The Chickasha daily express. (Chickasha, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1899-current, 1905-02-04
rrue NobIIlty.


~ not this the Carpenters son?-st
Matthew, Kill, 50.
The question, Is this not the Car.
penter's Son?' in many a situation in
life has been asked with the sneering
tone that cuts deeper than a 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 insinuators ap-
piled 1t to the greatest and purest
soul born into this earthly sphere. The
question these former neighbors Of
Jesus asked is the query OF the world
the query that those who are tainted
and permeated with the worlds stand
ards have ever ready on their lips.
Our Savior had preached to these
people; He had promulgated His doc
trine; He had even healed the sick.
giving them a manifestation Of His
miraculous power. Yet in the face Of
all these thingg and even though they
marveled. they allowed 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 #: they
judged the magnificent portraiture by
the temporary frame of II. 1t did NOT
seem to them that in the carpenters"
son there could possibly be anything
OF the Divine. for they looked no deep
er than the fact that He was merely
the Son OF the Carpenter. and that His
kinsmen we're 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-
hend His true greatness, that there
were those whose gaze from the first
penetrater the Divine mystery and
love of His glorious personality and
made ii the guiding star of their ex-
istence. They did not ask lis not this
the Carpenters SOM" but they said:
Here is truth. and love, and right
eousness. and spirituality, and the
truly Divine, and in these things are
life" They did not ask, "Who are
Thy kinsmen2' when he said, Follow
me" but followed and were 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 excel
lence that endures. The former have
seen the ideals they clung 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
and vindicate the choice OF those who
delve deep to find them.
My friends who read, is there not
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 follower Of Jesus
Christ should seek for himself not the
recommendations that merely pass
current, but those deeper and rarer
qualities founded on the rock? In the
kingdom of heaven there is no room
for riches or power or position or for
any she'll that serves to cover the
plain actualities of the naked sim
plicity 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 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 eyanescent 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 II be hum
BILE. yet will 1t. provided 1t be quail.
fed thus, stisN be noble and great ard
worthy of association and emulation.
II is the possession of these things
not the acceptance by the world
which makes man worthy of the
judgment Of posterity and OF that
deeper searching Of the all penetrating
eye of his Maker and God.--Andrew +.
uuderhiiL