The Penn's Grove record., 1908-05-15
THE PULPIT.
A SCHOLARLY SUNDAY SERMON BY
DR.. T CALVIN M'CEELLAND.
Theme: The Divinity of Christ.

Brooklyn, N, Y,-Dr. T. Calvin Nc
Clelland, pastor Of the Memorial Pres
bytefiah Church, Seventh avenue and
st. Johns place, preached Sunday
morning on "The Divinity pf Christ:
cne Way in Which 4 Man May Come
to Believe In It," The text was John
liza, THE word became flesh and
awelt among us, and we beheld His
glory, glory as of an only begotten
from a Father, full of .srace and
truth" DIR, McClelland said:
My theme is "The Divinity of
Christ: One Way in Which a Man
May Come to Believe in It." What
do we mean by the divinity of Christ?
I would not be theological or meta
physical; this is a sermon for prac-
tlcal men, for men who want to be-
lieve in this fundamental truth of cur
religion. Do we meal by calling
Jesus divine that He Is God; that is;
all OF Gods We could not mean that,
for Jesus Himself said, my Father is
greater than L." Jesus stands for
God, 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 seer Me hath
seen the Father" He also says; 1.-THE
rather is greater than l." Does not
the apostle exactly express it when he
writes, "The word was made flesh and
dweit among us, and we beheld His
glory" not the Fathers glory, mark
you, but glory as Of an only begotten
OF the Father, full Of" not the Faith
ers omniprescence, o~mnipotence and
omniscience, but full of the Faith
ers grace and truth" And %.
though THEORETICALLY Jesus is not ali
OF God, yet practically / know that
when l fall on my knees before Jesus
and say, MY Lord and my Cod |
am giving Him His true name.
Do we mean by calling Jesus divine
than He was something other than
man, a foreigner from some alien life
TO the country of human nature?
were we tempted to think that, the
slght 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 1 do. YOU
an be what | am" Would you trans
ate the term "a human being" into
Jesus language, you could find no
better term than His favorite name
for Himself, "Son of Man." In So
calling Himself Jesus meant that we
should know that He was blood of orr
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
sIt IN KIND, only different in degree;
re IS man, u more man than we.
me likeness of Jesus to us is patent,
out IL IS the difference we need to
realize; the likness without the differ
snce were meaningless and useless,
II he were Just man, what gain? The
world Is full of men. 1t is His differ
ence from us that counts. 1t is the
Inference from us which makes it i'm
possible for us to call Him Jesus the
great which makes Him Jesus the
u charles Lamb once said. "If
SHAKESPEARE was to come into this
room, we should all rise up to meet
MIN; but if that Person was to come
INTO 1t, We should fall down and try
10 KISS the hem of His garment" If
Is the difference between Jesus and
US winch makes us feel unworthy to
put u lips to the fringe of His
cloak. 1t is the difference which
makes us call Jesus divine in a wav
IN which we Fan use the word in ref
erence to no one else.
ana now what is that difference
what is this divinity of Jesus? inst
Ibis, that whatever Jesus said or did.
ne lett on men the impression of
100; like a telescope at or through
winch we cannot look without think
ing OF the heavens, Jesus always
orough God near. Always in Jesus
presence there is this unavoidable
leellng OF God. When He spoke. con-
science heard in His voice the tones
Oh lts INFINITE author; when He looked
at one the soul felt it's eternal Judge
searching its innermost secrets. when
lie acted, II knew that it was as the
great God would act; when He died
men felt that they had seen all Of
God that human hearts could annre-
mend; henceforth they knew that
mere was nothing in God a human
mlnd could grasp but Christ. For All
purposes of living Jesus is all we
know of God; in Him the soul meets
Goa, GOD meets the soul.
Now how a a man come to believe
that! Believe not that Jesus is the
absolute God, breaking for the first
time into a world from which up to
this time He had existed apart in the
inscrutable solitudes of infnity; be-
iieve not that Jesus is some unhuman
wedge driven into natura! human
life; but believe that in Jesus the nm
seen God looks out upon us. the
moral character of the Deity becomes
nesn, n in that flesh is seen to be
grace and truth.
HOW can a~man believe that? You
Will not think as l 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; | give it
10 you as only n practical wav in
winch men built as I am ma come to
kneel at the manger and say: Here
was porn my Lord and my God
First, then, the man who would be-
iieVe in the divinity Of our Lord will
Dring his reason to the study of tbe
Gospel. He will want to know If the
record is the story of a real life
as / have intiratod ,ooao.