The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1904-04-09

have IL more hDuhunhUiI' Wv
John, 1910.
The gospel of Christ has been in
larger part misunderstood and mis-
taught ever since its first proclama-
ton. If the mind of man is slow to
grasp human ideas of high order, 1t
is even slower TO comprehend divine
apocalypse The incubus of inheri-
ted views and prenatal tendencies 1t
is hard for the int.llect and emotions
and will to shake off, even when the
sun of a new day has dawned upon
their waking vision. This incubus
has for centuries lain upon the Chris
tian consciousness, and held it in its
deadly clutches. The soul has been
thrall to disturbed and puzzled sleep,
unable to raise its eyes to the grow
ing light, unable to see Christ IN his
truth and glory.
A dead Christ and an unnatural
Christianity have been the worlds
current misconception Of our Lords
person and teachings. He has been
made the subject of metaphysical sys'
TENS, each of which has claimed to
be Christianity, but no one of which
is applicable to human needs. The
allegiance which has been claimed
for him has been all artificial allie
glance. The tests to which the
Christian faith has been made to
bend, have been narrow and exacting
tests. The regulations by which
that faith is governed have been
harsh and bitter regulations. Me-
chanical observance and doctrine have
been substituted for the life of the
spirit. Irrationality has usurped The
place of reasoning loyalty.
Our Lord must have foreseen this
fatal tendency. He must have un-
derstood this inherent falseness Of
the brute SO deeply imbedded in the
human heart. With sublime patience
he labored with his immediate fol-
lowers, in his effort to make them
know him, and comprehend his gos-
pei. He described himself to them In
many beautiful figures; in none other
80 beautifully as the parable OF the
sheepfold, in which he says, Il am
the good shepherd, and know my
sheep, and am known of mine" He
warneda his DISCIPLES against the false
keepers that would attempt to break
into the fold, to steal, to kill and to
destroy. And then he declared His
own mission in the words: II am |
come that they might have life, and
that they might have it more abun-
dainty"
In the face of all the claims that
have been made, all the tests that
have been applied, all the netaphysi-
,al doctrines that have been added,
Ill the theories of a dead Christ and
4 world dead in sin that have been
devised, in defiance of all the Calvins
and Torquemadas that have arisen to
INIT and srbdue the free Christian
consciousness, all the inquisitions and
Tres of martyrdom, all the persecu
ions, all the bitter, burning shame
II lniquity poured out upon the sim
lie souls who hold the truth; in con-
Of priestcraft and preacher
raft and theological decree; in de-
ial of all that would oppose or him
er or thwart humanity in its victor
Gus quest of truth and in contempt s
the systematic deafness, whose J
old breath has chilled the heart of i
erviceable faith, Christianity re- |
lains what in fact it has always q
cen, the eternal gospel of the risen S
fe! The fact of the resurrection is a
ne central truth of Christianity t
is also the central gladness and in $
,iratlon of the individual lifa. 1t +
proved by the apostolic witness OF 7
le church, attested in the deaths of {
artyrs and saints, proclaimed in the i
eeds, and confirmed IN the inward +
1t is the one undying 81
atty of human life, eternally wit IL
ssed and eternally believed. 1t is n
It only knowledge, it is resultant CT
ergy. st. Paul's prayer was not &C
srely to know Christ, to understand N
e largeness of his teachings, it was u
know Him i'll the power of His ri
I'll
1t is a universal life. Its tumul- I'll
Jus heartbeat is heard throughout
3 uttermost bounds Of space, pulsing su