The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1907-04-03
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A SERMON ASE@
81 TtE REV. NXS@@
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Subject: Representing Christ.

Henderson, took as his text John 13:
34-35, "A new commandment l give
unto you, That ye love n another;
as I have loved you, that We also love
one another. By this shall all men
know that We are Ny disciples, if ye
have love one to another" He said:
This. to my mind, is one of the
broadcast, most far reaching, most
widely inclusive of the moral duties
that our Lord has made obligatory
upon those who wish to enter into
the Christian life.
The time and the scene are famil-
lar to us all. The Supper is over;
Christ has washed the feet of His dis
ciples: the betrayer is named and de-
parted upon his errand of shame.
The end is very near. A few hours
and Calvary.
With the knowledge of His ap-
preaching suffering weighing heavily
on His heart, the Saviour with a
more than kingly courage speaks His
words of comfort and command. Only
eleven men, and they soon sorely to
be tried, hear the melody of His
voice; but to our hearts He speaks
to-day, with those same kindly yet
authoritatively tones with which He
swept the faithful, tickle, strangely
human souls Of that little band to
whose ministry we owe so mucl
This new commandment" that
our Master enioins upon the disciples
demands equal obedience from us. In
it is embodied the essence Of the
whole moral law. To be true sonS of
the Father we must eXemplify in our
own lives those very qualities of love
and of loneliness that are the secret
of the Saviour to draw men, every
where and at All times, unto Himself.
With our every thought and word
and act must we represent the Christ.
With all our moral and spiritual
forces, given to US Of God and dedi-
Gated to His service, must we repre-
sent the message of salvation.
Let us look for a moment at the
character of the love which Christ
| demands of us who would serve Him
truest. With Him there is NJ letting
down either in degree or in kind.
Christ asks Of US tn same ideal love
that He spread wide about Him
whithersoever He went. Even as /
have loved you," so shall We love mi
another. mot a simple comparison,
but a conformity; the love is to be
of the same nature" the commenta-
tors tell us. Thus we see, that, in
short, we are, in our love, to be
Christlike. No mere sentimentality,
no passing fancy or passion, is this
love of which the Christ is typal.
It transcends and includes all our
! personal passions. All the hearts
emotions are at their best when, the
love of Christ reigning within us,
they are expressions OF that altur-
istic, Notwithstanding affection which
the Nazarene calls forth. The infiu-
ence Of the Christ makes for greater
beauty in all the gardens of the soul.
Everywhere in life we find it to be so.
The gentle light that chances from
the mothers eye becomes a holy,
steadfast glow when once the power
of the loving, living Christ is felt
within the soul. All love that IS
worthy of the name is beautified, en-
nobled, sanctified by the incoming of
the Spirit of Almighty God, the Com
forter from Christ. The Christ life
without the Christ love cannot be.
The life implies the love. The in
coming Christ compels an outgoing
love; and only in the measure that
we pour out our love upon Il fellow
men do we live truest for Christ and
closest to His side. Thus, we see
that, in essence and in sum-, our love
as Christian men and women must
measure true to the character of the
love which was in Jesus Christ Him
self.
A 'cursory examination of these
words Of the Master would lead the
reader, perhaps, to conclude that this
love that the Saviour showered upon
His disciples and to which He babe
the eleven to conform was to be con-
fined in it's application to themselves
only, or at best to those who would
accept the Gospel and it's messenger.
To be sure, there is a mighty element
Of truth contained even in this limit
ed, short-sighted, rather s~elf-centred
view. Christ did mean and does
mean that Christians should ,prac-
tice all the arts of love within the
circle of those who have heard the
Sall Ilo navy GU - . = Ol hCSRo
it would be better, no not perhaps,
but certainly it would be best, for
the Christian household of faith, in
~dividually and collectively, to make
effective in their lives the highest
principles of ideal love laid down by
Christ. But as we read closer and
enter more fully into the mind of the
Master We see a deeper and a grand
er message in these parting COM
mands. Listen once again to His
words: Even as I have loved you"
Do you not see the great, worldwide
principle lying just within the shad-
ow of the sentence? Even as I have
loved you" And how had He loved
them? Moses, you know, brought
the children Of Israel up from the
torrid lands of bondage, up to the
confines Of the land. of Jehovah's
promise. And the name of Moses is
held in reverent memory by the host
of that scattered people of God every
where to-day. But this Christ, this
despised Nazarene, had found these
men struggling rot only with un-
wholesome economic and ecclesiasti-
cal conditions, but with inner and
spiritual distress. True to the pur-
pose and motive of His life Christ
had given them the way unto spirit
ual salvation and, with it, the means
to the cleansing of the entire civil life
of the world. He had come down
from the Fathers house beyond tae
Unreasonable blue and, taking upon
Himself the burdens and the sins of
human kind, had started these men
out upon the sure highway that leads
to spiritual perfectness and all tenn
poral joy. He had found them in
deep darkness and had shown them