The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-09-29

OS ANGELES, Cal, September 22.- l The claims of Christ to the hom i I age of all races and all times 1 as a divine being and the greatest of l teachers as eloquently presented in this 1 sermon from the text of John vii, AS, 1 Never man spake like this man. i What strange world this Is! As
 soon as a novelty ceases to be a novel, l ty we look upon it as quite common l place. What once aroused our admir- l aton and enthusiasm is now considered
 enc of the ordinary, prosaic incidents
 of everyday life. We maryeled not l long ago at the revolving wheel of the l horseless carriage along our bouleVards, l which made thousands of pedestrians line l the curbstores with interest. But that l mine days wonder" soon came to an l end. Now we grumble at the speed linn 1t of the automobile, apply approbrious epithets to the chauffeur and cross the street in fear and trembling lest one of the onrushng machines hurl us Into eternity without a moments notice Once the sound of the telephone bell would make us take down the receiver with joy fu anticipation to find who next of our friends had ordered his name put into the telephone book. But now, instead of being impressed with the wonder of the telephonio wire, we are irrltated by
 
 | Marvellous! Marvellous invention." Now we say 'I wish thls miserable telephone had never been invented, for then I could have a few hours in quiet for work"
 But, though a novelty may cease to be novelty in reference to some of the great inventions of the world yet some creations of God and man have never ceased to be novelties because
 they stand out from all other creations as absolutely unique. Why do the tour ists in multitudes annually go to visit
 Niagara falls? Because those waterfalls are different from all other kinds of waterfalls. Why do the visitors marvel at the wonders of Yellowstone park? Be cause whey they see the geysers Tn full play and the Giant Paint Pot and "Helfs Half Acre" where the ground as in an earthquake, is moving and
 trembling under their feet and where they can catch a fish in one pool and
 without moving their feet throw that living fish into a natural caldron not
 ten yards away and there cook 1t and take 1t up ready to be eaten, these peo-
 ple say, There are many wonders in this world. but there is no wonder any where else just like the wonders of Yellowstone park" The same is true
 about the pyramids. If we knew how
 they were built and why they were built and If there were pyramids in every land
 like the Egyptian pyramids, we would
 have but little interest in climbing Pha- raoh's marvels. But because the Egyptian pyramids are different from all other
 piles of stone ten thousands of tourists annually make pilgrimage to Cairo as to
 sacred shrine
 Differences in Men.
 What is true of inanimate things is also
 true of certain men. When you find
 man radically different in capacity from
 all other men, then that man stands out
 conspicuous among his fellows Paganini
 the master wizard of the violin was such
 man. The musical critics of his day
 declare that he developed a tone touch
 which was peculiarly his own. No other
 man ever possessed 1t before he did No r man has ever possessed it since. He was
 different from all other musicians. Be-
 cause he was different the whole musical
 world sat at his feet and listened and
 marveled. Edgar Allan Poe was such q man. There were a host of poets before
 the author of "The Raven" Many have arisen and hourished since, but he Was different from them all. Never was there ! man who could make such rhythmic music out of mere words as he. Read his famous poem "The Bels.' He trans 1 forms every word into bell note. There | the sleighs ring their bells, and the church towers ring their bells, and the fire alarms ring their bells, and the solemn funeral
 dirges ring their bells. And because Ed gar Allan Poe was different from all other poets we find his books upon almost every library shelf
 Infinitely grander. supernally unique. even from a human standpoint Is he of whom I speak today. Christ was and Is different from all other men. When he came forth from Nazareth and began to teach the people tried to analyze Ills pow CT. They tried to find smilarities between 1 Ills personality and that of other proph- cts but the more they studied Him the
 more they found He was so peculiarly n- dvidual the people began to flock after Him in great multitudes. At last every man and woman who came in touch with this new teacher confessed that He was absolutely and intensely unique. Even the officers of the law who were sent by the priests and Pharisees to arrest Jesus would not apprehend Him. for they said, Never man spake like this Man" Do you wonder that a man like Jesus, who was of such q unique individual type, should have gathered about his person
 ality the ever increasing mutitndes and that He astounded them with His doc trlnes? I want to show you this morning some of the respects in which Christ was different from other men, and why He wants us to be like Him and be in our way different from the great world at large.
 How Christ Was Different. Christ was different from all other men in the first place because He claimed that He was the divine source of spiritual life. He spoke as prophet, but He was more than a prophet. He spake as a priest. He spake as divine king in whom was all power. He stood up in the