Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1904-11-17
SERMON FOR SUNDAY.
AN ELOQUENT DISCOURSE ENTITLED
...1MiTAToRs OF GOD"
-yER q :

The Rev. DIR. John Reid Answers the
somewhat Marrow Criticism That
Christianity is Narrowdn Its Spirit and
Contracting in It's Effect.
BROOKLYN, N. Y.-Dr. John Reid. pas.
tor of the Memorial Presbyterian Church.
preached an eloquent sermon Sunday
morning. His text was taken from Ephe-
SLAMS wi: "Be We therefore followers OF
God,~as dear children" Dr.. Reid said:
The Revised Version gives a better and
stronger translation: "Be We therefore imi-
tators of God, as beloved children" Imi-
tators, as children. Being children of God,
be We imitators of God.
Truth is practically always achievement,
superstructure, the keystone, a last stroke.
There are what the ~metaphysicians call
Immediate truth" that is, truth in con-
nection with which our knowledge is intui-
tive, and where it comes in as the direct
and undeniable testimony of the senses,
but as a general thing, acquired truth is
the result of work done, the issue of a bat
tie which has been won. In other words,
truth has to conquer before it can COM
mand. But in conflict or warfare of what
soever kind, disguise is ever a worse foe to
meet than denial. And I suppose that
what is frequently affirmed is probably
true; namely, that the Christian religion
has always suffered more from those who,
sometimes Intentionally and sometimes un-
Intentionally, have perverted and misrep-
rensented it, than it has ever suffered from
those who nave even formally opposed it.
There, for instance, is the somewhat trite
criticism that Christianity as a scheme is
narrow in it's spirit and contracting in its
effect; under it as a system men do not at
tain the highest possible development, and,
therefore, they cannot display the fairest
a~l fo1o% fho~ &c 1,,r,o- oh No a%ors ~ do.
velopes the passive and uninfuential, more
than the puissant and productive. elements
Of our nature; it keeps it's hand OF life's
brake to check and hold in, rather than
OF life's throttle valve to open and let go;
it is in face a lion, but in heart a deer; the
thou shalt nots outnumber the thou shafts;
there is an unmistakable flavor of pusil-
which nothing every wholly removes from
many of its principles and professions; re-
pentance, humbleness, meekness, forgive
ness of injuries, REIMBURSEMENT of rights,
submission to what canno be seen. accept
ance of what cannot be known-these are
not among the heroic virtues. All this has
been felt and expressed, not onlv by the
full and thoughtful. And certainly it is all
forceful. If it were true, it might be even
fatal.
Yet from the beginning to end this whole
that Christianity is narrow in its
spirit and contracting in its effects moves
on a misconception. Human life can never
be bound by a lifeless process. It is of ne
linked to a living Person. And in
Christianity, it is the Almighty God who
and expected to ascertain His will,
to keep His word, to lay hold of His
strength. to walk in His light, and so to
adorn His doctrine in all things. It is thu
example Of God that is published as the
pattern. 1t is the purity of God that is
put forth as the test. It is the will of
God that is prescribed as the law. It is
motive power. It is the glory of God that
is pointed to as the end. It is the appro-
baton Of God that is urged as the inspira-
ton and the sweet reward. Likeness to
Godhood-that is Christianity's ideal of
manhood; likeness; not simply a represen-
tatlon, but a reproductions; an image; a
which has its place, not in a one
ness or identity Of attributes, but in a one.
ness or community Of life. In Him we live
and move and have our being, said Paul,
with all clearness and confidence. "For
me to live is Christ" said the same great
to the Gentiles. Literally, for to
me, that is, in my case. in so far as I am
personally concerned. life is Christ. In my
view and understanding Of the term. life is
LiohAO " I'LL ISt. Whatever
of life, or of time, or of talent, or of
strength I have, it is all His. 81 live. vet
not 1. burt Christ liveth in me-" That
mans great endeavor was, as near as pos
sible. to reproduce in his life the life of
his Master.
So here his exhortation to all others:
BE we therefore imitators of God, as be-
loved children" We have all known chill
who were so impressed with the char
acteristics of their fathers that we could
never hear their form of expression or see
their modes of action without thinking of
those from whom their opinions and con-
duct had received direction and form. We
chips Of the old block; the father
lives again in the son. Just so the true life
of the Christian is, potentially at least.
simply a reproduction of the life of the
"Imitators, as children of God" What.
ever the sentiments we may entertain re-
the claims of aristocracy or the
rights of democracy, we all make much of
ancestry: The son of a lord may become a
lord. The daughter of a queen is of the
blood royal. Everywhere men believe in
associst:on- Family glory is a good intro. |
duetion and a great nneip TO any mai who
lawfully point to it as his. The valid |
lty OF that introduction is never cues