The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1907-04-07
"The Unavoidable Christ"

st. John, Xx. ao.saftss$i
Tho doors were shut. Not only tho
doors OF the room. where the disciples
met, but the doors OF tho mind the
doors OF reason. the doors Of hope
and faith. But in spite OF the closed
| doors Hc stood in the midst.
Henceforth He was to I'll ali things.
He was to take possession of tho
world He was to glide with the soft
ness of light into the darkest hut
| where poor men lay; into tho secret
chambers OF the kings palace and
| into the scaled shrines OF the pagan
temple. He was the unavoidable
! Christ, who was to be met everywhere
fulfilling His own great and strange
! promise "Lo. I am with you always,
even unto the end Of the world"
1t is impossible for any one Of us
so to order our lives as to avoid Christ.
Like some great snowclad mountain,
Christ rises over the landscape Of hui
man life and history. Turn your eyes
where YOU will. and in any direction
you cannot escape His presence Every
path leads to Him, for in every path
there is q cross.
He hasllinleed His life with the gen
eral life of man, and at so many points
I that, however hostile or Indifferent we
may be to Him, yet there comes
time when we must feel whittier shall
go from Thy Spirit? or whittier shall
I fee from Thy Presenter
And Christ did this deliberately, He
had no need to write His teachings
upon perishable parchments, because
4 He Intervene Himself into the very
! fibre Of all human life. He has made
it impossible for US to look at any
phase of humanity without thinking
Of Him.
For. where love is, there is Christ.
Where the poor are. there is the d.
vine poor man, who says, "As ye have
.ye have done it unto Me-"
d Where childhood is. there is Bethlehem;
, where sorrow is, there Is Gethsemane;
5 where death is, there is Calvary.
1nstinctively our thoughts meet and
gather and settle around the sacred
And In all that concerns our own liv-
, ing and dying our thoughts are drawn
to Jesus.
+ &c. then. you may avoid the Bible
! you may avoid the church, you may
avoid the company of Christian people
!, but you cannot avoid Jesus Christ! lie
. will meet you when you least expec.
Him. lie Will meet you on the race.
course, on the baseball field in tho
), office, on the train and in the home
h He will pass you on the street in the
r dress Of beggar or outcast: Hc vii
!, sit beside you in your lonely room
= when YOU nurse the remembered
r sweetness of your sin or rage agains
e yourself for your folly. Shut the doo
) against Him; bar 1t firmly with hostil
y ity and hatred! Nevertheless, you can
not escape Christ. THE door beint
!. shut. Jesus came and stood in TIL
~ midst"
- Jesus is with you the moment 70,
= begin to think about yourself, an,
~ you cannot prevent Him, and there II
= stands. Ask yourself, not. What d
- think or Hiln! put, What doc
ne thlhK OF me VINO am VIVA
~ am II" whittier am going?" In tn
j, silence OF the night that question WI!
:" return and demand an answer
You may say. y know what l seem
be. am an animal with just enoug
of something different in my nature
G. make me dissatisfied. am a littl
OF dust, Presently the dust will be blow
of by the wind OF fate far and wide, an
nd there will DO an end of me-"
AS soon as such thoughts aris
at through the shut doora Presence wi
enter. and Jesus will reply lie say
he NO! You are u child of God. Yc