The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1908-09-25

| eyes. His life seems nOught. Ine
cross awaits Him. cross between
| the crosses of two thieves. Baraobas
Is to be chosen instead Of Himself.
! He no longer has any followers, ex-
! cept those faithful few, and even they
are trembling. fearful and ready to
| fee Yet He utters these strangely
| contradictory words, Il am the Mas
| ter of the world"
We see here also the moral gran
deur of Jesus. the translation Of His
personality and His inner life into
terms of moral power. AS He was
the great thinker, so He was the
noble liver of the race. AS He gains
the mastery of lofty minds, so He is
the sovereign of all noble lives.
His splendid life is now centering
In the cross toward which it has been
leading. From the beginning He has
seen the end. Behind Him is long
trail of moral strength. From Him
goes the impression Of a sovereign
personality He is the supreme ex-
ample of noble living, for the man
hood of our day, with its alternating
bravery ard cowardice, with its noble
resolve and weak compliance. Jesus
becomes, first the shamer and then
Iuc luSptT6T Cl uuuldu llVluS.
Having in some measure appre-
he1ded the splendid mind of the Mas
ter and gathered something of the
to discover the hidGer secret Of His
outward splendor. Let us try to look
into His soul ard discover the mean
ing of this majestic, brave, strong.
impellingly attractive manhood.
7 81 -
uation under which it was uttered,
listen to His words: "Peace I leave
unto you," "Be full of confidence"
u have conquered the world"
Another strange thing is the con-
tradictoriIess Of the Master. For
say, think not that I am come to
to send peace, but a sword?"
Eow are we to explain the paradox
Of these two contradictory texts?
Shall we avail ourselves Of the liberty
Of criticism and say that one appears
in the Synoptic Gospels and is his
torical, while the other appears in the
Fourth Gospel and is uah1s.orical?
Shall we decided that one of them
is an Interpolation? This is alto
gether too easy and ready method.
Let us wait and see if we may not
bring them into harmony.
First Of all let us look at the Sec
ond text and see how true it is. He
sent those disciples forth into the
| world. Did lot they find the sword
Their story is continuous one OF
persecution, Imprisonment, death. Ii
there was the one thing they did not
find 1t was peace. Peter and john
began at Jerusalem. They were told
that they must not speak or teach in
the name of Jesus. They went out,
| prayed for courage and went to
preaching again. For it they were
beaten with stripes. They received
their hundredfold reward with per-
secutions.
What mockery are Jesus words to
Him! Peace 1 leave with you. :"
How fortunate if the Fourth Gospel
were written very late and is unrelia-
| BILE! Does it not make our Lord
guilty of false prophecy?
The story goes on through succeed
ing ages. The successors of these
disciples live and die in Roman cata-
combs and caves. They are hunted,
hungered, despised, prosecuted, suf-
fering unto death. How it must have
Knocked them: peace 1 leave with
YOU" Jesus bequest was broken, OF
at least this codicil revoked.
But even all this is less perplexins
than the utterance coming from the
lips of the man who spoke it. Was
| it mistaken prophecy of Jesus? Be.
cause His own life was so calm and
peaceful did He suppose that His
disciples would be also? Look for
| moment at the life of the man from
whose lips these words come. Fol-
low Him in His WEAKNESS, in His re-
! lection, in His disputes with carping
critics, with His misunderstanding
and quarreling disciples. Not place
| to lay His head. Go with Him on the
mountainside at night. Witness Him
in the Garden, where He sweat, as it
were, great drops of blood. Behold
Him on Calvary between thieves
Watch Him crowned with thorns,
buffeted, spat upon, Knocked in dis
6ain. What a contrast and contra
diction are His words: Peace /
leave with you; My peace l give unto
you" Evidently we must accept the
prophecy of our second text and deny
the truth of the first.
Before doing SO let US go back and
look at those disciples again and be-
hold another aspect Of their life.
Peter Is there, 1t is true, in prison.
But we read about the presence of
an angel of the Lord and CT light in
the midst of the darkness. Think OF
some of those little gatherings in the
upper rooms with the breaking OF
bread and prayers. Look at Paul
with his visions all full of beauty.
Read his epistles, vibrant with 10y
and hope and faith. On the sinking
ship he Is the one buoyant spirit Of
them all. He goes into the midnight
prison again where he sits thrust into
the inner ward with his feet fast In
the stocks, and you hear him, with
Silas, singing hymns.
Go back again and look at the life
of Jesus. Look beyond the outward
vicissitudes. Seek to penetrate to the
inner consciousness OF the suffering
man. There is no thought of pes
simism in His Gospel He is ever
lighted up by faith and hope and joy.
Behold Him before PLATE! His coun-
tenance is untroubled. PLATE is the
disturbed and restless one; the trou-
blesome dreams were those Of the
chamber of his household.
Our paradox is partly solved. Both
prophecies are true. Re did send a
sword on earth. He did at the same
time leave His bequest Of peace.
But our real question is not an
swered. Is it true OF human life in
general? When has come the finest
literature, the literature of peace, JOY,
light, hope, inspiration, triumph?
Has it come from men whose lives
were free from suffering, pain and
disappointment? Sometimes, per-
haps, but not very often. It has not
come from those who lived in kings
palaces and wore soft raiment. Most
of it MAS come out of the depths Of
dungeon, from blind poets, from dis
ease-racked bodies.
Jesus prophecy is true. The rea-
son 1t did not seem to be true was be-
cause We Gid not read it Alright. Read
1t again: Peace l leave with you;
My peace l give unto YOU My peace.