Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1905-10-05

never Ueeu taught III the way that
Jesus taught it. No prophet Or teach
er before Jesus had ever drawn such
inferences from the belief, or made it
the basis of such an appeal to mans
faith in his own spiritual and moral
possibilities. Jesus shows everywhere
that He had a deep and mistaken
faith in the essential divineness and
worth OF all men, whatever mans
character might be, whatever the out
ward and accidental deformity of the
life. No matter how far the prodigai
might have wandered from his faith
er's home, he was still his father
child. He might deny his birthright
and eat with the swine. but the faith
er's love never ceases and never
Wanes.
Jesus. faith in the essential divine
ness of man is shown in His treatment
OF all men. especially of the outcast
and the sinner. He loved the. outcast,
the fallen. "the lost sheep of the house
Of Israel" He had compassion upon
them, because He knew how they had
been tempted, how they had been
taught and brought up, how they had
been neglected and left to wander ''like
sheep without shepherd,' losing
luSuSS1NCS III tue W1tueIuSSS anu Hiss.
ing the true goal cf life. Oh, the di-
vine compassion Of Jesus FOR man, the
deep-veined humanity, the eternal love
of the Father breathing through Him
and looking out through His pure eyes!
It is this last that has made His name
forever blessed, and turned the hearts
of the lost and fallen sons of men to
Him as the dearest pledge and symbol
nf fha nfn mol
that is at the heart and is the great
heart of the world.
What does Jesus say about sin ?
Strange to say, very little. Jesus
never speaks about sin in formal or
theological way. He saw it; He felt
it's presence and witnessed it's degrade
ton of the lives Of men. He saw it as
the negation of goodness, as the alb
sence of the abundant life, the blind
ness of the lost child, the impotence OF
the ignorant and foolish, wounding
themselves against the terrible rocks
of the world. But of Original sin,' y
of 'stotal depravity,'' Of a ''fall of the
those doctrines of sin that form the
basis of the entire theological "scheme
of salvation" there is not syllable
from the lips of Jesus.
Jesus everywhere and always as
sumes the essential divineness of the
human soul. The lost sheep belongs
to the fold of the Good Shepherd; the
lost coin, though battered and bruised,
is Of precious metal, and bears the
image and superscription Of the king;
the lost boy-the prodigal-is his faith
er's child, no matter how far he has
wandered or how deep his moral
degradation.
What did Jesus teach about "Salva-
tion?" How is the lost restored? How
is the prodigal brought back to his
fathers home?
What does Jesus say about this? Is
there any elaborate creed. or any
creed. to be accepted? Does He tell
us of any scheme of salvation or of
any atoning sacrifice? Not a single
word. The whole thing is simple and
natural, and true to the fundamental
facts and laws of the moral and spir-
itual constitution Of man. Take the
parable of the "lost sheep" and the
s'prodigal SON." How does the Good
| Shepherd seek His lost sheep? How
does the Father restore the lost child?
The Divine mercy and love seeks and
Influences the children of men in
countless ways. God seeks man in the
very fact that sin itself is foreign to
mans higher nature. The life OF sill,
of alienation from goodness, is disap-
pointment- Its pleasures are apples of
| Sodom. The evil course, in the end,
exhausts itself The prOdigal gets to
the end Of his resources; then he re-
calls that he is his fathers child. It
is so with all kinds Of sin. In the laws
of mans moral and spiritual being, 1t
| is ordained that there shall be reac-
ton Of the divine. the good in man,
against the evil within and around
/, him. I do not know how far men may
90 toward destroying the possibilities
of good in themselves. No finite mlnd
can dogmatize on such question. !
only know that Jesus never despaired,
and that He teaches us to despair OF no
| man.
In seeking and restoring sinful men
to their true lives. the ministry OF q