The Penn's Grove record., 1908-05-15

In His time, the Greeks a an equiv
alent for it meaning Coward" JEWS
made the base-born word the key
word of Christian character. II ever
there was a world-lord it was He, and
yet He was among men as n that
serveth: And since then. service has
been reckoned the GROWING grace OF
character, and men have stretched
out their lame hands to seize and
wear it. Another element Of, Jesus
character was love; this; too, He Gre
ated; not that none had loved till
Jesus came, but none had loved all
the time, under all circumstances, all
men. With Jesus love was laying
down ones, life in the way God gives
the sun and rain, without stint, With
out Partially, for good and bad. This
was a new idea, and since Jesus lived
His idea has been the standard meas
ure OF love-; anything less than that
which measures up to a cross Is not
love.
Another element in Jesus charac-
ter was forgiveness. This virtue was
not unknown; but they who practiced
it hforetime did 1t Under nd sense Of
necessity, 1t was d work of superero-
CATION: A man was not bound to for
give;/did he, he had a lien on the
gods. Jesus said a man was bound
to forgive, only so could he know
God; and there rises before us the
vision of One whose countenance was
married more than any mans, who
was led as a lamb to the slaughter;
and while they b%utchered Him, He
prayed, Father, forgive them; for
they know not what they do" In this
sort of character you have something
that stands by itself. No other char
acter is the match for it. The man
who wears it is in a class by Himself.
What shall we do with this Jesus?
With Alexander the Great and Ma
poleon the Great, with Shakespeare
and Michael Angeloj somehow our
sense of fitness rebels; we cannot
bring ourselves to call Him Jesus the
Great He is simply Jesus. Where
did He come from? Somehow we
find ourselves looking past Joseph,
over Mary's head, into the heavens.
Ordinary fatherhood and motherhood
never before or since brought forth
this Kind of life; here is a glory, not
IKE Alexander's, or Napoleon's, or
Shakespeare's, or Michael Angeles, it
is not like the glory of all these rolled
into one, 1t is another kind of glory, a
still greater glory; it is a glory as of
an only begotten of the divine; that
fits the case; He is the Son of God.
But we must go on, we are carried
farther. 1t is like this: Here is an
organ. Someone tells me that there
is in this chest wonderful harmonies.
l go up to it. l examine its mechan-
ism. | see hat it is an organ; l read
the n~ame-plate on the console and get
this guarantee Of it's possibilities. I
go inside the case and look into the
great tubes and horns of wood and
metal and 1 agree that it is good for
all that is claimed for it. There may
be unguessed harmonies in this mass
of mechanism; there may be voices OF
thunder, meanings like those of the
great deep, melodies like those birds
sing at twilight. l allow that there
may be all these things in this organ.
But. suddenly some mi touches the
keys, and the great thing springs into
life; it sings itself and me away, I
hear in it the. voices of the wind, the
murmurings of the little rivers, the
distant calls of the gathering clouds.
The great chords run together, they
rise and fall in waves of melody, they
tremble away into whisperings of
peace. The music has found me; the
organ has touched lay feelings; |
know beyond the remotest shadow of
doubt that this chest of pipes is what
it claims to be.
You, too, have been using your
eyes, your reason is the eye of your
soul, but your soul has an EAR. and
while you were watching Jesus, study
ing Him to find out if indeed He is
divine, did your ear hear nothing.
were there no voices from that Life
which caught your spirit and led it
to lean out of the window enraptured
with sounds that were heavenly, songs
immortal? What do l mean? That
the divinity of Jesus is more than a
fact for the intellect, it is a force for
the conscience. Study Jesus and you
find Him studying you; read the Cos
pels,' and you discover that your soul
is being read. Other men speak and
you are interested. Jesus speaks and
conscience takes notice. The great
among men make you think of things.
Cromwell makes you think of power.
Raphael of beautiful lights, Mendels-
sohn of beautiful sounds and pauses.
but Jesus-the very name is a chal-
lenge. Are you your Letter self or
your worse self? You cannot get
away from the challenge; a Life has
clinched with you.
The eye sees the organ and allows
it is fit to make music; the ear hears
the music and allows that it is an
organ. The reason appraises the Man
of the Gospel and says, "If this Man
were not of God He could do moth
ing" the spirit kneels and whispers,
MY Lord and my God" The total
manhood agrees, 1.-THE word was
made flesh, and dwelt among us and
we beheld His glory; glory as of an
only begotten of a Father, full of
grace and truth" After all, brothers.
we do all believe in the divinity of
Christ, do we not? 1t is not that we
all have the same words with which
to describe it; there are still creeds
and creeds; but as under the fugue
on the organs flutes there throbs the
undertone of the sixteen foot pedal
diapason, so beneath the detail of
Unitarian and Trinitarian, underton-
ing the i~ntricacies of new theology
and old theology, throbs for the ear
that will listen for it, the deep con-
senting faith in the divine Christ.
God was in Christ"
Thinking and Thanking.
Thero 10 a ~heautiful suggestion en-