The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-05-14


 as a university preacher, and Mr Roeke- feller had just been there and made a talk, and he told them that Dr liar pers plans for the enlargement and eX tension of the university were so and so, and so and so, and he said they would be carried out, and when he said that. the vast audience of two or three thousand people made the very heavens ring with their shout, because when he said they would be carried out, they knew It. be- cause back of that was all the wealth of the whole Standard oil corporation. Suppose I had said it? They would not have fluttered a handkerchief because I would not have any bank account back of it.
 I tell you 1t depends upon what is back of you when you speak. Now this de- spised Nazerene, this teacher of teachers, this man who sometimes had no where to lay His head, who spake as never man spake, spoke not by the authority of any government. There was no army to be mobilized at His command, and no navies to reach the high seas when He issued an order. He did not have file of sol diers at His back Oftentimes His own disciples followed Him afar off but he spoke by authority-not the authority of any earthly government as He was com
 
 spoke by the authority of absolute and eternal truth, and when He spoke the nations heard and the generations will give heed until all shall sit at His feet and learn wisdom from lips that are in- fallible.
 Christ Never Argued.
 Now our Lord as a teacher never ar gued He never said because this is true and that Is true, this must be true" He never laid down terms and marched on to conclusion. He stated, He illustrated, He commanded, He said: "I am the way. the truth and the life" We, by the processes of reasoning reach conclusion, but when we have reached it cannot be absolutely sure that we are right, because of our limitations and our lack of knowledge. Our Lord saw the end from the beginning. He was the Alpha and Omega of all knowledge. all wisdom Our Lord never quoted author ity to support any proposition that He ever laid down, or any statement that He made.
 You go into the court house and hear lawyer speak He lays down legal proposition, and the very next thing he says What are the authorities?' And he runs through a line of decisions in order to get the concensus of legal opinion to sustain his decision Our Lord some- times said 'It Is written" but only to show that prophecy had been fulfllled that the Holy Spirit had been vindcat- | ed: that He had uttered His voice In | the years gone by, and that God him self was glorified in these facts of hls- tory
 He never showed passion in speech His was the serene compassion of omnis- cence: one who knew all things from the end to the beginning. and from the karev ft1ur fp bn an1 place. our Lord only taught essential truth.
 Danger of Speculation. I said He never argued. I say now He never speculated Do you know nearly all our troubles come over matters of speculation. The great fundamental, eter- nal verities are not the ones that cause so much contention, separation and alien atlon It Is so in the history of the church. Matters of mere eccleslasticism cause differences among people more than the great fundamental verties of life, on which we rely and which determine our destiny.
 How many dry books have been writ ten on the subject of water in Bap- tism?" How many boxs have been writ ten on the subject of apostolic success sion?-a thing that Bishop Pierce said was a fable without having the credit or DelflS culHlIBlN utNlSths fAuu dllfi all. what does it amount to? What great principles are ever settled thereby. Our Lord taught those great doctrines that are applicable to mans life and are transmutabe into human experience. Those great truths that are written on the tablets of the soul.
 He taught great fundamental doctrine. Sometimes are almost disappointed even to vexaton in reading the scriptures that they stop just where they do; we wish that He had said a little more, lifted aside the veil and revealed just one ,fact That would have been to grat- fly curiosity
 Character Building. Our Lord only taught those things nec- essary to our character building, that would stand the test or eternal years and not to gratify anybody's idle curiosity Did you ever notice these people who claim 10 have communication with the spirit world, what sort of teaching they give to man? I have read several books called "rhe clock struck one" and two" and so on. and all sorts of communlca- tions from the spirit world. and think they are about mere matters of idle cu- riosity. They are not the great funda- mental doctrines of Moses and the prophets and the great verties given to