Milford chronicle., 1906-11-16

l will be his God, and he shall be my
son." We are made after his image.
The Greatest Love.
You remember how tenderly Jesus
impressed this idea on his disciples.
He told them that the union between
his nature and that of his people was
as close as that of the vine and its
branches. And again he returned to
the thought in that last solemn hour
of his parting before he suffered.
Christ is about to leave his disciples.
The shadows of the crucifxiOn are
falling over him. He looks on the men
who had sat at his feet so often in the
past and speaks these beautiful words:
Greater love hath no man than this
that a man lay down his life for his
friends. Ye are my friends if We do
whatsoever 1 command you. Hence
forth l call you not servants, for the
servant knOweth not what his Lord
dOeth, but 1 have called you friends,
for all things that have heard of my
Father l have made known to you"
Cannot you, my brother, interpret
these sentences in the language of
your own life? You go and hire a
servant in your kitchen. She may be
very good and faithful, but she is not
your friend. She cooks your meals, she
cleans your room, but she does not en-
ter the holy of HOLES of your heart.
You do not tell her your secrets. You
do not let her become part of your
most sacred joys. But it is so different
with your intimate friends. 1t is diff
ferent with the relationship which ex-
sts between a father and a son or
husband and wife. In that holy re-
we live in the closest union. |
We share each others sorrows. We |
i've in each others joys. We go hand |
n hand and heart in heart So God |
iays: IF you only obey me and be- |
'ome pure. as l would have you pure, |
ogether we shall live in holy fellow |
hip. We shall be friends. We shall |
Iwell together as friends forever and
'ver and ever. We are made in the
anne image
Now, my friends, are we ready to
hey Gods will and become like unto
imself through the redemption and
he blood of Jesus Christ? We have
cen talking about. man as God first
reated him in his purity and simple
y. But sin has come into the world
nd so uniformed us that we are far
rom perfect. The divine image Is soil
and incrusted with the mire Of sin.
s we say of a man who has yielded
} the power of drink that his mother
-Ould scarcely recognize in the sodden,
lotched vfsage the face of the child ,
le cherished in infancy, so we do not
se Gods image in the sinful man; but,
J Paul said to the people whom he !
Id led to Christ. "Such were some of
Ou, but We are washed, but We are
notified, but We are justified" And !
, says, too, that they who behold las J
a mirror the glory of the Lord are
Ianged into the same image" so the
lage that is Overlaid or lost is re-
ored or brought to light by Christ. :
Christ says. "Ye are my friends If We I
whatsoever l command you" That Z
cans, "You shall again be stamped in
= image if you will accept my atone :
emit and my love and sacrifice" Will Z
u do it? VIII you today throw your 8
If upon his mercy and become pure, y
he is pure, and dwell with him on :
nth and dwell with him forever and +
er? Jesus said, 81 am the way" q
Ill you take that way to become like
to himself and dwell with him in =
aven as his friend throughout eter- Z
"? The opportunity is yours If you 81
Il accept him, for God will recreate ~