The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1904-01-13
A SERMON FOR SUNDAY
AN ELOQUENT DISCOURSE BY DR.
CHARLES H. PARKHURST.

Get Tired of Being Christians.
! NEW YORK C1TY.-Dr. Charles II. Park.
i hurst, pastor of the Madison Square Pres.
| byterian Church, preached Sunday morning
I on "What Think Ye of Christi" from the
words found in Mark viii:29: "Whcm say
| ye that am" DR.. Parkhurst said among
other things:
Christ means to you something; what is
it?
Christ Himself asks this of His disciples
| 1t is the first Christian catechism. Brief.
but nevertheless it is catesehism, and Is
| Gods warrant for our asking doctrinal
| questions, and His warrant, too, for our
| being prepared to frame some sort Of an
answer to them.
Christ's inquiry here means that He ex-
poets His disciples to have convictions
| convictions in regard to Himself at any
| rate-and definite enough for them to be
| able to state them. Such convictions may
| be more correct, may be less so, but an I'M.
| perfect opinion is better than none, and no
| opinion ends in being perfect that did not
| begin by being imperfect, and sound con.
! viction is blunder convicted and converted.
| Everything human begins in mistake.
Error is the loamy soil out of which truth
| yegetates and blossoms. The history OF
| philosophy, science and theology illustrates
| this principle with distinct cogency that
| is unanswerabie. So that we need not be
| too much afraid of being in error provided
only we cling to our error with tenacity
| that is not simply tenacious, but that Is
also honest and intelligent.
What think ye Of Christ? His appeal
| here is to man considered as an animal who
| thinks, who has ideas, ideas of his own,
| takes impressions from what is shown him,
| told to him, acted out before him, and i'm
| pressions that so groove, themselves into
his substance as to take defined. shape and
shape that is fairly permanent: Just as
objects make an image Of themselves in tine the
| eye, 30 facts, events, truths, make an I'M
age of themselves in the mind-that is,
they do if the mind is an alert mind, sensl-
tive, responsive. A man can, of course,
look without seeing anything; SO he can
hear without learning anything; live in the
| presence of great realities and come away
from them without carrying upon his soul
any of their imprint. An OK can look to-
ward the west at o'clock in the afternoon
without observing any sunset; there ls a
good deal of the bovine still in most of US
that call ourselves human, and that ls why
we behold so little of what is really visible
and why we garner 80 little of the fruit
that falls into our laps. A duck can 60
through the water and still come out dry.
A boy can 90 through college without any
of the. college going through him. Judas
walked three years with Jesus and finished
by being devil.
What think We of Christ? He wants to
find out from His disciples, then, what i'm
what stamp He has put upon them. What
they think of Him will be only another
| name for the record of Himself that His
teachings and demeanor have left printed
upon their intelligences. I am trying to
have you realize that their opinion of Him
that He was trying to get hold of was
,omething definitely traceab.e to the
working influence upon them of His own
presence and activity. He is not interest
ed to know what they imagine Him to be,
nor what they logically INFER He may be,
| is. He has been for some time demonstrat:.
ing Himself to them by word, act and
spirit, and if they are not altogether like
| the duck in the water or the OK before the
| sunset, as presumably they are not, this
demonstration of Himself to them has in
some way told upon them, it has lodged
| something within them, and He wants
| them to give a name tout. Their opinion
of Him was something that He had Him.
| self been the means of making to grow up
in them without their consciously having
not something they had borrowed from,
somewhere nor something that they had
personally striven to acquire.
Opinion, then, if it is anything more
| than mere quotation, copy of what some
one else has thought, is one of the things
that grows. The influence that starts the
conviction will, if it continues to operate,
70 on adding to that convictions strength
and intensity. AS illustrative OF this com.
pare the feebleness and tlmorousness, OF
| the convictions of the disciples when they
| began to believe in Jesus with what those
convictions were when at the end of their
course they laid down their lives in mar.
] tyrdom. That is the natural course Of
| things. It is natural for flower to con-
tinue to grow if it stands in the same sun
| shine and rain as that which first made 1t
begin to grow. If flower comes up out
/ of the ground, grows for a day and then
| is, you know something is the matter
either there is a worm at the root or the
| air too cold or the soil too dry. 1t is not
| natural for it not to 60 on improving upon
| itself, adding to itself.
1t is a sorry condition., then, that man
| ia in, that Christian believer is in, when
he says that he has the same opinion OF
| Christ that he had year ago. It tells a
sad story of the way the year has been
| passing with him. If the vine that IS twin
! ing itself around your trellis clothes itself
| in no more leaves and puts forth no more
| blossoms this summer than it did last sum-
| tous one for plant life or there is some
| thing serious the matter with the vine.
have in this been speaking broadly OF
| conviction in general, but of course the
reference specifically intended is to relig.
ious conviction, and more specifically still
to the conviction contemplated when the
question was asked, What think ye OF
Christi" We doubtless all of us have
some conviction respecting Him; that is,
| odities and belongings either out on the
table or tucked away in some drawer or
| closet or stored in the garret among other
| disused furniture or obsolete brlc-a-brac-
something which we called land properly
calD a belief in Christ, an opinion about
Him, a conviction concerning Him. We
are willing to assume, too, that it may be
| oughly in the terms of Scripture. Yes, but
| granting all that, is there any. of to-day's
| sap in it or is it an antiquity?
| 1t means a great deal to say OF mans
Christian conviction that it is living con-
viction, that it is going on to-day main.
tanning continuous life, freshly ministered
to and daily supplied by communications
from the same divine source that first ini.
tiated it. A dead conviction We have to
lug around-a conviction that is alive takes
US around. 1t means a continuous sense
of the reality of that to which our convic.
tion. fastens. 1t brings everything down
to date and sets it out in front of u.s.
Memory does not have to be appealed to
to recall it, nor books, manuscripts, cate.
chisms rummaged through in order to au.
thenticate it. 1t is an Embedded impulse
tEIt keeps pushing and that goes on push
ing with an ever accelerated pace and a
widening energy while We stand near
enough to Him whom we believe in to have
| His presence made ever more immediate
to US, His reality more real to us. 1t is