The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1907-10-07

the perfect demonstration of the power
Of man plus Gods help to win man
| hood. 1t is trite to say that the only
devil any of us will ever see in thi:
world is the devil called Self. Unmask
| every fault, every indulgence. every
form of anger, malice, envy, hatred
lust, murder and you find the same
4 ugly face behind the disguise-Self
! When Jesus cried with a loud voice
TT is finished the world heard the
shout, self is dead"
He called the process being lifted
up" the exaltation Of manhood, ,of God
in man, of mans divinity. For all
these mean the same thing-God COM
ing to Himself in man. The cross COM
pleted the demonstration. Therefore it
and not the resurrection is the focus
of history. Art knows that and has
given us many crucifixions which sat-
/ isfy but no adequate resurrection
scene. Poetry knows it too and sings
the hymn, When I survey the Won
drous cross" the crown of English
| psalmody not alone in Matthew
I ArnoId's view. The resurrection was
only an attestation, the notary's seal
| upon the entire transaction of the
Christ life to Show that it moved in
/ the realm of the eternities, that Jesus
was no partial or transitory event but
/ essential to God and man, the COM
plete union of the two in one historic
| life, and therefore the prophecy of
what sometime must be true of every
| life-God towering into perfect fruit in
every human soul. That prohpecy Jesus
expressed in the words, ~ will draw
all men into myself"
He did not say what so many of His
| followers have understood Him to have
meant, IF I be crucified I will win
every man to membership in My
| Church We mortals are such ma
chine lovers, so infatuated with or
CARNATIONS, paper constitutions and
| committees that it is easy to reduce
Jesus words to dry formulas and to
institutionalize their fife, their spirit
into dead material mechanism. 1t does
not now appear that the Christian
Church will ever win all men to Its
membership. If it did it would doubt
less die of over-fed success and self
esteem. Healthy failure in moderation
is good for both individual and
Church. 1t keeps them humble and
working. If the history of twenty CEN
turtles teaches anything. it makes very
clear the fact that there has been no
reasonable verif1cation of Jesus words,
Il will draw all men unto myself if
they are to be understood in the sense
of getting all men into the Church.
But let them stand as they read and
history is luminous with her testi-
mony to their wondrous insight into
the coming life of the world. For
civilization is but another name for
the steadily-widening power of Christ.
When the apostles began to preach
the ideals which Jesus had lived, they
We're bitterly fought. The new teach
ing was not misunderstood by such
Roman antagonists as the Antonines.
Cresceus, CELSIUS and their ilk, who
resolved to destroy it. Its virtues
were declared anti-human because
they were clearly seen to be subversive
of the social order of the day, the
order based upon the axiom Man is
ANIMAL Christians therefore We're
hated as enemies of the human race.
But a few hundred years sufficed
to still this sort of opposition. The
ideal of Jesus-.Man is essentially not
animal, but spiritual, divine"-quickly
won the battle in human thought. And
since then this ideal and what it ne
cessitates have traversed the world.
Today they meet every man in what
ever land he lives with their personal
appeal Take great Asia. Every Mo-
hammedan has to reckon more or less
with Jesus, because Mohammed bor-
rowed from Him. Christ entered Ja-
pan with fresh power a half century
ago. Out of forty-fve millions the
Church there numbers some 100, 000--a
bagatel. you say. Yes, bug in the war
with Russia the entire nation showed
a wondering world that Jesus had
drawn it well on the way unto HIM
self. No war ever waged on this
planet spelled the words brotherhood
in Christ so clearly as those hospi-
tails with the Cars children and the
Sons of Yamato lying side by side
on the same cots, tended with equally
gentle ministry by little brown nurse
and doctor, or as the silent uncovered
populace standing in eloquent sympa-
thy while the captured battalions
marched through Kobe's crowded
thoroughfares. And China today is
awake-awakened to what? To the
family of the nations of humankind
President Charles Cuthbert Hall, |
after closest association with the lead
ers of thought in India, recently said |
at Harvard University:
Even more typical of present de-
velopments in the East, of religious
insight and experience outside of |
Christianity, is the ferment of inter-
est concerning Christ. $ Under /
the influence of an irresistible temper
amental affinity, the East is directing |
its superb gifts of spiritual insight to- |
ward Christ, whose formidable inf1u- /
ence upon the worlds history can no /
longer be ignored. 1t is too soon to /
say that the East is preparing to rem /
der to Jesus Christ, as the Son of |
God, the allegiance of spiritual faith |
But it is certain that Christ's infiu- /
enee, like the searching rays of sun
rise. is penetrating the remotest fields I
of Eastern thought, and arousing there