The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1907-05-31

byterian church last Sunday, and made
so deep an impression on the minds
of his hearers that the Herald has
been requested to publish it that the
public at large might have an oppor-
tunity of reading IL:
The same was in the beginning
with God" John IL.
The Primary meaning of this text
is the eternity of Jesus Christ. To
the Jewish aristocracy. Jesus was sim
ply sprightly young Jewish peasant,
very little understood. To the San
hedrum, he was an anomily, strange
paradox. To the common people he
was a marvel of wisdom and goodness.
But John, who knew him most init
mately, and who loved him most ten
Derby and devotedly, says of Him, that
in the dim and distant beginning, be-
| fore man was made, before angel or
arch-angel was created, before the
! voice of a seraph had walked the echo
of song, or the tall sons of eternity
had thrilled the pulseless seas of
Chaos with their shouts of Joy, he was
with God.
The text not only reveals the grand
and mysterious fact of the Eternity
of our Lord Jesus Christ, but Also by
! implication, it reveals the wonder
full facts of our Redemption, and our
Immortality. Christ came to show us
the Father Thro His incarnation
we get conceptions, and ideas of God,
of His nature and character which we
never could have obtained otherwise.
Thro the long, dark ages of the world
childhood state, men inquired after the
Lord Jehovah with profoundest in
terest, and sought with anxious So
lcitude to know Him, but in vain.
Job in the midst of his sore affection,
and great perplexity of soul, ex-
claimed: "Oh, that ! knew where l
might find Him, that | might come
even to his seat. | would order my
cause before Him; and fill my mouth
with arguments" But God did not
manifest Himself in that time except
in Hebrew types and symbols. Not
until the Eternal, Jehovah, incarnated
Himself in human flesh, and took on
human form, and called Himself I'M
manuel-God with us-did the heart
of man grasp the fact of His Father
hood ,-aye-of His brotherhood. Not
until He came down to us,-became
one of us,-and walked and talked
with us-traveled life's dusty highway
with us, and sympathized with us in
our sorrows, helped us in our needs,
loved us in our unworthiness and
saved us in our lostness, did we I'M
derstand His nature or His mission
His incarnation revealed both his ma
ture and His mission. His nature is
love-His mission to serve!
Oh! Brethren! if the enterprise of
our redemption had been entrusted to
an angel, or arch-angel, or to any Gre
ated intelligence, there might be cause
some time for doubt and fear, and
even for despair as to the final issues. /
But when God espouses our cause
and undertakes to save us, there is no
ground for fear or misgiving, either
as to the ability of our Redeemer or |
the amplitude of our Redemption. Two
things make the wonderful fact of |
human redemption and eternal verify. |
The incarnation of the Son of God, i
and the conscious experience of the
soul that excerpts the mysterious fact |
of the Divine Incarnation, and COM
mits all of his spiritual interest to It,
st. John says: HE that believeth on |
the Son of God hath the witness in
himself" That is: That he is saved. !
Therefore, we say to you, one and
all: Believe ON the Son of God and
be saved" You may accept Him, just
now IL you will. For the Almighty
and Eternal Christ is here, and Is here
to save to the uttermost all who will
come unto Him. We might follow this
line of thought further, perhaps with
some degree of interest, but prefer to
change to the secondary meaning of
the text. We said in the beginning,
that the primary meaning of the text
was the eternity Of Jesus Christ
The secondary meaning, is the
Eternity of that system of truths which
eminated from Him, and which were
by Him, and their Con-
sistency with the Nature of Things.
II Jesus Christ is what this passage
declares of Him-Eternal; then He
must be divine and the question OF
His Messiahship is settled. Then it
follows that all that grand system of
truths promulgated by Him are all that