Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1908-05-21

life: but believe that in Jesus the un-
seen God looks out upon us. the
moral character of the Deity becomes
flesh, and In that flesh Is seen to BE
grace and truth.
How can man believe that? You
Will not think as I point out this way
that 1t Is the only way in which one
can come: to believe that Jesus is the
image of the Invisible God; I give it
to you as only one practical way in
which men built as I am may come to
kneel at the manger and say: Here
was born my Lord and my God"
First, then, the man who would be-
1ieye in the divinity of our Lord will
bring his reason to the study of the
Gospel. He will want to know il the
record is the story of a real life.
Here, as / have intimated, reason is
satisfied. Tested by the laws of evil
dence the Gospels are known to be
genuine record, and the facts they
account for are the best attested facts
ately with the Christ Himself Put
ting the sayings and doings together,
we get some idea of Jesus character.
His absolute stainlessness; He did no
sin; the narrative does not say this
it goes without the saying; His life
was lived in the open, but the spelling
world left no spot on Him: He spent
His time among the moral lepers, but
no contagion fastened on Him; broth
erhood with the sinfullest He claimed
except In this, their sense Ut guilt;
He, in the presence of whom others
cried, depart from me, for l am
guilty." had no confession for Him
self. Saints among men tell how they
toll through repentance into sanctity:
but here is One who looked into the
face of the Almighty with no remorse
under the shadow of that end where
men most feel a shrinking from an in
evitable sitting. He spake. Il have
finished the work Thou gavest Me to
do" His case is without parallel.
This sinlessness separates Him not
only from the sinner, but also from
the saint: He stands alone.
But you have seen the least when
you have found out He did no wrong;
He always did the right. Every word
and act outruns conscience; He made
a new character. The first element
was humility; the word was not new
in His time, the Greeks had an equiv
alent for it meaning coward; Jesus
made the base-born word the key
word of Christian character. If ever
there was a world-lord it was He, and
yet He was among men as one that
serveth. And since then service has
been reckoned the crowning grace Of
character, and men have stretched
IL ~
wear it. Another element Of Jesus
character was love; this, too, He ere
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 partiality, 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 cross Is mo-
| love.
Another element in Jesus charac
| ter was forgiveness. This virtue wa
not unknown: but they who practicet
it aforetime did it under no sense o
necessity. It was a work OF superero
J cation. A man was not bound to for
| give; did he, he had lien on tn
| gods. Jesus said man was boun'
to forgive, only so could he knoy
God: and there rises before us thu
vision of One whose countenance wa:
marred more than any mans, wht
was led as lamb to the slaughter
and while they butchered Him, HI
prayed, Father. forgive them, fo
they know not what they do" In thi
sort of character you have somethin:
that stands by itself. No other char
acter is the match for it.. The NAL
who wears it is in class by Himself
What shall we do with this Jesus
With Alexander the Great and Ma
poleon the Great, with Shakespear
and Michael Angelo; somehow ou
sense of fitness rebels; we canno
bring ourselves to call Him Jesus tn
Great: He is simply Jesus. Wher
did He come from? Somehow W
find ourselves looking past Joseph
over Mary's head, into the heavens
Ordinary fatherhood and motherhoo
never before or since brought fort
this kind of life; here is glory, no
like Alexander's, or Napoleon's, O
Shakespeare's or Michael Angeles.
! is not like the glory of all these role
into one, it is another kind of glory,
still greater glory; it is glory as
an only begotten of the divine; tha
fits the case; He is the Son of God:
But we must go on, we are carrie
farther. It is like this: Here is
organ. Someone tells me that thel
; is in this chest wonderful harmonic
I 20 up to it. I examine it's mechal
| ism. I see that it is an organ; rea
the name-plate on the console and g
, this guarantee of it's possibilities.
J 90 inside the case and look into t.
great tubes and horns of wood an
, metal and / agree that it is good Il
, all that is claimed for it. There ma
t be unguessed harmonies in this ma
, of mechanism; there may be voices
. thunder, meanings like those OF Il
: great deep, melodies like those bir'
4 sing at twilight. I allow that the
q may be all these things in this orga