The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1907-12-06
THE PULPIT.
A SCHOLARLY SUNDAY SERMON BY
THE REV. w. L. WATkINSON.
Subject: Christ and Common Things.

| The first remarkable point in the
| records of our Lords earthly career
| Is the extent of His relation to COM
| mon things. The supernatural and
the marvellous are, of course, in evil
dence in the successive stages of His
! mission, yet the prevailing aspect is
| that of human commonplace.
! This key was struck at the begin
ming. shepherds abiding in the
| field, and keeping watch by night
over their flock" received the tidings
of His coming;-and "glorilying and
praising God," the humble men re-
turned from the splendors of His ad-
| vent once more to resume their lowly
| duties. Born in stable and Graded
in manger reduces His infancy to
/ stark commonplace. The rustic home
and village life of Nazareth linked
Him with the cottages of all time. His
occupation, again, brings Him close
to the overwhelming host of workers.
Carlyle writes: mot Arms and
the Man. Tools and the Man, that
were now our Epic" Did not our
Lord for thirty years give visible ex-
preston to this epic? And if ever a
great singer should worthily render
that theme, must not the central
Figure of his large poetry be the
Carpenter of Nazareth? His work
was not daintily wrought in fairy
workshop of artist, goldsmith or au-
thor; but rough hammer, saw and
plummet were consecrated by His
hands, and the rugged calling of the
toi1ing million was hallowed by His
example.
In the days of Ellis showing unto
Israel" He remained faithful to sim
pie people and scenes. Our Lord
was content that the companions of
His sublime career should be obscure
and simple. He identified Himself
with the common lot.
The great artists of the past ,-ho
represent the Saviour seem anxious
to invest Him with mystic and kingly
signs and symbols-He is haloed with
splendor, adorned with jewels, angels
are His bodyguard, Heaven opens
above His head, magi, priests and
kings lay treasures at His feet. But
we know that all this is very remote
from fact. The modern realist who
pictures our Lord as one of the peo-
pie, without shred of heavenly,
sacerdotal, or imperial insignia, is
much nearer to New Testament truth.
How truly human was our Lord!
How completely He identified Himself
with us and the common lot! He
seemed ever watchful lest any rag of
purple or gold, any likeness of kingly
diadem or mitre, any obtrusion of
majestic and privileged greatness,
either earthly or unearthly, should
seem to separate Him from the teem-
ing hosts who by hard labor in many
spheres earn their daily bread.
Yet whilst our Lord stands in con-
slant relation to common things of
every kind, He manifests no impa-
thence, never once refers to His lowli-
ness as If it were matter of in
justice and monstrousness. Genera
tions have regarded with wonder the
spectacle of Alfred the Great lodging
in the neatherd's hut; 1t is felt as an
act of almost incredible condescension
and patriotism that Peter the Great
was willing to work in our dockyard
as common shipwright; and when
ever royalty visits cottage, or chats
with plowman Or shopkeeper, the
fact must be proclaimed as something
in the very nature of the case as
founding. Yet Christ seems never to
have been conscious of this amazing
other. On no occasion does He ex-
press surprise OF regret that He is
peasant rather than a prince, a car
penter rather than a captain, that He
is engaged with minor matters Of
humble life rather than with the mar
velous and magnificent.
Whenever the New Testament re-
fers to the humiliation of our Lord,
thE omnha ic nj IN tho
side, not on the circumstantial. The
marvel is tnat He descended from the
realms of glory to dwell with world
princes and palaces to act with shep-
herds and fishermen. He humbled
Himself to the death, CT the cross,
not to the cottage of the peasant, the
bench OF the craftsman, 'or the boat
of the f1sher-this is never reckoned
any part of His humiliation.
We do not find our Lord condoling
with Himself on acco unit of His I'M
distinguished associations. For suf-
f1cent purpose He may incidentally
refer to His mean estate, yet never
by way of apology or complaint. He
does not attack the rich and powerful
on tbs grounds of their official status;
whenever He judges Or rebukes them,
it is strictly on moral and religious
grounds. He is no acrid, vitupera-
tive. truculent scorner of the great,
as If in some way they did Him in
justice by being such. He does not
envy the opulent, brilliant, or power
full. He betrays nc jealousy, because
He knew none.
He does not initiate the great, the
wealthy, or the famous. We often
see the democracy in pathetic and
ridiculous ways initiate the nobility
whom they defame, adjoining them
selves with false finery, cheap Jew
elry, and in sundry ways aping the
magnificent they deride; they show
that in their secret hearts they covet
the pomps of greatness, and would
fully share them If opportunity
served-with one feather the pie
baian seeks to become a peacock.
There is nothing of this in Christ, no
attempt to escape the common lot as
II it were something to be ashamed
of, something to escape from. Whilst
recognizing social gradations, our
Lord knew no servility or soreness.
He was rich, great, satisfied III His
clear sense of self-respect and in the
consciousness OF His Fathers smile.
His serene eyes was undaZzled by
splendor; His great mind appreciated
the moral significance, not the magni-
tude of circumstance; He was content
to work out His career, sublime be-
yond that of all mortals, in the worn
ruts which must be followed ny the
vast multitude of His brethren.
Great souls recognize the worth
of common things. The greater the
man, the NOR wildly DIES he recog-
nize the essential charm and worth of
common things. Newton beheld the
secret Of the rainbow in a soap-bub
BILE; Linnaeus found the magic of
Paradise in gorse-bush; Tyndall
was bewitched by a snowflake; and
our biologists exult in the knowledge
that the common highway is not dust
and dirt, as the ignorant contemptu-
ously suppose, but jasper, sapphire
and gold. And this is equally true in
regard to the relations and environ
ments of human life. The rich, the
titled and the fashionable if ONLY suf-