The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-02-26
REV. ". H. BAGBY
RETURNS TO zion
breaches Sermon in the Pulpit Which
He Occupied Four Years
Ago.
ON HIS WAY TO MONTANA
WELCOMED HEARTILY BY HIS
OLD CONGREGATION.

After an absence of four years, Rev.
William II. Bagby took again last night
his old pulpit at the First Christian
church, Fourth South and Third East
streets. A large number of Rev. Mr..
Bagby's friends were in the congrega-
ton to welcome him home for the
church was filled TO overfiowing. Mr..
Bagby is on his way from Cleburn,
Tex, where he has been for the past
year, to take charge of the Christian
church at Missoula, Mont He will re-
main in Salt Lake for week or so
and will then go north.
Il am glad TO be back among my old
friends, If even for a short while said
Mr.. Bagby after he had delivered his
sermon. MY welcome here has been
one which might make any man proud
My friends seem to have remembered
me well, for they have turned out i'll
force to welcome home the traveller
Four years is a long time to be gone,
and in that time many changes may
occur. l note that Salt Lake is still
Salt Lake, and her people just about
the same good sort they were when |
was here. I see many changes in a
business way, and / see many new
faces. The mud is just the same,
though.
From Salt Lake I went to Phoenix,
AriZ. ] was out on the desert, so TO
speak. for two years. I then took
rest for a short while, and later went
into Oklahoma and other parts of the
southwest. doing a little home mission
airy work, such as helping raise debts
on churches and the like. A year ago I
went to Cleburn. Tex, in answer to an
indefinite call. During December ! an
swered the call of the wild metaphor
ically speaking, and I am now on my
way TO Montana"
Sermon on Christ-Life.
After thanking his old friends for
their generous reception of him, Mr..
Bagby delivered a sermon on Christ
life" taking for his text the twelfth
chapter and the thirty-second verse of
the gOsper according to St John. which
reads: If | be lifted UP from the earth
1 will draw men unto me-" He said, i'm
part:
The contents of this passage are
much larger than is generally sup
posed BY it Jesus meant that i'm his
death he would meet the crucial test OF
his life. He meant to say that if he
could stand, in addition to all that had
gone before, his death on Mt Calvary,
WOUl0
Had Jesus not stood the test of Cal
vary his death would have meant moth
ing more than the death of the two
thieves who were crucified with him.
1t was by rising supreme above his suf-
/ ferings by meeting mortal death fear
! Iessly. by entering the tomb and being
resurrected. that he made men &C
| knowledge his Godhead.
I'm the white light of all his suffer
I'll hi hao ri -iTT1 fT1c
virtues stand out in bold relief. 1t Is
| a privilege of the church of today to
keep these virtues Of the crucified
/ Christ lifted up before the world.
The simplicity of Jesus Christ was
/ the first things which won for him the
/ twelve disciples. In all his life Christ
never limited by word or deed at snoo-
/ bishness. He was simple in all things.
He sought the lower classes, the SIM
pIe i'm mind and heart. He exemplified
! the saving that the truly great are
| never snobbish, but always of simple
nature The church that wins and
holds men must show simplicity as
one Of its cardinal principles. That
means the approachableness of Jesus.
Christ Sincere Also.
Jesus was the embodiment of sin
cerity as well as simplicity No look,
/ froWn. smile. word or act of his was
ever insincere. Men were drawn to
/ him because of this. The found him
/ true in all things, and therefore they
l loved him. Men must not be whlted Sc
puIchres if they would draw others to
/ their way of thinking. They must be
sincere, true and real, not lofty and UNI
approachabIe, expressing a 'holier than
thou sentiment if they would labor IN
! the cause of Christ.
In thought. in word and i'm deed
Jesus was pure. He Influenced men
and women because his life was spot
/ less. The proper Christian life must
he pure. We must bear the light to
others by expressing the virtues of
! Christ, one of the greatest of which is
purity.
alike. He did not sham the virtue S
dId the Pharisees. He did not carry ii
/ TO the extreme as did the Puritans. He
was neither sham nor extreme. He was
real. The sham of the Pharisees and
/ the extreme of the Puritan repel all
men alike. The kind of piety which
draws men to Christianity is the kind
which Jesus showed when he stood by
Lazarus grave, or when he was on the
cross. or fighting his soul battle in the
GARDEN of Rethsemane This is the
/ kind of piety which true Christians
should show to the world if they would
win men.
Possessed of Great Pity.
Last. but not least, of Jesus great
virtues was his piety. He was like an
opal. which sheds the light of the sun,
| which reflects the physical condition
Eof the owner. which shows its SYM
patty by changing color with every
change of the mans heart, every
change Of the weather In the hollow
of his hand Jesus held his twelve disci-
| ples. because of his sympathy. His
handclasp was one OF warmth III
meant pity and love and sincerity.
''The world is cruel and cold. There
/ is little sympathy or pity to be had
among most men. Each man is
wrapped up in thoughts of himself. He
has not time TO pity the sorrows of
others. He is too sad in his own heart
! But down deep in all heart is the crav-
! ing for sympathy. Every man wants
to be smothered. Every heart is starv-
[ har- love