The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1907-12-25
The pUIQjf /
.SaSSS95 SSe~4,svsssySsss&S
a SERMON GSsN- 60
81 THE REV. ASSsE
1AWFENDEnS0NVaT'
Subject: Knowing Christ.


above theme at the Irving Square
Presbyterian Church, Hamburg ave-
nue. and VERIFIED street, the Rev.
Ira Wemnell Henderson, pastor, TOOK
as his text, Luke 24:31,32: And
their eyes were opened and they knew
Him, and He vanished out OF their
sight. And they said one to another,
was not our heart burning within us
while He spake to US in the way"
He said:
If there is any one thing for which
am at all envious it is, that I might
have had, in Gods providence, the
same opportunity that these men had
to talk face to face with Jesus; to
have had an intimate, personal, hu-
manly perceived knowledge of His
reality in the bodily sense. If there
is any particular men of whom | am
envious, it is those disciples, who,
from time to time, went with Jesus
on His ministering tours; who knew
Him, as we do not know Him-since
He has gone hence; those men who
heard His voice, who could look up
into His face while He spoke to them,
who could hear Him in the accents OF
their own language, which they were
able to understand with the human
ear. And while am cogniZant of the
fact that We can get just as close to
Jesus, spiritually and personally, as
these men ever got in a bodily and
material sense, there is to me a pc
culiar charm wrapped around their
lives, owing to the fact that they
talked with Him, that they really
held conversation with the Lord and
could see Him and understand Him
and love Him as man.
You know how these two men were
walking by the way when Jesus came
and spoke to them and interpreted to
them the Scriptures. They were un-
able to see Him, because He was
then to be discerned only spiritually.
And after a few moments their eyes
were opened and they knew Him and
He vanished out Of their sight. And
they said one to the other, WAS not
our heart burning within us AS He
spake to us in the way?"
There are a great many Christian
people who have never heard Jesus
speak to them; who have not the
faintest sort Of idea Of what it means
to have communion with our Lord;
people who have no spiritual percep-
ton; who are but babes spiritually;
who have not had their eyes opened
to the contemplation of spiritual
things; who have no realization-as
they should have-that Jesus is con-
tinually speaking to them by the way.
Their eyes are closed because they
have never gotten spiritual power.
1t is a peculiar thing about Chris
tianity that you cannot tell whether
the Lord can be spiritually discerned
until you get into spiritual relations
with the Lord. You cannot tell what
was the spirit that thrilled and
throbbed through the hearts cf these
men, until your own heart has been
throbbing and thrilling with the
knowledge that you have been talking
with the Lord. But as soon as you
have had a definite and experimental
communion with the Lord, you begin
to understand what was the feeling
of those men who talked with Christ
and whose hearts burned within
them.
am not to define to You this morn
ing what. ought to be your spiritual
experience. Some of us think that we
ought to hear some voice speaking,
audibly, to US; that we ought to have
some oral communication that will
strike upon our cars and convey a
definite, distinct impression. But the
very moment that you are conscious
of committing wrong act or that
you are doing right before God, that
very moment He is speaking to you
by the way. The very moment that
you open these Gospels, writings and
epistles-these explanations and eX-
plications Of what Jesus meant-the
moment your soul is filled with the
divine glory and illumination, you
may be just as sure that He is speak
ing to you, as that He spoke to those
two going to Emmaus. l do not think
1t is necessary for you to have cold
chill run up and down your backs in
order that YOU may have real
knowledge in the flesh that you have
been talking with Divine power.
think our Christian life is susceptible
to a great deal Of sense and much non
sense. Idonot think we need any more
visions of men than we getint the world
around us, than we get in the faith
and life of Jesus Christ. I do not
think that you need any more demon
stration that the Lord is speaking to
you as you go in the way, than you
have when you feel that the Scrip
lures are illuminated to you; when
you hear the still, small voice COM
mending you when you do right or
admonishing you when you do wrong.
I believe that God gave us brains and
that He talks to us with our under
standing; that God gave us. hearts
and speaks to us through our emo
tions. When we are lifted up into
transcendental heights-of which ii
may be difficult to tell our experience
God is then speaking to US. There
is not one of us, however weak in
faith, who has not from time to time
been lifted up out Of the senses and
the sensuous into the eternal. There
are times when it has seemed that
we have taken flight from the body
have taken leave of the senses, and
are lifted out of ourselves. And while
l believe that that is purely emo
tional, yet it is for you and me just
as much of a vision of the Divinc
reality as we shall ever get this side
of Heaven.
It is a different thing to know
about Christ, than to know Christ
/ can refer you to all sorts Of books
in my library which will attempt to
telr you all about Christ This Bible
will tell you all about Christ, but it
can never give you an experimental
knowledge of Christ; that is some
thing which no man or book can give
or take away The Scriptures may
tell you what is the love OF God to
you, but that is only to know about
Him. 1t is quite a different thing tc