Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1904-03-10
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DIVINE CARPENTER.
OUR REGULAR SUNDAY SERMON

sOUR REGULAR SUNDAY SERMON
eat fsasS3 ss------ s------ : 49, -
A. Strong Sermon On the Earth,v
Life and @ Human Labor of the
aTWorld's S Savior. 4l8g'ei :.
ss&L fEsAfaf4 i al-a - aeH ;s5 As
BRooKLYN. n. .Y.-An interesting and
forcefm sermon was preached Sunday
morning by Rev: DR.. Henry G: C:z.llSwentzef,
rector of st. Luke's Church; Clinton ave-
n1ue, n1ue, near Fulton street. The. subject was
."The Divine Carpenter" and the text st.
Mark vi:3:E rs not this sthe carpenter?''
DR.: Swentzel said sv..5 q, sse.'.
The glorious Son Of Man was mechanic.
IT 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-
hglon or was occupied with other concerns
as well; whether He were, so. to- say
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. sIg-.l
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 acci-
dentally in the text. W gsf st9as =,
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. or later, but
they could not forget that He had lived
among them as acommon artisan. When
he returns to them with all the fame He
mad won and was about to spend a brief
season with them in order that His former
friends and neighbors might not be neg
lected in His ministry, they recall His an
tecedents, and they ask with mingled won
der.an scorn, Is not this the carpenter?"
The question establishes the fact that
Jesus had been known as 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. He be-
longed to the working classes" A de.
scendant of the royal. David, He most sure
y was, and yet He thought not of the
throne of His renowned ancestor. He was
indeed king, but not after the world s
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
aphernaEa Of earthly greatness had no
charms for Him. His masterful purpose
was to save the world, both the classes and
the masses, and He would, therefore, iden-
4tify himself personally and actively with
the multltudes and not only with privii-
eyed few He could teach princely virtues
without being 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 we'll that
no political contrivances could bring the
kingdom Of God to this earth, and He con-
be served in no other way than by the
moral and spiritual democracy which it
was His mission to establish. Ss2'Ef =
- Our lord was workingman. / It must
not, therefore, be supposed that He held a
brief or thundered 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 emphatical1y that
the responsibility of people is in exact pro-
portion to- what they have, and that, mas
much as money entails numerous obliga-
'tions, they who have 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 His
blessing simply because they had posses
sions. The gifts of the Magi at the begin
ming of His career and the rich mans tomb
last, indicate that His mission included
both the many and the few. He advocated
none OF the insane social or political here
sizes which some believe in now, but, tax
ing full account of human inequalities, He
taught the world to do its best, to live
manfully 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
n And yet Jesus did not accept the state
of squaid poverty. He was no lpauper.
The purpose Of infinite love which brought
" hitheF could not prompt Himato ac-
FScept the state of such forlorn character.
s1t.would be impossible for any individual
who was poor through his own guilt to be
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 to
merit encouragement, and an enlightened
state will wisely make laws BY which, il
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 an
inferior ideal for His followers. Never by
allowing Himself to. be burden to others
or by becoming an object of public charity.
could He have spoken to men and elevated
their standards and raised thestone of their
thought Neither, high social degree nor
discreditable beggary would have been il,
harmony with Himself or the Interests;
which He hadein view; for in either case
He would not have been in asposition 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 heir
affections and WELD His blessed power
over the sphere of their practicaF questions
7and activities. He could not have been one
who was arrayed in purple and fine linen
and fared sumptuously every day, neither
could He have adopted the portion of a
squalid and self-inhicted poverty.aHc would
not be either rich or sinfully. poor, but a.,
honest industrious, royal nottingham.
tsIs not this the carpenter ~ In, this en-
viops and half reproaehful question Of His
acquaintances is 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. It waa