The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1908-01-22
/ The PUIDIf |
G1zzzszzsEz7zssszs''S=-=s'= SS1-]-
-noSa-SSS3S eSe~"7s,yS@A\
A SERMON G@Es %
81 TAE REV.! ASdSsgsM
iRAWfENDEHS0NSas' as'
Theme: Discipleship.

=
on the above theme, the pastor, Rev.
Ira Wemmell Henderson, took as his
text 1 John 2:6: HE that saith he
abideth in Him ought himself also to
walk even as He walked" He said:
/ A disciple is a learner. He iG a
student who sits at the feet of a
| teacher and imbibes knowledge and
! wisdom. A disciple is follower.
One who walks after another. One
who places his feet in the footprints
| of his predecessor, who studies to
emulate the teaching and the practice
of his guide.
Pre-eminently the disciples of Jesus
! Christ are students and followers.
| Students they are of the wisdom of
God revealed in and through Him,
| the essence and the refinement Of
eternal and supernal truth. Distinct
lively they are followers, if they be
! true followers, and it is of such only
| that I care to speak tonight, of the
| Lord They seek to emulate His
| knowledge and to practice His pre-
cepts and become conformed to the
standards of His virtues. They are
His disciples. They glory In their
special allegiance to Him. They exalt
His overlordship and promulgate His
principles and declare His divinity.
They pray, and they profess to strive,
| to become like Him. And all this
| they do and endeavor to be simply
and solely because they believe It to,
| be the Word of God that He that
saith he abideth in Him ought him
self also to walk even as He walked"
This discipleship is :he ambition
of us all. 1t is the glory of practical
Christianity. 1t is the outward evil
dence in large measure of the faith
| that moves within our souls as Chris
| tian men and women. 1t is true
standard of our worth as we walk
among men.
But it is manifest that before we
can practice the truth we must know
it; that before we can follow we must
have vision of the leader, that there
must be footprints ahead that we may
tread therein, that there must be eX-
ample ere there will be emulation.
To say this is prosaic.. But none the
less it is necessary.
All Of which is to say that If we are
to be disciples Of the Lord Jesus
Christ we must have some conception
Of His character and IN understand
ing of the manner Of life He lived.
We must have vision of the out
standing characteristics of His man
F.; hood.
1t would be impossible in the space
! of time allotted to the sermon Of this
! or of any other day to enumerate the
virtues of our Saviour or to present
comprehensively and fully the COM
ponents of His character. Tonight
I'VE shall consider simply four Of the
| traits that we must possess and aug
ment by His grace within US and ex-
press to His glory about us II we
would be His disciples. And these
| traits are: l, large outlook; 2, a
/ catholic spirit; 8, militant right
eousness; 4, an optimistic foresight.
These we must have are we to follow
Him and to be the sort Of disciples
He bids us to become.
Jesus had a large outlook. His
horizon was boundless. His vision
pierced the. veil of time and pene-
trated the mysteries of eternity. He
was not circumscribed by the limita-
tions of His family relationships, nor
by the boundaries Of His birthplace,
nor by the confines of Palestine.
Much less was He concerned with the
smallnesses and the meannesses OF
life which so dominant the minds and
stultify the spirituality of so many OF
! His followers. Jesus was so en-
crossed with the consideration of
large. things that He had no time to
let little things annoy He was so
busy promulgating principles and ex-
employing them to men that He had
no time for gossip. The trouble with
the Christianity of the day is that
we have reversed the process Of
our Lord. We are so busy with the
small things that we have but
! precious little time or strength to at
| tend the pressure Of the large. We
| are so busy with gossip that we for
get the proclamation Of principles.
| The disciples of our Lord are gener-
| ally so busy discussing what they
| think of the manners and the meth
! DDS and the clothes and the frailt1es
of brethren in the faith that they
| have little time to engross themselves
with the largest and perdurable al
fairs of the Kingdom Of Almighty
| God. But if we were true disciples
of the Lord we would minify the falli-
bilities and idiosyncrasies Of the
brethren in the household OF faith
whose sins are no greater than our
own, and magnify the need Of the
world, and the Importance Of stern
| resistance in the front rank in the
hot fight against sin, and the desira-
bility of communion here and eter-
nally with the infinite King OF
Heaven. And we would practice what
we preached, and labor as we prayed.
Jesus had catholic spirit. There
never was a man who had firmer or
more ultimate convictions, a message
more final than our Lord. His con-
fidence in His ambassadorial rela-
tionship between God and the world
was supreme. His belief in the final
ity of His Gospel was consummate.
And yet He was never narrow. He
was tolerant of all. Affirming the
value of the truth that He declared,
He had ever a word Of encouragement
! for the seeker after light. Were that
| seeker Samaritan or Roman, a
rich man or slave, Jesus had tolera-
tion for him. He was disdainful { .
all that is superficial in religion and
morals. He had welcome for every
soul, however weak and wandering,
who was honest. Quite otherwise is
it with multitudes within His church.
They seem to think that tolerance
and religious dishonor are co-termin-
Gus. They seem to imagine that the
narrower they are the greater they
render homage to their Lord. And
still another multitude seem to think