The Penn's Grove record., 1907-04-26
Zb9 2UL1F
A SERMON G Ia
BY THE REV AN
hAMHENDERSoNW E
-
Subject: The FaultIess Christ.

n REV. Ira Wemmell Henderson.
pastor took as his text Luke 23:4, Il
find no fault in this Man" He said:
This honest answer of Pontius Pr
late to the statements of the lying
multitude is the testimony of all men
who study, with insight and under
standing, the career of Jesus Christ.
Put to any test and judged by whatso-
ever standard you may will, the Mas
ter of us all will be found without
flaw, fault or spot, Measured by any
rule you may suggest, Jesus meets
requirements to the full. Does your
ideal of manhood demand more than
mortal men reveal of virtue and of
worth, there the Savior stands to
supply your souls desire. Do you
ask for weight of mind or depth of
thought, who can outmatch Jesus?
Do you seek for clarity of vision and
for spiritual force-there is none
like Him. For downright m~anliness
and for that hallowedness of heart
which marked Him as divine, none
can compare with the Son of God.
Each of US must declare Him fault
less, all of us must admire and
should initiate His perfectness of
life. Pontius PLATE pronounced Jes-
US free of guilt after a limited dis
cussion of Jesus regal claim. In
this day and hour millions of men,
after careful analysis and close scru-
tiny of His life and claims, glory in
His perfectness and hail Him Son of
God and saving Lord. Shall we not
do honor for a moment to this self
declared Messiah, whom we have
crowned as King?
To the faultlessness which PLATE
ascribed to Him let us add the testi-
mony of st. John, who has preached
Him as the fulness of truth and
grace.
Faultless, the possessor and the re-
vealer of divine truth, powerful in
His wealth of grace, so was our Lord.
For His excellency in these three
winning virtues let us pay Him hon.
age now.
Then said PLATE to the chief
priests and to the people, 1 find nc
fault in this Man" F-aultlessness
is perfection. To be without fault
is to free from defect. AS the Ital-
ians would phrase it, to be faultless
is to be lacking in nothing. Jesus
was a faultless man-only such
could have been the mouthpiece of
the convincing oracles which the
Savior brought from Cod Fault
ness, which is but another name for
f~alseness, was apart from His ma
ture. Jesus made no pretensions.
He was just what He claimed to be.
Sincerity rang finn His every word
and made eloquent His every deed.
Deceit and deception were not In His
line. Often the Lord sent His truth
horo4 ry4sIal Will --o11 4h0-o- uy0r6-
But at no time did He use deceit to
gain His ends. True enough it is,
that plain statement of the truth
made Him so many enemies at times,
that it is a wonder that, now and
then, He did not pare the truth to
save Himself friends. But no, the
Christ was not on earth to trim or
to cut the truth to suit those whom
it hardest hit. His mission was to
preach the truth, the whole truth,
and nothing but the truth, as COM
ing from the mouth of God. The
Savior was no trimmer. Oftentimes
His words laid bare the soul secrets
of the men to whom He spoke. Now
and then, He cut them to the very
quick. But because their hearts were
hard was not His fault. His was the
blameIess, faultless life and theirs
we're the hearts that were dead in
sin and to shame. Without guile
and without guilt is the judgment of
our minds and hearts upon this mai
in whom PLATE found no fault.
John tells us in the verse which
we Just read that Jesus was full Of
grace Grace is graciousness, lowell
ness. Coming to us as the dispenser
of the love Of God freely bestowed
upon men in sin Jesus eXemplif1es in
His own life that gracious loneliness
which He breaches. Pure, gentle,
noble, upright, kind and true, Christ
is a joy to eye and soul alike. To
gaze into His face must have been
to walk with God to those who under
stood. And those to-day within the
~unhindered influence of the Master
may bear upon their W faces the
marks of inward loneliness OF life.
The power of transforming grace
will change not only the spiritual
nature of a man, but also will re-
mold and transfigure the very feat
ures of his face. A countenance that
is hard with sin will mellow into
gentleness and peace through the
yielding of the soul to the Savior.
That quiet charm of n which
must have been our Lords, and
which is the badge of Cody living
which many Christians bear, may be
the possession of each of us, do we
want it. You know the gracious
cast of c~ountenance I mean. That
quiet, holy, sanity look which fills
the faces of many men and women
in whose hearts the spirit moves
Who does not want it?
Grace is kindness. Maltbie Bah
cock put it we'll when he said kind
ness is recognizing another's kin
ship" Jesus saw the same anees-
try in other men which made Him a
Son of God. Seeing the need of dy-
ing men, His kinsmen, u Lord
yearned to give them life forever
more. Not His own convenience,
but their need, moved Christ to ac-
ton. Personal ambition crept into
His soul but once, only to be sacri-
feed forthwith to human need. Sa-
tan offered power, but Jesus hun
gered after souls. Satan preferred
money, the Savior chose men. Kind
ness proved the inner grace of Christ.
And a Christly kindness exercised by
each of US will not only makes US
friends, but will also US to
grow in grace.
Grace is goodwill. This is not to
imply that we are merely to have a
hope that the man next to us may
gain success through the expenditure
of his own effort. Goodwill that
counts for anything gets behind the
working brother and helps him
ahead. 1t is the spirit of assistance,
not so much the roar of applause,
that we want. Goodwill becomes
concrete and an aid most when it re-
solves itself into loving helpfulness.
A good round of applause may put
heart into the Christian who is work
ing hard for Christ, but ready assis-
lance from the brethren who watch
so alphabetically the progress of
his toll will be most a benefit to the
harvester of souls. Love for men in
sin. and words of approval for those
who are breaking Satan's shackles
from Off their lives. are all we'll