St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1905-04-05
The Evangelism of Jesus.


sti VI. Tuesday evening Feb. z, 1851
0''' from the Vermont Missionary.
npor the Son of Man is come to seek
= ~ save that which was lost" Luke
1910. u osL uou 80 MOTTO,
is This, that Jesus Christ himself followed
- - he ministry a constantly widening
ig ~ niT The conception of humanity as a
I .rSoIe is but family present in the earlier
W.T. Of Christ's ministry. Thus Christ
t pra mon one occasion distinctly, II am
S@ cent but to the lost sheep of the house
i, Israel" And again he said to his dis
o;niss "Go not into the way of the Gentiles
ord into any city of the Samaritans en-.
az .,nN va NOT. but 90 rather to the lost sheep
oT+be house of Israel" But as the min.
;s+rv of Tesus progressed and developed
he own sense of its catholicity increased
ill presently he speaks no longer with
Publications. Wherever man is there
Christ would be. Wherever there is lost
virtre. honor, peace, purity, truth and
fa;th there the evangelist comes. And
The final definition of the ministry that
Iesus qives us, is the one found in the
cords "The Son of man is come to seek
and TO save that which is lost" What
Ied to this broadening of view in the life
of our Lord? l will suggest three answers
First the education of Christ's own soul
The true teacher is always learning
when he ceases to learn he ceases to teach
Trsus speaks of himself as speaking only
that which he heard, the revelation I'M.
narted to him from above. No truth ever
visits the mind OF man that does not
hiring with it the element of description
and need Tor re-adjustment. Jesus be.
can his ministry with the great truth o
fbe Fatherhood of God. sour Father
who art in heaven" The Father who is
"kind to the unthankful Also" some
times think that nothing that Christ said
was so startling and revolutionary as
that one phrase kind to the unthankful
Also" For with that one phrase Christ
DESTROYED the whole structure of Judaism.
He made it impossible for man to think
ofGod as a tribal God, caring only for an
elect and select people. Thus the spirit
of Iesus was educated into the large con.
ception of humanity as whole. From
the Fatherhood of God there flows the
natural corolary, the brotherhood oil
man.
In the life of our Lord there was
also what may be called the education of
the event. Enter ye not into any city
OF the Samaritans," was his first instruct
ion to the disciples. But events taught
Iesus different view OF the Samaritans.
Here are ten lepers cleansed, Zine hasten
away, careless and forgetful; one only re-
turns to thank God and he was a Samar-
itan. The man who helped the wounded
traveller was not the priest or the levite
but the Samaritan. Yet again Jesus finds
himself outside the city OF Samaria talk
ing to a woman of the city who was de.
based but in whose heart there is a chord
that responds to the finger Of Jesus. And
He tells her that the hour is coming
when they shall neither on this mountain
nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father.
that the true worshipers shall worship
the Father in spirit and in truth" He
entered the city, and the Samaritans "be-
sought Him that He would tarry with
them two days" Do you see how He
broke his own instruction, his own
command? Events brought,wisdom. We
don't educate ourselves altogether, we
are educated by events. Jesus Christ
learned to think Of the Samaritan as part
Of the great brotherhood, to whom he
was sent.
Then there was the education of pity.
Jesus looked upon the multitude and was
sad and had great compassion. A great
multitude is always sad sight. | never
look upon sea of human faces but there
comes home to me some sense OF the
tragedy OF humanity. One reads so many
secrets and sorrows and great anxieties
in the burrows of the human face. And
when you look upon the multitude, who
stops to ask, Who is a Jew and who is
Samaritan? Who is an American and
who is an Englishman? 1t is humanity.
1t is the pity and tragedy of humanity!
Jesus felt the pity of the crowd: that was
the third element. The Jesus OF the last
year of the ministry seems to be differ
ent Jesus from the first year OF the min
istry. In the last year there is holy pass
ion, there are heart breaking reproaches,
bitter tears over Jerusalem. 1t is no long
er calm beatitudes beside the Galillean
lake. No, for He sees Hisgoal. He knows
it is the Cross! How am l Strengthened
till the work be done !" He would fain
gather before He goes all mankind to His
bosom in one embrace. "And if | be lifted
up will draw all men unto myself" II
Christ had remained only the teacher OF
the Gallllean lake, there would have been
no redemption for you and me. He would
have added something to the worlds wis
dom but would never have broken up the
depths of the worlds heart. Spiritual
truth will never save any one alone. 1t
is not by instructive education that men
are saved. No! You have to seek for it,
suffer for it, die for it. You have to COM
pei their reluctant souls. 1t was not the
wisdom of Jesus that made Him the
worlds Saviour. Not sonnet thing that He
taught but something that He did, some
thing in His life, something in Himself.
The Son OF man came not to teach, but
to seek and to save the lost.
Now tor the application. | want to
ask you to try to bring home to your
selves what these three suggestions mean
III your life. LIST. The education OF the
Spirit of Christ. How gradually from
the conception of the fatherhood of God
the truth broadens out until the whole
brotherhood of man is seen. 1t is no
longer question of Jew and Samaritan.
1t is man Christ dies for. This means
that Christ thought out this truth to its
inevitable issue. Have you ever thought
out the truth of the fatberhood OF God,
to it's inevitable issue? You have heard
plenty of sermons, sung plenty OF hymns.
read the poetry OF Whittier, you can
quote passage after passage from your
American poets and prose writer's, full