The Penn's Grove record., 1904-10-07

Greenwood Baptist Church, preached on
Comforting Certainties." The text was
from John it'll: "We speak that we do
know" Dr.. Hull said in the course of his
sermon:
These words were addressed to Nicode-
mus. He was an earnest, honest, yet timid
inquirer after truth. He had come to
Jesus under cover of the darkness. As an
official Of the Jewish S~anhedrim, he did
not dare to be seen talking with the Naza-
rene Teacher. Yet he is convinced in his
own mind that Jesus is a prophet and
that, too, a prophet sent Of God. This
much he confesses 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 marvelously suggestive. Nico-
man. He conformed 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 a spiritual man. He
was not what we would call to-day a con-
verified man. To him Jesus thrice used the
solemn double "Amen, amen, l say unto
thee"
Nicodemus could not understand what
Jesus meant by being born again. He was
unable to see what that new spiritual life
vas of which he himself was lacking. Then
it is that the third double amen of Jesus
introduces the words of the text: verify,
verify, | say unto thee, 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 that it is perfectly proper and
right for US to-day to use His words and
say: 1--WE 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 is a life.
Christ is Christianity. His life in Himself
and in His disciples is the spirit and the
power OF true religion. We nave something
more than opinion; something better than
creeds; we have as one OF the eternal veri-
ties Jesus Christ as the manifestation of
God. 1t has been well said that Christ
either deceived mankind by conscious
fraud or He was Himself deluded and de-
ceived, or He was divine. There is no get
ting out of this trilemma. 1t is inexor-
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: II 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 ~abundantly de-
clare.
The verities of our precious faith cluster
about a person. This person was God,
manifest in the flesh, and for all the CEN
turtles since Bethlehem the noblest, wisest
and hottest have bowed before Him, rever-
emily exclaiming, MY Lord and my Godi'
1t matters not from what point we view
Him, Jesus stands before the world as
mona than II &c enid Of q cafe and
perfect arch that it must meet two require
ments. 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 a time
when He was not;
Boundless, eternal, merciful, the word,
the Sire begot;
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 a divine life. This was a
new thought to Nicodemus. 1t is a new
figure of speech, but a 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 if by all
this they mean uprightness in its perfect
form they are right. But no man has ever
lived who Las been thus upright. "AI
have sinned and come short of the glory Of
God" The history of mankind shows that
,o ,o,,rk 0o4 aaalx h01fpa-e -, nrAar 70 Gn1
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 a 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
turtles of Christianity have manifested. In
physics we affirm confidently that every Ell
feet must have an adequate cause This
also is true in the realm of spirituality. II
prosecutors are changed into preachers, II
those once thoroughly depraved have been
nodded into recognized saints, If the dregs
of society have been transformed into I'M
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. 1t is folly to say we do not
know the power.
Twice each day our city is washed by a
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 resistless floods. 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 ex-
plain to you this attraction of gravitation,
then he, too, is puzzled. Yet he knows the
power, knows it so well he can measure 1t
and use it. So, too, with Christianity, and
its power. We can recognize its force and
use it, but its secret is the secret of life.
Like all force, in its origin it is a mystery.
Tennyson says:
"We have but faith we cannot know,
For knowledge is of things we see"
This is not quite true. knowledge is Of
things we feel, as well as OF things we see.
Many things we know that we cannot see.
We never saw a pain, but we should call
him a fool who should say we never felt OF
knew a pain. We know the power of the
Christ life in the believer, because we nave
felt it, and sometimes when this Christ life
in us has its perfect freedom we are able
to say with Paul: 81 can do all things in
Christ who strengthened me"
This certainty concerning the power OF
the Christ life can be attained by all who
will fulfill the conditions. There must be
q surrender to Christ and trust in Christ
You canno have the sunbeam without the
sun, You cannot have the power of Christ
without the Christ Himself. The apostle
says: "Chriss is in you the hope of glory"
and it is certainly true that Christ must
be in us the power for glory. Thus the
centre of our gertrude is Christ Himself.
We know Him. We know His power. 1t
has been exercised upon us and in US. Like
the once blind beggar, we exciaim: "One
thing / know, whereas, / was blind, now /
see" There was no note of uncertainty
about this; there should be no note Of un-
certainty about our utterances concerning
our faith or concerning our own position.
But in this age of uoubt many Christians
are SO frightened out Of sanity that they
are afraid to say even of the deepest .ex-
perienees of the soul, 81 know Not so
Paul, facing death: Il know whom / have
believed" Not so John, the beloved dis
ciple, declaring, 1--WE know that we have
passed from death unto life. We know
that when He shall appear we shall be like
Him." 1t is not modesty, but lack of faith
which PROMPTS Christians to saw. az hone