Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1907-08-02

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pretender that ever lived.
Supposing some young American
should leave the mountains OF South
Carolina and cross the seas and 60 TO
Paris and there lay claim to an estate
which Michel Ney possessed when he
died; supposing that this young man
should claim, as some do claim. that
Michel Ney was not shot after the de-
feat of Napoleon at Waterloo by the
order of the legislature OF France. but
tnat he escaped to America and lived
mere; then II, further, this young man
Claimed that Nj. Ney married while in
America and that he, the young man.
was the direct descendant of Michel
Ney's oldest son and, continuing his
plea, he says, Because L am that de-
scendant 1 claim that / am the right
ful heir to the title of Prince of Mosk-
va, which once belonged to Michel
Ney;' then supposing you go to the
mountains Of South Carolina and prove
that this young man was the descend
ant of Irish peasants, what would
you think? What would France think?
No matter what that young man might
claim TO be, the people would stigma
tie this false pretender for the estate
or Michel Ney as liar and fraud.
Now. my friend, by the same law of
reasoning 1t Is absolutely illogical to
claim that Christ is q good man and
yet not divine. Either Christ Is all
that he claims or else he is pretender
and n fraud. II is logical TO reject
Christ as a deceiver, or it is logical to
accept him as the Son of God, but IL is
not logical to regard him as a good
man and yet not divine.
Not Logical.
There is another reason why take
exception to your position that you
Will not accept Christ as divine. You
say You are deist. You claim that
there are Immortality and eternal COM
panionship with God Now, IL God
Is going to fit you for eternal compan-
ionship with him, what is more ra-
honal than TO suppose that the Heaven
" Father would give you divine ex-
ample by which you can understand
bis love and follow after his teachings
In other words, that God would give
you a divine love in human form and
call that divine love Jesus Christ: as
the Bible says, Leaving you an ex-
ample by which you can understand
AS human parent you can readily
understand this law.
Here, for instance, one of my little
children comes TO me and SAYS, "Papa.
what do the words United States gov
eminent meang' Now, | do not GO
to my library and take down James
Brycc's THE American Common
wealth." and say, "Here. my boy.
read that" Nor I do not go and find
Tor him constitution of the United
States and say, Here, child, read
that" Why, might as well hand my
little boy a book printed in Hebrew
and say. Read that" The boys mind
is only the mind of n child. What do
do! Why. I take that boy upon my
lap and begin TO talk to him on his
mental level. In the language of a
child L explain to him what the gov
ernment OF the home means. Then I
lead him on I'm the language of the
child and show him how people have
banded themselves together in n city
government. so that policemen will
guard us. and letter carriers will bring
our mail, and street inspectors will
Keep our streets clean, and water will
be brought TO our homes. Then In the
language of the child show him how
different cities unite in the same way
and band themselves together as
states, and then how states will band
themselves together as nation.
When 1 talk to n child 1 talk In the
language of child.
In the Language of Man.
Now, as a rational being. tell me.
how can God spiritually talk to man
except In the language of man? In
the spiritual sense we are nothing but
little children, so God says: II will
show those little children how 1 love
them. l will reveal to them the love
OF the Heavenly Father. will appeal
TO them in the love of the home. / will
have my only begotten Son born i'm n
manager and grow up in Nazareth. Then
1 will prove his divinity by his mira
cles and by his beautiful life. Then I
Will let that Son die upon the cross to
atone Tor their SINS Tell me, Is not
that Interpretation OF Jesus Christ
rational? If you grant your deism and
your Immortality Of the soul, does not
the personality of Christ nationally
grow out OF these two premises? Why
Will you deny that Jesus is your Saw
Jour? Was he not incarnated in order
TO show the Divine Fathers love for
us, his children?
We'll" you say, 'T do believe In
Christ, but / do not believe In the
verbal inspiration of Scripture. How
90 we know whether the Bible is our
rule OF faith and practiceY How do
we know? Why, my brother, If you
once grant God and Christ's divine
birth and resurrection / do not see
now you can deny the Inspiration of
the Bible.
We might expect that God would
give the world record of his VIII.
That is what the Bible is. God. in or
der to put the stamp of his divinity
upon this book, caused the old prophets
TO tell what was going to happen
I,ooo years after their day. Then
God has his writer's of the New Tesla
ment show how all these old prophe-
cies are fulfilled. Then, Just as 1000
dinerent workmen, working under
Christopher Wren, cut the stones and
lay them all together and pile them
up into one great st. Paul's cathedral.
SO God has all these different workmen
OF the Bible do their separate parts.
working in harmony with one another.
Thus he fits the different books TO-
gether, and Genesis and Revelation are
component parts of one book. The