working classes" A de-
scendant of the royal David He most sure
ly was, and yet He thought not of the
throne of His renowned ancestor. He was
indeed a king, but not after the worlds
fashion, for He came to be King of men,
to rule the heart and conscience of man
kind. He seems to have had no ambition
to attain unto a lofty station, and the par
~aphernalia of earthly greatness had no
SAAAA liz " A4AnAs LIS uldSLSllul DuIOOCC
was to save the world, both the classes and
the masses, and He would, therefore, iden-
tlfy Himself personally and actively with
the multitudes and not only with a privil-
eyed few. He could teach p~rinceiy virtues
without being a prince, and He would ben
eft the hosts of mankind by allying Him
self with the conditions and experiences of
the many. He understood full well that
no political contrivances could bring. the
Kfnndopal Of GaA ~ fhis n orfL on1 H. oo-
sidered that the needs of the millions could
be served in no other way than by the
moral and spiritual democracy which it
was His mission to establish.
Our Lord was a ~worklngman. 1t must
not, therefore, be supposed that He held a
brief or Numbered a bull Of excommunica-
tion against riches. He had something to
say against mammon worship, and He
warned against the temptations of opu-
lence, but He never branded wealth as es-
sentially evil. He taught emphatieally that
the responsibility of people is IN exact pro-
portion to what they have, and that, mas
much as money entails numerous obliga-
lions, they who nave it can be saved only
through the most devoted regard for their
duties. Some of His disciples were well-to-
do, and both the midnight inquirer and the
good man Of Arimathea were dear to Him.
THE common people heard Him gladly"
but Others were not excluded from Ills
blessing simply because they had posses
sions. The gifts of the Magi at the begin
ming of His career and the rich mans tomb
wherein His mangled corpse reposed at the
last, indicate that His mission included
both the many and the few. He advocated
none of the insane social or political here
sizes which SOM believe in now, but, tax
ing full account of human inequalities, He
taught the world to do its best, to live
man&ully amid the strains and stress of
life, to use the present situation with all
its ills for the glory of God and the we'll
being of the human family. No Croesus
could have been the Son of Man. The real
Son Of Man must be typical and represen-
tative in every noble way. He must be the
brother Of the toiling millions who earn
their bread in the sweat of their face, and
who deal every day with the urgent prob
lem of livelihood.
And yet Jesus did not accept the state
Of squalid poverty. He was no pauper.
The purpose of infinite love which brought
Him hither could not prompt Him to ae-
cept the state of such a forlorn character.
1t would be impossible for any individual
who was poor through his own guilt to be
other than an ~ineongruous and repulsive
figure, or to stand as the model of perfect
manhood. Pauperism Is an evil In every
sense; and while society is bound to help
it, it is too degrading and polluting tc
merit encouragement, and an enlightened
state viii wisely make laws by which, if
possible, to crush it. Guilty poverty should
be rebuked and shamed. The Son Of Man
could choose it not, for then He would
have disgraced Himself and presented a
inferior ideal for His followers. Never by
allowing Himself to be a burden to others
or by becoming an object of public charity,
could He have spoken to men and elevated
their standards and raised the tone of their
thought. Neither d high social degree nor
a discreditable beggary would have been III
harmony with Himself or the interests
which He had in view; for in either case
He would not have been in a position from
which He could touch the minds and hearts
and lives of the nations. The Son of Man
must be where He can speak to all with
equal advantage, where He can reach their
affections and WELD His blessed power
on n the sphere of their practical questions
al 4 activities. He could not nave been one
wno was arrayed in purple and fine linen
and Jared sumptuorsly every day, neither
could He have adopted the portion of a
squalid and self-inaicted poverty. He would
not be either rich or sinfully poor, but an
honest, Industrious royal w~orkingman.
SIS not this the c~arpenter?" I'D this en-
vious and half reproaehful question of His
acquaintance is a happy revelation of the
ideal of the Son of Man for all the world.
1t was in Joseph's shop that He spent all
save three years of His manhood. 1t was
at the bench and with the tools of a me-
chanic that He chose to live in order that
His example might speak lessons of truth
and inspiration to all human souls. The
Scriptures lay stress upon His humble cir
e~umstances, but they do not place Him on
a par with the thriftless sluggard who de-
serves to feel the pinch of want. No eff
fort Of ours can fathom the depths of His
humiliation who, being the Son of God, be-
came the Son of Mary and a carpenter;
who, though He was rich vet for our sakes
He became poor, that we through His pow
erty might be rich, but He knew no indi-
gence. We see this divine Being in Naza-
reth on a ~self-supporting basis, making a
living by mending plows and yokes, re-
pairing houses and doing all the jobs which
fall to a village carpenter; we see Him
working with His hands for bread and
learning by day that way Of labor which
must be trodden by all bread-winners. He
belonged to the grand army of self-respect-
ing w~orkingmen. Not from a palace nor
yet from a howell, but from the workshop
of an artisan does Jesus Of Nazareth make
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