The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1904-03-23
"A SERMON FOR SUNDAY
AN INTERESTING DISCOURSE BY THE
REV. DR.. H. c. SWENTZEL
Subject: The Divine Carpenter-Christ Be-
longed to the Grand Army of Self-Re-
spectiug Workingmen-His Lie Con-

rector OF st. L1keS Cnurcn, CHnton ave-
| nue., near Fulton street. The subject was
! The Divine Carpenter" and the text St;
Mark vi:3: "Is not this the carpenter"
DR.. Swentzel said:
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 80 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.
ligion or was occupied with other concerns
! as well; whether He were, so to say. q
man among men, or lived strange weird
life as a recluse in the wilderness-these
are queries upon which we may reflect
with profit.
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.
The people who had known Him all
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 common artisan. When
| he returns to them with all the fame He
| had won and was about to spend 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 and scorn, "Is not this the carpenter
Tho ruocfio, oct oh1i chpc tho faot 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
ly was, and yet He thought not Of the
throne of His renowned ancestor. He was
indeed king, but not after the worlds
| fashion, for He came to be King Of men,
J to rule the heart and conscience of man
kind. He seems to have had no ambition
to attain unto lofty station, and the par
| aphernalia Of earthly greatness, had no
was to save the world, both the classes and
the masses, and He would, therefore, iden.
tify Himself personally and actively with
the multitudes and not only with privil-
| 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 well that
no political contrivances could bring the
kingdom of God to this earth, and He con.
sidered that the needs of the millions could
| be served in no other way than by the
moral and spiritual democracy which it
| was His mission to establish.
Our Lord was q work1ngman. It must
not, therefore, be supposed that He held
| brief or thundered bull of excommunlca-
ton against riches. He had something to
say against mammon worship, and He
| lence, but He never branded wealth as es-
sentially evil. He taught emphatically that
the responsibility of people is in exact pro-
! portion to what they have, and that, lnas-
much as money entails numerous obllga-
] 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 Lis
blessing simply because they had posses
sions. The gifts of the Magi at the begin
| ming of His career and the rich mans tomb
| wherein His mangled corpse reposed at the
last, indicate that His mission included
both the many and the few. He advocated
none Of the insane social or political mere
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
lem of livelihood.
And vet Jesus did not accept the state
of squalid poverty. He was no .pauper.
The purpose of infinite love which brought
Him hither could not prompt Him to ac-
cept the state of such o forlorn character.
1t would be impossible for any individual
who was poor through his own glit to be
other than an incongruous and repulslve
figure, or to stcnd as the model of perfect
manhood. Pauperisn is an evil in every
sense; and while society is bound to help
it, it is too degrading and polluting GO
merit encou agement, and an enlightened
state will wisely make laws by which, if
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 o burden to others
or by becoming an object of public charity;
could He have spoken to men and elevated
their standards and raised the tone OF their
thought. Neither high social degree nor
discreditable beggary would have been III
harmony with Himself or the interests
which He had in view; for in either case
He would mot have been in q position 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 their
affections and WELD His blessed power
over the sphere of their practical questions
and activities He could not have been one
who was arrayed in purple and fine linen
and Jared sumptuously every day, neither
could He h.7e adopted the portion OF a
squalid and self-inflicted poverty. he would
not be either rich or sinfully poor, but an
honest, industrious, royal workingman.
.Is not this the carpenter" in this en-
vious and half reproaehful question of His
acquaintances is happy revelation of the
ideal OF the Son of Man for all the world;
It was in Joseph's shop that He spent all
save three years of His manhood. 1t was
at the bench and with the tools of me.
chanic that He chose to live in order that
His example might speak lessons of truth
and inspiration to all human souls. Ihe
Scriptures lay stress upon His humble cir.
cumstances, but they do not place him on
a par with the thriftless sluggard who de-
serves to feel the pinch of want. No ef-
fort of ours can fathom the depths of His
humiliation who, being the Son of God, be-
came the Son of Mary. and carpenter;
who, though He was rich yet for our sakes
He became poor, that we through His .pov-
erty might be rich, but He knew no lndi-
cence. We see this divine Being in Naza-
reth on a self.supportng basis, making a