Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1904-10-19
TRUE NOBILITY.
BY REV. Andrew p. ,nderairr.


BY Rev. Andrew r. 'nderbilI
Is not this the Carpenters Son?-St.
Matthew Kill. 80.
The question, us this not the Car
penter's Sony'' in many situation in
life has been asked with the sneering
tone that cuts deeper than blade Of
steel, and the judgment this question
insinuates has time and again been
laid by man upon his fellow men ever
since those first unjust Instructors APP
piled it to the greatest and purest soul
born into this earthly sphere. The ques-
ton these former neighbors Of Jesus
asked is the query OF the world-the
query that those who are tainted and
Sermeated with the world $ standards
have ever ready on their lips.
Our Savior had preached to these
people; He had promulgated His doc
trine; He had gwen healed the sick,
giving them a Manifestation Of His
miraculous power. Yet in the face of
all these things and even though they
marveled, they allow 81 their minds to
be influenced by the recollection that
He was OF humble origin and suffered
this to determine their final judgment
of Him. They weighed the value Of
His life by the mere shell Of 1t; they
judged the magnificent portraiture by
the temporary frame of it. 1t did not
seem to them that in the carpenters"
son there could possibly be anything Of
the divine, for they looked no deeper
than the fact that He was merely the
Son of the Carpenter, and that His
kinsmen were the people whose hum
BILE origin and ordinary characteristics
they had already observed.
But as we peruse the holy gospel
further we perceive, Notwithstanding
these people and many others Of the
time in which he lived failed to appre-
bend his true greatness, that there
were those whose gaze from the arst
penetrated the divine mystery and love
OF his glorious personality and made
it the guiding star of their existence.
They did not ask, us not this the Car
penter SOM" but they said: Here
is truth, and love, and righteousness,
and spiritually. and the truly divine,
and in these things are life" They
did not ask "Who are Thy klnsmen"'
when he said, Follow me-" but fol
lowed and We're steadfast TO the end,
You know what the result has been
for those who propounded the question
of our text and for those who took the
deeper view, ignoring the standards of
the world for the excellence that en-
dures. The former have seen the ideals
they chung to-the mere opinions of
the little community and day In which
they lived-pass away and mingle with
the dust, but the latter have found
that the eternal years of God only add
! life to the great principles Of right and
| holy conduct aud vindicate the choice
of those who dUlve deep to find them
My friends who read, IS there not q
mighty lesson for us to learn from this
the lesson that the Christian should
Judge his fellow man not for what his
situation in life may be. but for what
he is? That the followe' of Jesus
|. Christ should seek for himself not the
recommendations that merely pass ctr
rent but those deeper and rarer cuali-
ties founded on the rock? In the king
dom of heaven there is no room for
riches or power or position or for any
shell that serves to cover the plain
actualities of the naked simplicity of
our souls. We shall be known and
Judged there for what we really are
Let me put, then. the plain question;
Is 1t not better in our lives to turn to
ward the genuine rather than to the
artificial? Is it not better to seek the
sphere and the people where love and
true friendship and solid worth are
found rather than TO follow after the
shallow judgments an evanescent so
cial criterion sets seal upon?
Nothing can be low or unseemly or
vulgar. provided it is pure and right
eous and true. and though 1t be hum
BILE. yet will it, provided it be qualified
thus, still be noble and great and
worthy of association and emulation,
1t is The possession of these things,
not the acceptance by the world, which
makes a man worthy of the judgment
of posterity and of that deeper search
ing of the all penetrating eye of bis
Maker and God.