The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1908-05-15
THE PULPIT.
4 SCHOLARLY SUNDAY SERMON BY
DR.. r. CALVIN M'ClEllAND.
Theme: The Divinity of Christ.

y u
oyterian Church, Seventh avenue and
ST. Johns place. preached Sunday
morning on The Divinity of Christ:
Cne Way in Which a Man May Come
10 Believe in IT," The text was John
| I:14: The word became flesh and
dwelt among us. and we beheld His
glory, Rlory as Of an only begotten
from Father, full OF grace and
truth DR.. McClelland said:
MY theme is THE Divinity of
Christ: One Way in Which a Man
May Come to Believe in It." What
90 We mean by the divinity OF Christ?
| would not be theological or meta
physical; this is sermon for prac-
tical men, for men who want TO be-
neve In this fundamental truth OF our
rehgion. Do We mean by calling
Jesus divine that He Is God: that is,
all OF God? We could not mean that,
Tor Jesus Himself said, MY Father is
greater than L." Jesus stands for
COO, speaks for God. acts for God,
His ideas are Gods. His feelings are
GODS so much so that Jesus and God
are one: We see nothing in Jesus but
GOD. For all practical purposes for
religion Jesus Is God for us He has
the spiritual value Of God. He is God.
AND yet in reality Jesus is not God:
though He can say in a very true
sense, He that hath seen Me hath
seen the Father" He also says, .The
Father Is greater than l." Does not
the apostle exactly express IL when he
writes, The word was made flesh and
uwelt among us, and we beheld His
glory" not the Fathers glory, mark
you, but glory as of an only begotten
or the Father, full Of" not the Faith
ers omniprescence, omnipotence and
! omniscience, but full of the Faith
ers grace and truth" And so,
though theologically Jesus is not all
or God, yet practically ! know that
when fall on my knees before Jesus
and say, MY Lord and my God" I
am giving Him His true name.
DO we mean by calling JESUS divine
tnan He was something other than
man. foreigner from some alien life
10 the country of human nature?
Were We tempted to think that, the
sight OF Him praying with plain men.
Our Father" would bring us to our
senses. We cannot think OF Jesus
as unhuman when We hear Him say to
plain men, Follow Me-" which
means, You can do what I do. you
can be what am" Would you trans
late the term "a human being" into
Jesus language, you could find no
better term than His favorite name
Tor Himself, "Son OF Man" In so
calling Himself Jesus meant that we
should know that He was blood of our
blood, spirit of our spirit. He was
like us not in middle life only, but in
infancy, in death and after death.
Jesus divinity makes Him not differ
ent in kind, only different in degree:
he is man, but more man than we.
The likeness of Jesus to us is patent.
but 1t Is the difference we need to
realize; the likness without the differ
ence were meaningless and useless
lf He were just man. what gain? The
world is full Of men, It is His differ
ence from US that counts. It is the
dinerence from us which makes il i'm
possible for us to call Him Jesus the
Great, which makes Him Jesus the
only. Charles Lamb once said. IF
Shakespeare was to come into this
room, We should all rise up to meet
him; but IL that Person was to come
into 1t, we should fall down and try
TO kiss the hem of His garment" It
ts the difference between Jesus and
us which makes us feel unworthy to
put our lips to the fringe of His
cloak. 1t is the difference which
makes us call Jesus divine in a way
In which we can use the word in ref
erence to no one else.
And now what is that difference.
what is this divinity OF Jesus? Just
this, that whatever Jesus said or did.
he left on men the impression of
God; like a telescope at or through
which we cannot look without think
Ing OF the heavens. Jesus always
brought God near. Always in Jesus
presence there is this unavoidable
feeling Of God. When He spoke. con-
science heard in His voice the tones
OF its Infinite author; whel He looked
at one. the soul felt it's eternal Judge
searching its innermost secrets: when
He acted, one knew that il was as the
great God would act; when He died,
men felt that they had seen all of
God that human hearts could appre-
hend; henceforth they knew that
there was nothing in God a human
mind could grasp but Christ. For all
purposes OF living Jesus is all we
know OF God; in Him the soul meets
God, God meets the soul.
Now how can man come to believe
that? Believe noe that Jesus is the
Absolute God, breaking for the first
time into a world from which up 10
this time He had existed apart in the
inscrutable solitudes of infinity: be-
lieve not that Jesus is some unhuman
wedge driven into natural human
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 a man believe that? You
viii not think as | point out this way
that II Is the only way in which one
can come 10 believe that Jesus Is the
image OF the invisible God: | give IL
TO you as only one practical way in
which men built as am may come 10
kneel at the manger and say: Here
was born my Lord and my God"
First, then. the man who would be-
lieve in the divinity OF our Lord will
bring his reason to the study OF the
Gospel. He will want 10 know III the