Los Angeles herald., 1907-09-02
DIR. MARTIN
IN PULPIT
REvIvALIsT BREACHES TO BIG
CROWD
LEADING SERVICES AT NAOMI
CHURCH
Divinity of Christ Is Topic of Noted
Minister of seattIe-spoke
at Long Beach Con-
ventlon

Before big crowd DR.. S. M. Martin
preached powerful sermon last night at
the Naomi Christian church. where he
is conducting Il revival.
His topic was "The Divinity of Christ"
Matthew 22:42: what think ye of Christ;
whose son is her
DR.. Martin of Seattle is national evan
gelist of the Christian church and was
chief speaker at the recent Long Beach
convention of that denomination.
Last night he preached on the virgin
birth to a congregation which taxed the
auditorium to its utmost capacity.
DR.. Martin has gained wide reputa-
tion as one of the ablest, most scholarly
expositors of the doctrine of the divinity
of Christ as represented by the theolog-
ical phrase, virgin birth"
He confined his argument last night to
four main points.
He began by saying:
"Christ was not a natural product Of
his day and generation. If only mere
man why were there no others like him?
Why none since? Why not you or l his
equal or superior? Our congenital ad-
vantages considered, we should surpass
him, but such men as Calico, Kepler,
Bacon, Newton, Milton and Renan set
the name of Jesus Above every other.
George John Ronnaines, than whom
a brighter light has not flashed eacross
the intellectual heavens in thousand
years, says of Jesus: If we estimate
the greatness of man by the influence
which he has exerted on mankind there
can be no question, even from the secular
point of view, that Christ is much the
greatest man who has ever lived.
Cites Local Minister
"Dr. A. c., Smither of this city. who
| has recently returned from. an extended
| tour of Egypt, Palestine and the east,
says: First of all was impressed with
the absolute impossibility of accounting
| for Nhe person, character and service of
Jesus Christ by any other than divine
power 1t is a moral impossibility that
| Palestir ire should have produced the Savior
of all men by any human agency
"If Jesus was not a natural product of
| his day and generation then he must
| have been supernatural one. This we
present as the ground of presumable dl-
vinity."
The doctor took up the difficult ques-
ton of the miraculous conception as
taught in the first chapter of Luke's gos-
pei. He made a careful distinction be-
! tween the dogma of the immaculate con-
ception and the scriptural doctrine of the
miraculous conception This took the
1
| ical doctor of the old school he was able
to handle the subject most ,intelligently.
| He quoted freely from Huxley, Tyndall
Darwin and others. From the established
| truth of the doctrine of biogenesis he
showed that God, the creator was po-
tentially both father and mother of the
first man and woman, or the first earthly
progenitors of the present race of man
The doctor continued: Darwin says
| &c Catn dc G
the unit or units lying at the beginning
| of the series of evolution
Rising Corroborates
"In proof of divinity was the resmrec-
| ton of Christ from the dead. There was
nothing in Christianity worth serious con-
| sideration unless Jesus Christ rose from
the dead. There were convincing evil
dences of the resurrection. Lyman Alb
bott says: 'Christ's resurrection is the
best attested fact in history
"The fruits Of Christianity, the char
| acteristic fruits or results of system
Of doctrine afford a correct exponent OF
it's character, whether true or false good
! or bad"
The Fiji islands was cited as an ex.
! ample Of the Transforming power OF
Christianity, where in 1850 were cannibals
and human being had market value
of seven dollars
"In nifty years after the missionary
came you could not buy human being
| for all the gold that had been mined In
| California from 1919 to 1900, and nine
tenths of the population go to church
| on Sunday" declared the doctor.
"The great Romaines said: 1T is on all
sides worth considering. blatant Ignorance
or base vulgarity alone excepted, that
the revolution erected by Christianity ir
human life is immeasurable and unpar-
alleled in any other movement In his.
tory
DR.. Martin may be heard all this week
and possibly longer in Los Angeles. The
crowds attending these meetings are phe-
nomenal. More than sixty-five have united
with the church since these meetings
began