The Penn's Grove record., 1909-02-19
THE PULPIT.
"A SCHOLARLY SUNDAY SERMON BY
FATHER MURRAY.
Constitution of the Church.

Long Island City, N. Y.-Father
Murray, of st. Mary's Church,
preached Sunday morning on 'The
Constitution of the Church" from
this text:
"All power is given to Me in heav-
en- and in earth. Go, therefore, teach
We all nations; baptizing them in the
name Of the Father and of the Son,
and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them
to observe all things whatsoever 1
have commanded you: and behold
am with you all days, even to the
consummation of the world" Father
Murray said:
This is the constitution of the
church. We find it at the end Of the
first gospel. 1t is the greatest docu-
ment of all time. 1t applies to every
land till time shall be no more. 1t is
brief and it is perfect. 1t suffers no
amendment. God is its author.
AS 1t is God that gave 1t, 1t is from
Him it derives all it's importance.
And it's Importance is to be measured
by the Importance of its Author.
Other constitutions there are framed
by men, rich in blessings, but they
are for nation. This is for a world.
Nations die and with them their con-
stitutions. This will endure as long
as the race. Manifold are it's bless
ings, as was to be expected from it's
Author, of whom the meek and in
spired Moses is the head of the book
records. in the beginning God
created heaven and earth" Such is
God The prophet Isaias tells us that
he saw the seraphs, the highest choir
OF angels, in the presence of their
Creator, and that he heard them cry
ing one to another: Holy, holy, holy,
the Lord God Of hosts, all the earth
is full of His glory" Great, then, is
the constitution OF the church.
I have told you that it was God
that gave the constitution of the
church. It's words are the words of
Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ is God,
the Second Person of the Blessed
Trinity. From eternity this Person
had "all power in heaven and in
earth" This same divine Person, as
the Person of Christ's humanity,
which He assumed that He might suf-
fer for us, has now also "all power in
heaven and in earth" When He died
as man, for He could not die as God.
He merited all power. This is the
power He refers to in the preamble
of the great constitution that He gave
to His church. This power is the
source and strength of that eonstitu-
ton.
1t was for us Christ died. With
out doubt when He died for us He
showed us the deepest affection. To
use Lincoln's expression on the field
of Gettysburg: "He paid the last full
measure of devotion" When He
gave His life, He made a sacrifice so
much greater than the sacrifice of
our lives would be as a divine person
is greater than we. Jesus has been
so good to us that we ought to regard
Him as an other self.
The power that Christ merited we
find Him shortly using in our inter
ests. He first uses 1t In sending His
apostles to teach men the new thing
that had come to pass. How else
could they know that they had a Saw
Jour? His command was: Teach We
all nations" Great as was that COM
mand, it was not equal to the charity
that prompted it, for Jesus is love it.
self. And in what was He their Saw
four? He was to save them from
their sins. That we do not appre-
ciate the evil of sin is mans great
misfortune. We know that If we ap-
preciate the evil of sins we would not
commit them. If they are blotted out
only by the blood of the Son of God,
it is no wonder that we do not under
stand them. We do understand sin
enough to know that 1t is disgusting
and injurious. How disgusting and
injurious then must it appear in the
sight of God! The philosophers give
US another aspect of sin. They tell
us 1t is a %priyation, a want of some
thing we ought to possess. Want
sometimes becomes very hard to bear.
Sin in the soul is the greatest want,
for it means want of spiritual life. A
dagger will kill the body. Sin is the
most deadly of all daggers, for it kills
the soul.
When Christ came the world was
reeking with sin. So disgusting is
the account history gives us that we
think we could not endure to live
among the denominations of the past.
By their sins, men, not only as fndi-
viduals, but as whole nations, had Of
Tended the Father and the Son and
| the Holy Ghost. They had made an
enemy of Him that could send them
to eternal punishment. Christ mer-
cifully commands His apostles to
wash away the sins of the nations,
baptizing them in the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the
Holy Ghost. This was an exercise of
that almighty power that He had re-
ceived. Thus was the account which
the Father and the Son and the Holy
Ghost had against them to be washed
away in the waters of baptism. What
a debt the nations owe to Christi
AS the issue proved, it vas no easy
task to which the apostles were sent.
Christ sent them to do mems work.
But the apostles were full of the sub
lime spirit of the Saviour, who had
trodden the winepress alone. Fol
three years they had imbibed the
! lion spirit of Christ. So difficult was
their task that in its discharge they
one and all encountered the martyrs
trial. The foul spirit of darkness
did not yield without a contest, but
he had to yield. We can glory that
Christ so filled His apostles with His
spirit when He sent them out to
preach that they did not shrink from
the trial of blood for the sake of
Christ and for the sake of us. Our
faith is an evidence of how we'll they
preached. How terribly earnest are
the words of Christ when we inter-
pref them in the light of what lie
was and did, and in the light of the
lives and deaths of His apostles.
Let us now take up these other
words of Christ: Teaching them to
observe all things whatsoever l have
commanded you" This the apostles
could understand. They knew what
commands He had given them. But
perhaps they might understand diff
~ferently, perhaps they might forget,
as other men do. This was all guard
ed against, as one might infer from
the brevity of the constitution, which
goes into no details. and which makes
no mention of mistake or failure.
The apostles were inspired. They,
and not only they, but the church to
all time were preserved free from
possibility of error by Christ when
He gave His promise: Behold | am
NTH vou oil dave ovon RI tho ran-